Artist/activist Alixa Garcia designed this piece, in honor of One Billion Rising 2021: RISING GARDENS. Alixa Garcia writes, “Keeping carbon in the soil, giving wildlife a home, and bringing our food consumption to a local level are some of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis. Because women around the world are often responsible for gathering and producing food, the centralization, celebration, and liberation of the two are intrinsically linked. To see one billion women rise, and alongside them a billion gardens bloom, will be a true solutionary act of our time. In this piece, I bridge the two against a starry sky to remind us of our interdependent existence; we are interwoven within all.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, One Billion Rising activists are rising via a multitude of activities including a radio program examining the connections between protecting women and Mother Earth, workshops on creating hanging gardens, planting fruit trees in the V-World Farm, field visits to learn more about deforestation, youth rising discussions on environmental conservation, and talking about the importance of maintaining your own inner garden (your health).
India is rising through creating 100 herbal Rising Gardens, seed distribution, music festivals, poetry and literature readings, discussion of traditional herbal medicines and practices, exhibitions and rallies.
Cambodia is rising with artistic creative resistance events for women’s empowerment.
OBR Croatia is dedicating their creative resistance actions to expressing solidarity with the women of Banijia, a region of Croatia that experienced a devastating earthquake, and the worst hit villages in farms. On 14 February, OBR activists prepared a program with librarians, actresses and actors, and activists will participate. Women from Zagreb, union members, women’s associations, and individuals put together care packages for the women in Banija.
In Davao City, Philippines, OBR activists are rising in an online event with V (formerly Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising) and Monique Wilson (OBR Global Director). Together, they are rising for Lumad rights, Mother Earth, against the anti-terror law, and state violence.
OBR activsts in Munchen, Germany are raising the vibration and RISING for women’s rights and Mother Earth.
OBR Germany is rising with national submissions from all across the country on OBR dance films and OBR photos online, sent in by thousands of activists – creating, per city, collective OBR dance films created by the activists.
OBR India Rising Gardens : Greening the wounded earth and healing our wounded womxn.
Illustrator Muhammed Sajid created this beautiful artwork of a woman farmer in Kerala, India raising the vibration to heal and rise against gender based violence.
The Philippines is rising with the theme – “Rising Gardens, Growing Resistance”, focusing on the demand for services and assistance, livelihood and wages, vaccines and mass testing in light of the pandemic and the crisis – as well as the call for accountability from the government. Actions include community garden planting, tree planting by the youth, and live OBR dance gathering protests – all of which are taking place around the country.
South Asia continues to rise with their Rising Gardens Film Festival – exploring women’s ties to nature, agriculture and the environment – featuring 48 films from over 11 countries.
Activists in Norwich, UK are RAISING THE VIBRATION this 14 February to end gender based violence
OBR activists in Poland are ready to rise! This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, activists have continued to socially distance and uploaded dance tutorials so that people tuning in from home and at socially distanced online events, can rise!
Activists in Poland are RISING against femicide in online creative dance protests and events.
Portugal is rising with community OBR dancing at the Tamera Healing Biotope with the theme “Rising Gardens, Growing Roots”, with focus on community, planting and the nurturing and cultivation of land. They will also hold OBR at the regional seed festival in Portugal.
Togo is rising with women farmworkers in a session to help them improve the sales of their produce – from villages to the entire country so that women will no longer be financially dependent on men.
Nigeria will rise through public sensitization, drama , music and dance – along with street campaigns, and listening workshops for women empowerment and community education.
OBR India activists are RISING through seed distribution, 100 herbal gardens, music festivals, literature readings, webinars, and promoting traditional herbal medicines to enhance our connection to Mother Earth.
In Eswatini, OBR activists are rising and celebrating women farmers, frontline workers, and girl survivors through dancing, poetry, painting, and gardening.
Activists in Guatemala is rising with educational workshops on how to build your own urban garden and going to a walking tour around the Reserva Nacional in Guatemala City called “Breathe Through Mother Earth.”
Under the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system, in Indonesia 65% of its population are peasants and the majority are poor peasants and landless - exploited in land rent systems, mainly unjust share-cropping, usury in production and trade, and victims of extreme low-wages of peasant labor. Most of them are women. One Billion Rising Activists have collaborated with Seruni - an Indonesian collective made up of people’s organizations - to promote agroecology as a minimum agrarian reform to reduce domination of the big landlords around palm oil and rubber plantations.
OBR Zambia activists are RISING for land rights as they meet with traditional leaders to advocate for more equality in the allocation of land while simultaneously meeting with rural women to encourage them to own land.
OBR Africa continues to rise as a region with online risings of Africa women farmers, and with regional virtual discussions on Covid 19 in Africa.
Cameroon activists will be rising through having community members plant trees to underscore the importance of maintaining life during an era of climate destruction. In addition, OBR activists in Cameroon will be hosting a workshop with community and religious leaders to address early marriage and forced marriage, which hurts Cameroonian girls and their futures.
In Kenya, activists are RISING through gardening in their community and hosting gardening workshops so others may start their own.
Singapore is rising with a zoom meet up to discuss how best to create vegetable gardens in homes, led by leading Singaporean nature enthusiasts.
The Garden of Yarns is a craftivism, stitched together by OBR activists in Johannesburg, South Africa, installation in the form of a yarn bomb using handmade fibre graffiti. It stitches personal and collective stories from threads of crochet, knit and embroidery. A flower bed of creative resistance nurtures blossoming blooms, love leaves and petal poems. An avenue of rescued tree trunks is wrapped in yarns of revolutionary love. Stitch by stitch, it reveals its floral beauty – similarly to how a garden springs to life… a seed germinates, a petal unfurls, a bud blossoms. Embodied with hope, the Garden of Yarns is a mindful gift for all sentient beings as respite from the dispirited Covid-19 pandemic.
This beautiful image is from the Garden of Yarns, a craftivism installation in Johannesburg, South Africa. The installation is in the form of a yarn bomb, stitches personal and collective stories from threads of crochet, knit and embroidery.