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Feminists Around the World: Kera Sherwood-O'Regan · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never Told You production of iHeart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And y'all go ahead and put this again. I feel
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  Speaker 2: like we do this so much with this second, but
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  Speaker 2: specifically pronunciations, we're trying our best. We are speaking about
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  Speaker 2: an indigenous Maori activist, so when it comes to the
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  Speaker 2: Maori language, we don't know it.
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  Speaker 1: Point point.
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  Speaker 2: I definitely, definitely, definitely don't know it. So I did
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  Speaker 2: try and find the pronunciations. It's a little difficult. Some
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  Speaker 2: things were a lot easier to find than others. So
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  Speaker 2: if you hear us struggling or trying, yes, yes, And
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  Speaker 2: with that today we are talking about an Indigenous New
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  Speaker 2: Zealander activist. Kira Shearwood Oregan. Shearwood Oregan is a disability,
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  Speaker 2: climate and Indigenous rights activist. She has been vocal about
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  Speaker 2: different issues and needs when it comes to climate change
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  Speaker 2: and indigenous and disability issues. Again, she's one of those
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  Speaker 2: that is intersectional to the core and understands the depth
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  Speaker 2: about how they overlap and why the needs need to
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  Speaker 2: be handled intersectionally. As a Maori woman from New Zealand,
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  Speaker 2: she has always been conscious of the need to protect
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  Speaker 2: the environment and the implications of the way the world
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  Speaker 2: has been destroying it. Here's a bit from her blog,
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  Speaker 2: found at Kira o'reagan dot WordPress dot com. I hail
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  Speaker 2: from the beautiful Tewa Ponamu, the south island of Altaora,
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand. In these days and based in the sunny
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  Speaker 2: Tamaki makura Auckland on Nati Vatua and Natipawa Land. I
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  Speaker 2: am an interdisciplinary storyteller and change maker working at the
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  Speaker 2: intersections of Indigenous and disability rights, hu aa or health
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  Speaker 2: and climate change. Having lived experience of disability and a
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  Speaker 2: diagnosis of fibromyologia, and growing up surrounded by empowering Maori
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  Speaker 2: change makers, I am passionate about making social change movements
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  Speaker 2: accessible and equitable for all. Alongside my partner, I am
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  Speaker 2: the co director of Social Impact and Creative agency Activate,
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  Speaker 2: and am also the founder of Fabo Mahalja Altaura, New Zealand,
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  Speaker 2: a network providing support and advocacy for people living with
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  Speaker 2: chronic pain conditions.
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  Speaker 1: And because of her heritage, she learned early on what
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  Speaker 1: it meant to be connected with the environment and how
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  Speaker 1: important it was to respect the land. In an article
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  Speaker 1: written for Colorado dot Edu. They say Shirid o'reagan was young,
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  Speaker 1: her parents gathered the pito umbilical cord that had nurtured
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  Speaker 1: her in the womb, and per tradition, buried it on
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  Speaker 1: sacred coastal grounds in te Waponamu, the South Island of
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand, alongside the remains of her ancestors. Growing up
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  Speaker 1: in the Kaitau tribe, she learned early on to treat Airaqi,
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  Speaker 1: the chiefly mountain of her people, and Wa Taki, their river,
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  Speaker 1: with reverence. When she went fishing with her dad, he
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  Speaker 1: would always throw the first catch back to Taco Roa,
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  Speaker 1: the god of the oceans, to ensure the sustainability of
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  Speaker 1: the fish stocks for future generations.
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  Speaker 2: And the article continues. As climate change increasingly threatens the
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  Speaker 2: environment and the people who depend upon it, Sherwood o'reagan
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  Speaker 2: has taken that responsibility seriously, serving as a vocal advocate
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  Speaker 2: not only for her fellow Maori, the indigenous people of
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand, but also for the people with disabilities. Having
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  Speaker 2: been diagnosed with a fobromologia in her twenties, she seeks
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  Speaker 2: to assure that indigenous people, people with disabilities, and people
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  Speaker 2: like her at the difficult intersection of the two have
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  Speaker 2: a voice at the table. That's critical, she said, because
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  Speaker 2: they are at once uniquely affected and uniquely well suited
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  Speaker 2: to provide solutions.
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  Speaker 1: She explains within the article quote, Indigenous and disabled people
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  Speaker 1: have been organizing and innovating and creating novel solutions to
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  Speaker 1: problems for generations because there has been no other option
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  Speaker 1: for us. But only very recently have our views and
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  Speaker 1: experiences been accepted as part of the mainstream climate conversation.
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  Speaker 2: And that's something she's highlighted throughout her career, the im
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  Speaker 2: hoardance of the intersectionalities of these movements. In an interview
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  Speaker 2: she did with culturalsurvival dot org, she goes into detail
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  Speaker 2: about the subjects, saying, when we're talking about direct effects
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  Speaker 2: of climate change on health, we're often thinking about things
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  Speaker 2: like a climate disaster. If their floods, fires are coastal erosions,
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  Speaker 2: and people are injured. Disabled people are left behind in
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  Speaker 2: those sorts of disaster responses, whether they're not being rescued,
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  Speaker 2: whether the government plans and responses are accessible for disabled
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  Speaker 2: people and for Indigenous people, or whether those communities are
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  Speaker 2: even getting essential information. If that's not occurring in a
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  Speaker 2: language that you're comfortable with, or over communications that you're
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  Speaker 2: comfortable with. If you're deaf and you can't hear sirens
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  Speaker 2: or warnings, or if you're blind and have low vision
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  Speaker 2: and you're not getting all of that same input that's
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  Speaker 2: prioritized towards people who are visual receivers of information. That
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  Speaker 2: can leave a lot of people behind.
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  Speaker 1: And she continues as the temperature rises. Obviously, that has
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  Speaker 1: some direct effects in terms of people's health. Heat stroke
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  Speaker 1: is a really big thing, particularly for a lot of
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  Speaker 1: our elders, and it can also contribute to other health
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  Speaker 1: conditions like my fibromyalgia, migraines. We also have direct effects
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  Speaker 1: that come from pathogens like viruses and bacteria that cause
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  Speaker 1: disease and sometimes longer term disabilities, as well as the
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  Speaker 1: vectors that carry them. Those vectors might be things like
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  Speaker 1: ticks or mosquitoes. As the climate is changing, the patterns
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  Speaker 1: of those pathogens and vectors are moving. A big thing
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  Speaker 1: for indigenous communities is also thinking about a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the indirect effects of climate change, like eco anxiety. It
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  Speaker 1: affects a lot of people, but particularly indigenous communities. We
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  Speaker 1: are losing our homes but we are also losing sites
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  Speaker 1: that are spiritually or culturally significant, like on Arupa or cemeteries.
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  Speaker 1: That is a huge amount of trauma that our people
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  Speaker 1: have to experience. Many island communities are also threatened with
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  Speaker 1: rising sea levels and having to go to different countries
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  Speaker 1: and leave your cultural, historical and traditional home is a
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  Speaker 1: hugely traumatic process.
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  Speaker 2: And with that, she has called out different organizations, including
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  Speaker 2: those at the COP twenty five, for their usage of
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  Speaker 2: tokenism during their ceremonies. Here's a bit from her Wikipedia
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  Speaker 2: page which she has one She said on behalf of
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  Speaker 2: the International Indigenous People's Forum on Climate Change that quote,
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  Speaker 2: we are experts on climate We are the kate Tiaki,
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  Speaker 2: the stewards of nature. The Indigenous people have no official
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  Speaker 2: representation as only nations have official delegates. At twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: she was promised that she could speak, and she addressed
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  Speaker 2: the conference long after it was meant to finish. The
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  Speaker 2: stall agreements had left many sleeping under tables and missing flights.
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  Speaker 2: She got the media's attention when she told the delegates
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  Speaker 2: that the International Indigenous People's Forum on Climate Change wanted
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  Speaker 2: them to quote stop taking up space with your false
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  Speaker 2: solutions and get out of our way, and there's actually
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  Speaker 2: eclips of this, and she's not the only one who
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  Speaker 2: speaks up, but she's one of the main ones. And
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  Speaker 2: it is pretty fierce, like you could tell the anger
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  Speaker 2: and the rightful anger that was happening, especially that they
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  Speaker 2: were being left behind. They wanted them to be paraded
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  Speaker 2: as being inclusive, but they were not really including them
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  Speaker 2: or allowed them to be presented at the actual form.
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  Speaker 2: So if you have a chance, go look it up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And she continues to be vocal about the needs
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  Speaker 1: for disabled Indigenous leadership. She has seen some success and
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  Speaker 1: hope for the future in that regard. From a Cultural
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  Speaker 1: Survival dot Org interview quote, one of the things that's
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  Speaker 1: been really important is the solidarity between indigenous and disabled
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  Speaker 1: groups at the United Nations climate negotiations. I've been involved
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  Speaker 1: in an organization that my partner founded called Sustained Ability,
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  Speaker 1: which is a network of disabled people advocating for disability
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  Speaker 1: rights in the context of climate change. One of our
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  Speaker 1: core asks at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
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  Speaker 1: Change is to establish a constituency for disabled people, because
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  Speaker 1: that's currently not in existence. The Indigenous People's Caucus and
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  Speaker 1: International Indigenous People's Forum on Climate Change have been hugely
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  Speaker 1: supportive of the calls to action for disabled people to
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  Speaker 1: have some space in those negotiations as well. They have
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  Speaker 1: also got a lot of our calls for language that
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  Speaker 1: respects disability rights as well as Indigenous rights, and have
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  Speaker 1: supported our disabled Indigenous members to have a voice in
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  Speaker 1: these spaces. That shows the strength of our community and
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  Speaker 1: the strength of the Indigenous and the disabled rights movements.
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  Speaker 1: How were actually the voices who most need to be
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  Speaker 1: in the room and were the ones giving space and
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  Speaker 1: ensuring everyone who needs to be in the room is
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  Speaker 1: right there alongside us.
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  Speaker 2: Right And you know, we've talked about this so much
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  Speaker 2: about the fact that it is those that are the
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  Speaker 2: most marginalized that should be the ones that are at
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  Speaker 2: the head and at the helm of what is going
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  Speaker 2: on because they understand the needs better than most and
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  Speaker 2: as in fact, they understand how exclusionary movements can be
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  Speaker 2: when they've become just singular in its ideals. We've seen
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  Speaker 2: them of the you know, the feminist movement in itself.
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  Speaker 2: So to end on to on this note, she has
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  Speaker 2: become one of BBC's one hundred Women of twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: three for her work work and climate change and indigenous
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  Speaker 2: rights and disability rights, and I'm sure we're gonna hear
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  Speaker 2: much more about her in the future.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and listeners. As always, if you have any
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  Speaker 1: suggestions for this segment, please let us know. You can
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  Speaker 1: email us at Stephanie mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
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• 9:29
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