In partnership, NOISE FOR NOW and Seeding Sovereignty announce the NOISE FOR NOW X SEEDING SOVEREIGNTY MASK CAMPAIGN, in response to the severe impacts Indigenous communities are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With each purchase of the NOISE FOR NOW X SEEDING SOVEREIGNTY Mask or Bandana, one mask will be donated to the Indigenous Impact Community Care Initiative for distribution to the pueblos and reservations most impacted at this time AND cash donations will be made to Seeding Sovereignty’s mututal aid work and to abortion funds serving Indigenous and undocumented people (Tewa Women United, and Mariposa Fund).
Joining the effort to spread awareness for this vital campaign are artists including Arthur Moon, A-Trak, Broken Baby, Cat Power, Christian Lee Hutson, David Pajo, Deerhoof, Dirty Projectors, Doe Paoro, Fiona Apple, Fleet Foxes, GABBY’S WORLD, Gemma, Grizzly Bear, Half Waif, Harrison Whitford, Holly Miranda, Kim Gordon, Lucy Dacus, Mark Ruffalo, Milk Carton Kids, mmeadows, morgxn, Mynabirds, Noel Wells, Palehound, Real Estate, TV On The Radio, with additional artists participating daily.
Fiona Apple, whose recent album Fetch The Bolt Cutters acknowledges Tongva Territory (so-called Los Angeles) as the land upon which the music was made, states “The number of reasons to support Indigenous efforts is the same as the number of souls who inhabit the world. White gluttony tried to kill off the very people who understood the language of the land. We chose to be owners instead of guardians, and we became a cancer. If we want to survive, we must support Indigenous efforts.”
BUY A MASK OR BANDANA HERE
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights long-standing structural and systemic inequities in the United States and exacerbates the already precarious situation for Indigenous communities; some of whom live on reservations with limited access to resources including food, running hot water, and healthcare. Indigenous peoples are on the frontlines of climate crisis, protecting living forests, waterways, and resisting extractive projects during the COVID-19 crisis, and are doing so without any governmental support or protections for their people or homelands.
Meanwhile, politicians throughout the country have used the pandemic as an excuse to impose state-level restrictions on abortion access and force temporary health center closures, making it even more difficult for many to access care. This disproportionately impacts people with low incomes, people of color, and those living in remote and extremely rural communities.
According to Co-Directors of the Indigenous Impact Community Care Initiative Janet MacGillivray and Eryn Wise, “Seeding Sovereignty has been actively planting seeds with NOISE FOR NOW and several of the musicians in our community to acknowledge and liberate Indigenous lands. Through our work with these relatives, we are not only taking the first step towards land acknowledgment and reclamation, we’re also providing ongoing mutual aid to Native communities impacted by COVID-19. It’s so important for people to know whose territory they’re on and what community/land base they’re representing and committed to. In wearing our masks, our friends are saying, “I’m doing this for not only myself but the Indigenous communities that deserve to live, too.””
Says NOISE FOR NOW President Amelia Bauer, “Discussions of a collaboration between our organizations (NOISE FOR NOW and Seeding Sovereignty) began last year around the planning of a benefit concert that would highlight the intertwined concerns of land and body sovereignty. When the pandemic hit and we all were made to quickly shift gears, it became clear that a buy-one/give-one mask campaign would be an immediate way to work together to meet the urgent needs of Indigenous communities. It is an honor to learn from and work alongside Seeding Sovereignty.”
The NOISE FOR NOW X SEEDING SOVEREIGNTY Mask was developed and produced on Tongva territory by Suay Sew Shop LA. Suay Sew Shop is one of LA’s leading ethical apparel manufacturers, working towards setting the standard for change. Specializing in upcycling and responsible production, Suay is creating an alternative manufacturing model that proves that paying true living wages, investing in the professional development of employees and being dedicated to cleaning up the environment are not mutually exclusive to having a successful business. Welcome to radical business and the clean up economy.
NOISE FOR NOW is a national initiative that enables performers to connect with and financially support grassroots organizations that are dedicated to empowering women and protecting women’s health and abortion rights. Our directors are proud to honor the traditional lands and peoples of the Jicarilla Apache/Pueblo (so-called Santa Fe, NM), those of the Tongva territory (so-called Los Angeles), those of Manahatta in Lenapehoking and traditional Wappinger territories (so-called Manhattan), and those of traditional Shawnee and Eastern band Cherokee territories (so-called Nashville). We give thanks for the ability to live, learn, and work on their traditional lands.
Seeding Sovereignty is an Indigenous womxn-led collective working on behalf of our global community to shift social and environmental paradigms by dismantling colonial institutions and replacing them with Indigenous practices created in synchronicity with the land. Seeding Sovereignty acknowledges that we are guests doing work on unceded Tiwa territory and give thanks to the original peoples of the land for allowing us the space to work on behalf of all tribes of so-called New Mexico and around Turtle Island.
The United States has an infamous legacy of genocide, flagrant disregard for Black life, enslavement that continues today with the prison industrial complex, displacement of original peoples from not only this land, but globally, all while the descendants of slave owners and Indian killers continue their colonial projects. We reject this rooted violence, colonial capitalism, and white supremacy and rise in support with not only Black lives, but with all people of the global majority.
Indigenous Women Rising is an Indigenous-led Reproductive Justice organization that centers the communities they come from. The IWR Abortion Fund serves Indigenous people throughout the US with the cost of their abortion, gas, food, and childcare while seeking abortion care.
Mariposa Fund raises money to help undocumented people pay for their abortions because they recognize the extraordinary and systemic barriers that exist for undocumented people trying to obtain reproductive health services. These include systemic obstacles like fear of criminalization, lack of access to health insurance, economic insecurity, linguistic barriers, and oppression rooted in white supremacy and xenophobia.