Moving forward to go back: Doing Black feminism in the time of climate change

This article deals with how one moves from global catastrophe to local implementation from the perspective of one individual. It asks how one can live with the consciousness that system change is necessary and inevitable for species survival, while translating that consciousness into the necessity for immediate and personal action. It emanates from a history of oppression on the basis of race, gender and indigeneity, but argues that victimhood is no excuse for failing to take responsibility for our actions and how we live in this world. The recovery of indigenous knowledge systems is seen as crucial in making the transition from victim to survivor, and survivor to revolutionary in the sense of achieving long-term qualitative change. Since indigenous knowledge systems operate on the basis of experiential knowledge situated within specific material and cultural contexts, this recovery is described in terms of plants, soaps, oils, earth worms and manure.