Corwyn...

 Corwyn:

I’m a white, autistic butch trans woman squatting on Syilx territory which was never ceded or surrendered to the colonial state. I come from a middle-class family of white squatters.

Now, lend me a moment for a metaphor. Imagine a mountain ecosystem in your brain. Imagine the crags, the plateaus, the springs, the rivers, the rich earth, the flora and fauna spread across it, the countless minerals contained within the rock. Imagine the thousands of years of history contained within this rock alone; the geological map of time and memory. Imagine the sunlight and moonlight nourishing this environment every day and night to keep it healthy, the atmosphere protecting it from harmful extraplanetary radiation.

Now try to imagine squeezing this massively complex mountain universe through your fingertips, past your lips. This is how I feel, because I don’t know how to express what I want and need to communicate to you about Rhizome. I’ve been mulling it over all day, stuck because the magnitude of what I am trying to express is so great.

So I will just do my best. I will try.

Rhizome is one of the most remarkable people I’ve met. They have a profound understanding of the human condition, beyond what most politicians, academics or artists have achieved.

They have, through years of tireless dedication and serious work, become a tremendously talented community organizer, educator, writer, and artist. Their ability to synthesize invaluable analytical understanding and wisdom from key ingredients: an impassioned belief in community care, an indefatigable pursuit of diverse perspectives and knowledges, and the utilization of insights gleaned from personal and intergenerational traumas and triumphs.

Rhizome’s motivations and intentions have, in the six years I’ve known them, always been crystal-clear. They hold a deep and abiding love of the earth and all its inhabitants, one which to most people is merely aspirational if not outright inconceivable.

How do I know? I’ve witnessed them in these six years work every day to uphold the voices that exist, in their words, “at the margins of the margins” of society.

The type of organizing that Rhizome engages in, it’s vitally important to the future of our species. Their ability to compel others to honest self-reflection while extending the hand of compassionate care is unmatched by anyone I know — an ability comparable only to exceptional public figures such as the widely beloved Dr. Gabor Maté.

Rhizome is a person who’s suffered immensely in life from social isolation caused by abuse and multiple shunning campaigns. Throughout their hardships, I have never seen them cede an inch to the insidious forces which threaten to destroy lives and communities.

They are someone we will need more than ever in the years and decades to come. I wish I could tell you that they need our support and that this would be enough — but sadly, in our society, I need to sell you their future.

So I guess this makes me a businessperson. I urge you, my friends, don’t let them and their kid go homeless. Their fate is inextricably intertwined with yours. It is in your best interest to fight for them, so that we can have a better chance at a livable future.

Join us. We can do this if we work together.