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Celebrating A Decade of Action for Mother Earth

Our Humble Beginnings Around a Kitchen Table

It was just two women, Shannon Biggs and Pennie Opal Plant, both lifelong activists, talking in a kitchen in 2014 about how to move the Rights of Mother Earth forward. Just a decade ago, the Rights of Nature/Mother Earth was either unknown, or considered a crazy legal idea. Back then, we were among only a handful of people in the US that could articulate it. We began pondering how our experience and skills could come together to build movement momentum. We had already been working together informally for years confronting corporate power, and providing community workshops on the Rights of Nature and Indigenous Cosmology. 

Shannon had already worked with global activists to co-create a powerful network, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN). In 2010 during the historic World People’s Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia, she was honored to host the President’s panel on the Rights of Nature. At the Summit, attended by 36,000 people from 140 countries, the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth was written by thousands of attendees, most of them Indigenous. She brought a wealth of information about the Rights of Nature, empire, and globalization. 

Growing up in the shadow of the Richmond, CA Chevron refinery, Pennie had been a frontline protector and defender of the sacred system of life since the early 1980s working on nuclear issues. A fearless Indigenous activist and community leader, Pennie formed Idle No More SF Bay with a group of Indigenous grandmothers and created a NVDA training program, the Society of Fearless Grandmothers.

We Launched Movement Rights Because We Saw the Need

We saw the need to organize from fearless love of everything we hold dear—to go beyond policy as usual, intellectual rigor, or reasonable expectations for what is possible. From the beginning, we saw Movement RIghts as a small collective of seasoned women leaders who deeply respect each other. Rather than strive to grow our staff numbers or our “name”, we focus on elevating resources and expertise in tribal communities. Staying smaller means we remain nimble and can make fast decisions when the moment calls for it.  During the pandemic we quickly created an online community of love and sharing. We created interactive webinars such as Beyond Isolation: Reconnecting with Indigenous Wisdom & Women and immediately worked with partners to raise funds and provide tribes with PPE masks and equipment. 

We saw the need to change the face of Rights of Nature to represent not just a legal tool to confront property rights, but a total cultural shift rooted in Indigenous cosmology of living in balance with the system of life. We saw Indigenous Original Instructions as foundational for the system change we believed the Rights of Nature could be. From assisting the Ponca Nation to become the first tribe to recognize Rights of Nature and Climate in the US; supporting the creation of the Indigenous Council of  GARN; leading fact-finding Indigenous delegations in Aotearoa; working to with with TIPNIS tribal communities in Bolivia; to global and local tribunals and more, we are proud to be at the tip of the spear of change on Turtle Island and globally. Today the Rights of Nature is the fastest growing environmental movement in the world, and it’s Indigenous-led. 

We saw the need to support the frontlines of climate disruption and fossil fuels differently, that was neither “parachuting in” or bringing a cookie cutter approach. To us, this means working deeply where needed, and leaving the expertise in the communities in which we are invited to work. We respect the unique experiences, and gifts of the communities we partner with and focus on enabling them to lead. That also means our organizing, legal and practical support looks different wherever we go. 

We saw the need to connect climate/water/environmental justice movements globally and locally for strength, power, and creativity to collectively imagine and create a safe, sustainable, healthy world. Movement Rights’ success is centered on the reality that we have so much to learn from sharing our collective strategies. 

We saw the need to elevate the voices of Indigenous Women. Indigenous women around the world have assumed the responsibility of ensuring a safe and healthy future for all of the babies—including non-human babies.  It was Indigenous women who inspired the KXL, DAPL, and Line 3 camps against fossil fuel pipelines. Internationally from Canada to Africa to the Amazon women are the first to put their bodies on the line for Mother Earth. Often Indigenous women have ancient relationships with and responsibilities to the Waters. We are proud of the work of the Pa’tha’ta Women’s Society of the Ponca Nation in passing the Immutable Rights of Rivers. 

Looking back on a decade of Movement Rights, it’s amazing what this small but mighty team of women has accomplished!  

Movement Rights by the Numbers

  • Enter founder #3: Casey Camp Horinek of the Ponca Nation. In 2015 Casey joined Movement Rights as our founding board chair and the third co-founder at our kitchen table. Owing to fracking and fossil fuel activity, Oklahoma and the Ponca Nation was considered a “sacrifice zone,” where philanthropy and NGO’s hesitated to go. Today Casey is a global Ambassador for the Indigenous-led Rights of Nature movement. A brilliant strategist, speaker, writer, water protector and warrior, she is part of Movement Rights’ Indigenous and women leadership on climate, confronting false solutions and Indigenous solutions.

  • 21 Rights of Nature Tribunals: Movement Rights was involved in the formation of the International Rights of Nature Tribunals which have become increasingly visible and important on the global stage, showcasing how human laws can be shifted to be in balance with the laws of Mother Earth.  To date there have been 6 international tribunals (in 6 countries on 4 continents), 2 regional and 13 local tribunals (also on 4 continents). Co-founder Shannon Biggs presented the case against fracking at the first International Tribunal in Quito, Ecuador in 2014, and has served as a judge. All of Movement Rights’ team have participated in numerous tribunals, and co-led 2 local tribunals in California (2015) where co-founder Pennie Opal Plant was a judge, and co-sponsored the Yesah Tribunal in  North Carolina (2024) where Casey Camp Horinek was a judge.
  • 12 Intertribal Rights of Nature (IRON) Forums: Movement Rights created these gatherings to provide an opportunity for Native people to privately and critically discuss the legal and organizing framework of Rights of Nature from an Indigenous perspective, the relationship between rights and responsibilities, and to discuss strategic opportunities for protecting tribal lands. Now law in over 20 tribes, IRON forums have encouraged more than 100 Indigenous people to explore Rights of Nature and strengthen  tribal sovereignty.
  • 200 frontline defenders at 1 Frontline Oil & Gas (FOG) Conference: In 2018 Casey and Movement Rights brought the idea of an Indigenous-led FOG strategy-building gathering to the climate justice movement. Officially hosted by the Ponca nation, it centered on community-building for power, rooted in the Ponca’s own story of environmental genocide, and their resilience and leadership in defending Mother Earth. More than just a conference it was designed by and for Indigenous and POC frontline defenders, including ceremony, traditional dancing, a youth track, an MMIW action, and uniquely developed collaborative sessions. During the FOG conference a statewide MMIW campaign launched and our Indigenous Alaskan friends created the frontline organization, SILA, among many outcomes. View photos here.
  • Hundreds of Non-Violent Disruptions: From small actions to mass civil disobedience, NVDA means upsetting business as usual, sometimes risking arrest, and always speaking truth to power. Whether we’re dropping banners, getting arrested at the White House, blocking fossil fuel delegates from entering an international conference, or causing a commotion at a regulatory hearing Movement Rights is not afraid to stand with the frontlines in defense of Mother Earth.

  • 3 Convenings of the 4 Winds: As our organizing in Ponca Nation grew, it became clear that there was a need to bring together Indigenous communities across Oklahoma and the Plains to protect the waters and confront fossil fuel destruction. A series of 4 events that bring together Indigenous leaders, community members, and activists to share solutions to the climate crisis specific to their communities. In 2022 the first Convening was held in Ponca territory, followed by Cherokee territory, and Chahta and Mvskoke hosts invited us to support the third event. The final Convening will be held in Nebraska in 2025, followed by an Intertribal Strategy meeting looking to develop a Plains-wide coalition. More than 400 have participated.

  • 2 More Indigenous Women Leaders to our Kitchen Table: With the addition of Isabella Zizi in California as a National Organizer in 2022, and Julia Horinek in Oklahoma as our Plains Coordinator in 2023 our team of visionary women with a lifetime of work for Mother Earth has only deepened. We are so grateful. Read about them here. 

Chronological List of Action & Success 

2014-2016

2017-2019

2020-2023

March to End Fossil Fuels Indigenous Deligation

2024

 

Special Acknowledgements: We could not have made this journey without the help of hundreds of special friends and caring people who believed in us. We can’t thank you ALL here, but a few volunteered their deep support to help us get off the ground from the beginning including Anuradha Mittal and the Oakland Institute, Cabot Davis,  Carleen Pickard, Barbara Ford, Fred Ch., Michael Horse, Shane Gildea, Kirsten Moller and Global Exchange, Marsha Moutrie, our talented designer Katie Nehls, and our amazing Indigenous Board of Advisors. Thank you beyond words. 

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