“In my vision as a Mohawk midwife, reproductive justice and environmental justice intersect at the nexus of woman's blood and voice.”

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Katsi Cook (good-gee cook)

Mohawk midwife

IMAGE SOURCE: Ronnie Farley photo. Earth Keepers: Native Portraits gallery. | QUOTE SOURCE: “Powerful Like a River: Reweaving the Web of Our Lives in Defense of Environmental and Reproductive Justice.” Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings fo…

IMAGE SOURCE: Ronnie Farley photo. Earth Keepers: Native Portraits gallery. | QUOTE SOURCE: “Powerful Like a River: Reweaving the Web of Our Lives in Defense of Environmental and Reproductive Justice.” Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future. Ed. By Melissa Nelson. Bear & Co. 2008.

QUOTE CONTEXT: “Of the sacred things that are to be said about this, woman is the first environment; she is an original instruction.”

QUOTE QUESTION: How are women’s blood and women’s voice defended and strengthened in your tradition?

IMAGE CONTEXT: Mohawk midwife Katsi Cook tends to a birth at Massena memorial hospital in Massena, New York, 1992.

IMAGE QUESTION: Who welcomes new life in your community?

MEDIA LITERACY CONTEXT: The quote is from Katsi Cook’s presentation to the 2002 Bioneers’ conference.

MEDIA LITERACY QUESTION: The photo is from a professional photographer’s website. How do you choose your media allies?

LEARN ABOUT AND SUPPORT KATSI COOK’S WORK: https://indspire.ca/laureate/sherrill-katsi-cook-barreiro/

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“We see the natural world as a living being with rights. The rights of the natural world—of the air, the water, the moon, the stars—always take precedence.”
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“We need to identify the processes that so often lead people who are honestly seeking to resist and destroy colonization to unconsciously re-create the elements of their own oppression.”