Right Relationship with Janene Yazzie, pt. 2
Janene Yazzie is an exceptionally articulate entrepreneur, community organizer, and human rights advocate from the Navajo Nation. In this interview she talks with Cherokee citizen, Vance Blackfox, about her work and living in right relationship.
Janene Yazzie is a Diné Asa Navajo entreprenuer, community organizer and human rights advocate who has worked on development and energy issues with Indigenous communities across the United States for over 12 years. In part two of this interview, Janene shares about rights-based solutions, community-led efforts to regeneratively care for Creation, ways the world religions are related and connected to Mother Earth and our non-human relatives, and offers some words of encouragement. Janene is interviewed by Vance Blackfox, guest editor for our Fall 2021 collection exploring the Native American sense of "Sacred Relationship" with Earth's other living creatures.
About Janene
Among her many accomplishments, Janene Yazzie is co-founder/CEO of Sixth-World Solutions and a co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group to the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, where she works on climate change, water security, food security, energy development, and nation building. She is also a program manager for the International Indian Treaty Council and a co-founder of the Navajo Nation Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association, where her work ranges from infrastructure policy-making to restoration and protection of traditional ecological knowledge. To learn more about Janene, visit Sixth-World Solutions.
Selected Quotes
“It’s not about luxury, it’s about responsibility.”
“Our challenges are so complex. Our histories are so complex, and our solutions need to mirror that. In order to protect and restore biodiversity our solutions need to have the same type of diversity, informed by the limitations and types of relationships that exist within our ecosystems.”
“What are the social/cultural structures that need to be created so that we’re creating communities that are sustainable and regenerative? Those are the types of solutions we need everywhere... It’s going to look different everywhere.”
"Don't give up. Don't give up. A beautiful world is possible and it’s being birthed right now, and it needs all of us to be there to help guide it into existence. We do that by breathing love into the work we’re doing. By breathing love into the relationships that surround us. By breathing love into ourselves, because we often forget ourselves in all of this process. And if we can do that then we can find ways, no matter what challenges we’re facing, to continue to stand in our power and bring life to the solutions that are needed for our world and our communities."