Abby Reyes: Engaging ‘the slow work’ in the face of urgency and crises

In 1999, Terence Unity Freitas, the partner of our guest today, along with two other Indigenous activists Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa and Lahe’ena’e Gay, were murdered in Colombia after they left the U’wa territory, where they were visiting to support the Indigenous U’wa community.

Now, in one of her first interviews about her new book, Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice, Abby Reyes is here to share her story — and her journey of navigating grief and healing while fighting for truth and accountability from Big Oil.

How has the U’wa community been resisting against colonial-capitalist interests? What does it mean to depart from urgency culture and to tap into the “slow work” of deep, social change? And what is the relationship between engaging in the “inner” and “outer” work of systemic transformation?

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