The Environmental Justice and Ecotherapy Organization seeks to promote awareness, engagement, and action around ecotherapy (nature connection practices) and Earth/Environmental justice. We gather together, facilitate workshops, host speakers on resonant topics, and attend community events. We invite creative ways of exploring deep connection with nature (the environment, Earth, our inner and outer landscapes, elements, animals, human and beyond human) and hold liberation and justice as a foundation.
The student-led group began in 2019 by bringing in speakers from the field of social work, environmental justice, grassroots organizations, and the wider Austin community. The group is ever-evolving, and all are welcome to participate regardless of where you are coming from in relation to these topics. We hope to bring together an interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and multicultural group.
To share more about what led you here, please fill out the 2024 interest form. To learn more and get involved in EJET, email us at utejet@gmail.com, join our facebook group, and follow us on instagram.
ARTWORK by Jazz Bell
Jazz Bell (they/ them) is a multidimensional professional based in Austin, TX who values Social Justice and Interconnection. Their work focuses on the promotion of Disability Justice, Access, and LGBTQIA+ Justice through consulting, education, and artistry.
Artist statement: So much is possible when we prioritize commitment to the land, our wellness, and to each other. The circle in the middle represents the inherent interconnectedness of these concepts. Part of caring for each other requires that we center the people most affected by Environmental injustice. In particular, I wanted to portray Black and Indigenous communities (represented by the top right hand and the two bottom hands) who have been the target of nonstop environmental racism. I also wanted to portray disabled communities (represented visibly by the top left hand but with the understanding that disability extends beyond visible disability and any of the other hands can also belong to disabled bodyminds) as we are disproportionately affected by climate change and neglected in policies and conversations involving environmental justice. These groups of people have also been denied access to the healing and wellness that can be found through the abundance of our Earth. I wanted this design to help prompt imagination of a future where we understand this crucial reality: our individual wellness cannot be separated from the wellness of other people and the Earth.
