Spiritual Activism and Collective Power
with Frankie Orona, Executive Director of the Society of Native Nations
by Alexis Young
Frontline communities, overwhelmed by the petrochemical industry’s presence, have survived decades of toxic emissions and contaminated natural resources. Community members' health, economies, and environments are sacrificed for industry profits.
Environmental leader Frankie Orona (Che-u cha-wat ha-tako) — the Executive Director of the Society of Native Nations and member of the Borrado, Tongva, and Chumash tribes — advocates for healing and community restoration that centers Indigenous and decolonized ways of being.
I sat down with Frankie to chat about overcoming tactical divides against collective power and some of the guiding principles in Indigenous environmental protection.
Alexis Young: You spoke on the Global Plastics Treaty. Can you explain why the Society of Native Nations supports it? Can you discuss the spiritual connections behind the ethos of this work?
Frankie Orona: For me, being involved in the Global Plastics Treaty, I feel like I'm obligated, I feel responsible, and I feel a need to be in these spaces as much as possible because our communities have been left out of these discussions for so long. They weren't made for us to be there, be present, and take up space. And I'm there to create some uncomfortability.
“And I’m there to create some uncomfortability.”
I'm there to remind them of the people in the communities that they're leaving out of these conversations, that they dehumanize us because they're not addressing our issues at the frontline and fenceline communities, in our Indigenous communities, that are disproportionately impacted. Right?
And I say it all the time when I'm there, “I'm here to remind you of those disproportionately impacted communities, the Indigenous and Black and Brown communities that have been dealing with these issues for generations.” And for me, I always tell everybody when we do this, and when I'm asked about my involvement, I always say, You know, environmentalism and activism are a part of our culture. It's part of our spirituality, long before those words even existed.
“You know, environmentalism and activism are a part of our culture. It’s part of our spirituality, long before those words even existed.”
Because we're taught by our elders and through traditional lifeways, you leave a place better than the way that we found it. We moved around and made sure we left that place in a good way. So if we need to come back or if the next generation needs to come back to that space, it was a good space for them to come back to, right?
It's about understanding and respecting the very life that gave us life. Right? And so, it's about honoring that and it's a part of who we are. It's a part of our culture and we're there to help protect the Indigenous knowledge, the inherent rights of Indigenous people, on all the different communities and territories throughout this world that have been taken for granted and have had harm pushed upon their communities.
Alexis Young: Could you speak to any of the disparate outcomes that Indigenous people specifically face? How can we support the solutions to ending those outcomes?
Frankie Orona: I always say this in a lot of the spaces that we end up — we're talking about the US — we talk about the issues that are impacting our communities here at home, we first have to remember that this country was founded on the genocide and the bones of my people, our people. Indigenous people, the original people, these lands and the structures were built up and made into what you see today through slavery, through our Black relatives coming here, being brought here, forced here.
That slavery, those things cannot be ignored.
How do we expect not to repeat some of the faults of our history if we don't acknowledge those things, right? You have to acknowledge them so that healing can happen. If the healing doesn't happen, then we're going to be prone to do some of those things again or treat each other in a different way.
So we need that healing. We need to be able to feel safe about having those kinds of discussions and owning it. I think by realizing those things, we understand the disparities and the impacts that we have in our communities and have had for generations we share.
When we talk about the EJ Frontline communities today that identify whether they feel like they're an African-American Community or Latino Community or however they want to identify and share something, we share the disparities, unfortunately. That's a tactic to separate us. “This impacts them more than them.” No, that's a tactic to take away power from us because when we come together to address the issues that impact every single one of us, that's power, and it can't be denied.
Learn more: societyofnativenations.org