First Published June 2020
Last Updated February 2023
I have spoken at length about my personal beliefs surrounding intersectional feminism, anti-racism as an ongoing practice, and the importance of standing up against injustice when we encounter it, but I’ve come to learn that this is not enough. There can be no distinctions between personal and business, or personal and political. As a proponent of radical self-care, Hedge Witch Botanicals unequivocally supports freedom of choice and abortion access, believing bodily autonomy is and has always been our birthright. In an effort to destigmatize the narrative around this vitally important healthcare, I have shared my own abortion story, and I will continue to aid and abet abortion in a post-Roe America. HWB proudly offers an ongoing fundraiser for the National Network of Abortion Funds, and has made individual donations to Indigenous Women Rising and Yellowhammer Fund.
HWB also stands in solidarity with the BIPOC community, and recognizes the critical need to dismantle white supremacy at all levels. To that end, I strive my business practices to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels, and continue to work towards my own anti-racism education. As a white woman descended from European colonizers and living on unceded Haudenosaunee lands, I believe in the critical importance of reparations. In 2020, I established ongoing monthly donations to the Black Lives Matter Global Network and an ongoing fundraiser for the New England Farmers of Color Land Trust, and Hedge Witch Botanicals has made individual donations to the following organizations: Therapy for Black Girls, The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, Campaign Zero, and SPLC.
I recognize that as a queer white femme in America I have work to do, and that I will continue to mess up. I promise to hold myself accountable, to educate myself and to elevate marginalized voices, and to continue to show up.
With so much love,
Kate
EDIT: A previous version of this manifesto used the word “decolonize” in place of “unsettle.” I have since learned that “decolonization” applies to the BIPOC community, who have been affected by colonialism and settler colonialism, and involves “the removal of western ideologies in favor of ancestral ways. …’Unsettling’ is for white people, the descendants (settlers) or those who have benefited [from] / inflicted forms of colonialism.” Thank you Marisa de la Pena for sharing your knowledge.