A Year's Reflection
We seem to move from Green Corn time to Green Corn time, so a year can be July-June of the following year. Thus, this update is regarding July 2021-June 2022.
Bvlbancha Collective has been officially publicly operating for 31 months at this time: Feb 2020-July 2022.
Following a successful anchoring of the 2021 Power Shift Virtual Convergence and in-person Day of Action in April, 2021, the Bvlbancha Collective was buckling down and working on our collective gardens through the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo project partnership with WECAN, International. At the end of August 2021, Hurricane Ida tore through the nation, hitting the lower bayou region of Golden Meadow as a Category 5, then sitting over Houma, LA for about 5 hours. The destruction was extensive. Working in conjunction with member Ida- creator, and at the time farm manager, of the United Houma Nation’s community garden and food forest Yakani Ekelanna- Bvlbancha Collective was able to provide extensive volunteer labor coordination, mutual aid and free market hub creations, and more to the lower Southeastern Bayou region. The free market in Thibodaux, for example, is still ongoing to a smaller capacity, but has been running consecutively since September 2021. At the same time, our members in Bvlbancha have provided extensive herbal medicine outreach and popups for the community at large. One member has an ongoing project with Homebody Herbs & the NADA Nola Collective crafting, formulating, & bottling hurricane prep plant medicine, with the goal of providing rapid response herbal remedies in the wake of another disaster.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/louisiana-hurricane-native-tribe-climate-resilience
We were awarded a $15,000 Mutual Aid emergency Hurricane Ida fund from Imagine Water Works, to move to our community sphere how we needed. With this, we were able to grant (10) $500 micro grants to Indigenous community members, as well as getting an emergency generator/power point hub set up in Thibodaux, and sending a lump sum to Cancer Alley families for distribution. We also responded to community needs here in Bvlbancha, and were able to provide ice & other provisions to a DIY disaster relief hub within the first ten days after Hurricane Ida. We also helped to fund, in small part, a new local cultural event where other Indigenous Bvlbancha residents are encouraged to join in community building. The collective also distributed (100) donated $500 gift cards to vulnerable BI+PoC communities impacted by the hurricane.
Meanwhile, out in Alabama, member Angela has been hosting Indigenous movie and documentary screenings while also expanding and lovingly crafting her farm, Hummingbird Springs. In February 2022, Angela was appointed to the board of directors of the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network, and shortly after signed on to become a seed grower for Ujamaa Seeds. Most recently, she became part of the current 2022-2023 cohort for the Soul Fire Farms Braiding Seeds Fellowship.
We love and support our members and relatives who prioritize their own health, rest, and self-care. It is unfortunate that these ways of supporting our bodies and minds are still seen as radical. We all move at the speed of love, trust, and capacity.
Throughout this time, Bvlbancha Collective has kept up on community outreach. We are active members of the Power Shift Network, where our members are especially helping to steer environmental activist outreach in the Bvlbancha area. We have also been active in the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network, and the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo project. We support collective members in traveling to Mvskoke and Lakota ceremonial traditions and responsibilities, and help support the land sites where these ceremonies happen. On a more person to person level, we continue to distribute free herbal care packages to (especially) BIPoC community members across the country, and are engaged in affinity-building and long-term strategizing with other Indigenous relatives, radical organizations, & DIY mutual aid groups not only in and around Bvlbancha, but across the Gulf South.