#87 Abby Reyes on embodied resistance in environmental justice, advocacy and allyship
“I am learning about what it takes to be in that slipstream, in a manner that also embodies rest. How do we be in the flow with access to our full complement of strategies, creativity and gifts that come from this awareness of interdependence and the lie of separation. How do we access the fruit of that awareness while in the slipstream? Some of the things I’m learning about right now include remembering that critical mass is one thing, but actually being able to move as humans, as groups, it only takes a few. ”
Environmental justice work speaks to the visceral nature of systemic oppression, lived through the bodies of Indigenous and local communities at the frontlines of climate crises and ecological degeneration. To defend the land, water and other natural resources is not a question of choice but survival for many communities protecting their territories from extractive industries. How do we then, as allies and advocates, choose to take the risk of offering our voices and organising with environmental defenders, in the movement to collective freedom and justice?
This month, we bring onto the show Abby Reyes, an author and recognized leader in driving community climate solutions. Her first book, Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice releases today, May 6, 2025, from North Atlantic Books. Truth Demands is a salve for anyone navigating the open waters of grief and essential reading for the emerging climate activist and those becoming more ecologically aware. The book chronicles Abby’s own healing journey and pursuit of justice after the loss of her partner and two other land rights advocates when they were murdered near Indigenous U’wa territory in Colombia in 1999.
Born and raised in Virginia, Abby began her climate work conducting rural environmental legal assistance in the Philippines, her father’s homeland, and later walked alongside the Colombian U’wa Indigenous pueblo in their fight against big oil – an experience at the center of Truth Demands. Today, she is the Director of Community Resilience Projects at University of California, Irvine, where she supports leaders from climate-vulnerable communities and their academic partners to accelerate community-owned just transition solutions. A graduate of Stanford University and UC Berkeley Law, she clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, co-chaired the board of EarthRights International, and is an advisor to the National Association of Climate Resilience Planners.
Abby has been recognized as a “Model of Resistance” by Barnard’s Scholar and the Feminist Conference, has a TEDx talk on How to Come Home and has discussed her work with the Law & Political Economy Project. She lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This conversation centres the themes of Truth Demands addressing embodiment as resistance, chronic fatigue and exhaustion in environmental justice work, and body reorganisation through rest.
What will be covered:
Embodied stance of voicing stories of justice, without being attached to outcome of justice (as something we cannot control)
Pueblo U’wa in Colombia as example of embodied stance for resisting oil industry to protect the land, as mother, and the oil, as the blood of the mother, through song
Infusing traditional strategies of resistance, as advocates, with our deeply rooted knowledge of mainstream strategies
Building awareness and inviting rest whilst in the slipstream - power in collaboration for sustainable change-making (with example of ‘triangle’ model)
Chronic exhaustion in trauma survivors and not giving oneself permission to rest
Building radical connection to community as remedy and to set vision of far horizon
Re-imagination of systems and society sustained through youth
Example of Caso U’wa case that recently got heard after 25 years through dedication of social workers, lawyers, teachers and environmental advocates for Pueblo U’wa case who were children at time of murders
Importance of all people engaging in system change - including oil executives and politicians
Truth Demands is an invitation to all to figure out our responsibilities and accountabilities (within our spheres of influence) for the pivots and movements forward to a liveable future
“Baking our sheet of muffins”: climate disaster preparedness and freedom begins by taking the risk to build relation to those who you have yet to know
What can collective action look like beyond critical mass e.g. conversations with neighbours —> understanding risk of not speaking is higher than speaking, inviting people into the mess our of lives and realities
Playfulness in the uncertainty - taking risks to reorganise as a people e.g. dinner table conversations, elders, those we don’t yet know
Body reorganisation - reactivating and strengthening muscles of relating to and building connection with
Key resources:
Practices of Transformative Movements (2016) by Movement Strategy Centre
Principles and Practices for a Thriving Culture of Participation by Facilitating Power
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Mind Full of Everything is a podcast calling for the radical healing of the self and community to outgrow the broken dominant culture of radical individualism and disconnection from our place as interdependent beings, so that we can collectively re-envision a safer, healthier and equitable world. Each episode takes a healing-centric approach to explore the embodied ways in which we can collectively restore and transform our journeys as stewards of community and earth through conversations with writers, researchers, coaches and educators, as well as reflection episodes with the host Agrita Dandriyal on her journey navigating the world as a deeply conscious, culturally-rooted and relational being. Learn more here.
