Step foot into Louisiana’s bayous and you’ll smell the strong scent of azaleas even before you smell the cooking. Amidst the sweet fragrance of flowers and mouth-watering cuisine, an odious history of racial division sits in the foreground of these communities on the frontlines of climate change. For lawyer and activist Colette Pichon Battle, growing up in this cocktail of complexity and beauty has greatly informed her work to dismantle structural racism exacerbated by climate change.
As founder and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, Colette supports and activates local communities affected by climate change through regional, multi-racial alliances using everything from legal services to sacred pilgrimages down the Mississippi River. She’s harnessing the power of community, spirituality, and indigenous knowledge to tackle the issues threatening our very humanity—racial injustice, climate change, and economic exclusion. Colette joins Nguhi for a spiritual, yet grounded, conversation on what we can learn from not only the land, but those who have lived on it longest.
For more detail on Colette’s work, visit The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and watch her TED Talk: Climate change will displace millions. Here’s how we prepare. Explore the beauty of the Louisiana Bayou, on this an aerial tour.
Colette goes into further detail on the shortfalls of philanthropy in her piece: Communities of color are saving the planet — why won’t funders support what works? To find out where Colette gets her “courage flow,” listen to Black Rob’s full song “I Dare You” . Lastly, view the episode transcript here.
