Earth Guardians Skype Sessions

After almost a year in planning, Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh arrived at the Wellington airport on January 3, 2017. His new year began by boarding the plane for New Zealand on New Years’ Day. New Zealand is the land of first light, the first country to see the new day and the new year, and this is where the Kid Warrior (now deemed ‘Mana Warrior’ by me), initiated his year of massive challenge and accomplishment.

“If you don’t have a strategy, you are part of someone else’s strategy” -Alvin Toffler in Beautiful Trouble

The COVID-19 outbreak has major implications on our physical, mental and spiritual health, with many of us worried that we will not be able to pay rent after being laid off or seeing our hours cut. This is stressful for everyone, but for Indigenous people, in particular, the pandemic resurfaces generational trauma of when infectious and contagious diseases were used intentionally as warfare against Indigenous populations.

As an organization, Earth Guardians encourages Youth leaders to show up with authenticity and let authenticity inspire our work. Earth Guardian’s work is anchored in these three qualities, authenticity, spirit, and family or community, and these qualities are the reason we have affected the change that we have. Tamara, our Executive Director, envisioned Earth Guardians out of a recurring dream she had of hundreds of thousands of youth collaborating and pouring into the streets, together. With this vision, she began the Earth Guardians school in 1992, in Maui, Hawaii.