Building Authentic Relationships – Social Justice Allies Rainforest Journey

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I had the distinct honor of participating in the first ever Pachamama Alliance Allies Journey. On its own, the Pachamama Journey can be a life changing experience. The chance to share this experience with a group of wise, passionate women and men whose lives are committed to social justice was a privilege that surpasses description.

David Tucker and his phenomenal Ecuadorian counterpart, Cristina Serrano (Cookie), led the trip. David and Cookie were tireless in their attention to every detail and to each person’s experience. In addition, David’s consistency in deliberately inviting deep and sometimes difficult conversations was absolutely crucial.

San Clemente Project: A Living Model of Social Justice

One of our first stops was the San Clemente Project, an effort to create a sustainable community based on semi-subsistence agriculture and traditional indigenous ways of life. Here we met a group of generous and grounded people, living according to the rhythms of the Earth and farming in much the same way as their pre-Columbian ancestors.

The folks at San Clemente delivered something I think we all longed for: a living model of social justice. Here, on this humble mountainside community in Northern Ecuador, is a beacon of genuine hope in a world torn apart by war and greed.

Human Liberation: Beyond Justice

At the same time, our experience in this community served as a reminder to us that economic justice is not the same thing as human liberation.

The San Clementians are warm and lovely people, but we saw no evidence that their traditional way of life makes much space for those whose gender identity or sexual orientation deviates from their traditional norms. It would have been fascinating to engage them in a frank discussion about gender and sexuality, but that was not on the agenda.

Although the opportunity did not avail itself with our San Clemente hosts, our group still had a long slow bus ride, from Northern Ecuador to the edge of the jungle, though a changing landscape of towering volcanoes and plunging waterfalls.

Acknowledging Our Own Diversity

Thanks again to David’s prompting, we took advantage of that time to reflect deeply on the meaning of sexual justice, not only in the context of what we know about the Quechua and Achuar cultures, but also in terms of our own society. To the surprise of a number of us, it turned out that even within our contingent of stalwart progressives, there are profound differences in perspective.

It was at this moment that our group transformed itself from an aggregate of broadly likeminded co-travelers, into a rolling microcosm of the wider social movement. Each of us had arrived on the journey bearing our own individual and collective histories, values, and perspectives, and on that long bus ride through the steep and lush Ecuadorian countryside, began to clear the fog from the rifts and valleys that form the rugged terrain of our movement.

Learning from the Achuar

The next phase of our journey placed us among the Achuar people. These venerable denizens of the jungle introduced us to a way of life as intimate with the forest as it was timeless.

We learned about how they weave, how they hunt, and how they commune with the spirit of the forest, arutam, to receive its guiding wisdom. The Achuar shared with us some of their songs, and we reciprocated with our own. While the pop songs were fun for us to sing, a deeper chord was struck with our hosts, I think, by the traditional songs graciously sung by the two Native American women in our group.

Reconnecting, Grieving, and Building Alliances for the Future

Our time in the Achuar territory offered further occasions to explore the complex topology of our common ground. One of the Native American women in our group was inspired by the Achuar and the jungle to express, quite eloquently, the necessity for people to rediscover and cultivate their intimate connection with wild nature.

This conviction, which is practically dogma for the ecology movement, as well as many indigenous people, struck a raw nerve for one African American woman.

She explained how painful it is for her to hear this particular story because so many of her African American brothers and sisters remain trapped in urban settings, having long been denied any genuine connection to the land, and having little or no access to wild nature. This is a people, she noted, whose ancestors were uprooted from their land, first by the slave trade, and then by the Jim Crow system, which compelled the Great Migration.

This was a poignant moment because that spontaneous expression of genuine grief provided a glimpse at the deep emotional and material rift that continues to separate the ecology and racial justice movements.

This fault line is not a product of a misunderstanding, which can be bridged simply by “reaching out” and trying to change minds. It is a product of disparate personal and collective historical experiences, involving real loss and real pain, on all sides. This relatively brief exchange around the breakfast table confirmed, once again, why the sort of alliance building we are attempting with these journeys is so difficult and so vital.

Cultivating Solidarity: A Key Step Towards a Just, Thriving, and Sustainable World

The last phase of our journey took us back into the Andes, to Hacienda Manteles, a converted villa overlooking the breathtaking Valley of Manteles, with a view of the active Tungurahua Volcano.

In this setting, as we began to wind down our time together, we focused on deepening our connections with each other while looking ahead to the potential fruits of our interaction.

Of course, none of the difficult issues that had emerged had been resolved. Yet bonds of connection and trust had developed precisely because the journey offered us the space and time simply to be ourselves and to listen to one another.

The various social movements are not lacking for good ideas or convincing arguments. What they are missing is genuine solidarity, which can only come about through authentic relationships based in trust and love. This is precisely why, in my view, the Allies Journey can be such a crucial piece of The Pachamama Alliance mission.