*A collective term for people of Indigenous, African, Asian, and Latin American descent, who constitute approximately 85 percent of the global population.
Lineage
Kavaya is an artist collective and publishing home born out of Kavaya: The Earthseed Collective.
Book club inspired by Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower
In resistance to the predominantly white, western, and christian supremacist teaching and practice of environmental stewardship
Intergenerational affinity group for Global Majority*
Vision
Cultivate and share educational and entertaining media that fosters healthy relationships with local places and the global planet
Theories of Change
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"Settler colonial imaginaries are constructed through the repeated, intergenerational layering of settler ecologies onto Indigenous ecologies"
For instance, Washington, DC, fertile wetland was drained and terraformed into a vision of 19th century London.
This has "result[ed] in fortified ignorance of the land, Indigenous peoples, and the networks of relationality and responsibility that sustain co-flourishing. Kyle Whyte (2018) terms this fortification of settler ignorance ‘vicious sedimentation’.”
At Kavaya, through stories by Global Majority people with deep roots to their land, we strive to de-sediment these layers and reveal relationships that have been interrupted by colonial violence.
Read More: Meissner, S. N., & Huebner, B. (2022). Outlaw epistemologies: Resisting the viciousness of country music's settler ignorance. Philosophical Issues, 32, 214–232.
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Terra nullius (land without people) is a perspective originating from colonial scientists and ‘explorers’ (Nelson, 2011) that is perpetuated by contemporary environmentalists.
For instance, the Yellowstone ideal of conservation (Kopke, 2021) and the covers of National Geographic sustain the idea of 'pristine' land without people (Peace et al, 2012).
At Kavaya we recognize that indigenous communities have always stewarded the land even if the colonial gaze didn't and doesn't see us. We are dedicated to highlighting this stewardship; that land and Global Majority people are not mutually exclusive but symbiotic.cription
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Collectively we contribute to a historical record and cultural heritage
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We foster an environment of empowerment, solidarity, comfort, understanding & empathy
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Collectively we cultivate a community of informed citizens, empowered by knowledge and capable of critical analysis
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We uplift voices of dissent, intellectual freedom, and act as a catalyst for advocacy & change
Improve environmental literacy by empowering Global Majority learners & teachers
Build caring community for Global Majority writers and readers through print and digital media
Mission
Glossary
Kavaya
Sinhala for circle
kaavya: poetry or lyrical music
kavya: the act of sending a message through a messenger
Our community embodies these ideas of offering, sharing, conversing, and gifting in a generous, circular way.
Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Buttler
It is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth heavily affected by climate change and social inequality.
The novel follows Lauren Olamina, a young woman who can feel the pain of others and becomes displaced from her home. Earthseed is a fictitious religion based on the idea that "God is Change".
Global Majority
is a collective term for people of Indigenous, African, Asian, and Latin American descent. We are not a minority and challenge the normative vocabulary that marginalizes our ways of thinking and our lived experiences.