Tara Bliss Gilmaher(she/her)

"There is no hierarchy of oppression. All oppressions must be recognized and fought against simultaneously."---Audre Lorde.

I’m a gender-spicy, neuro-spicy, spiritual, white, cis-gendered, non-Judeo-Christian, bisexual, polyamorous, kink-aware, humanist-feminist female currently living on occupied Tongva lands. I was raised in blended family of origin, with non-white family members and caregivers. I studied integrative depth psychology on occupied Chumash lands. As I child I lived on occupied Maarrênga’yam lands (near the “Morongo Reservation”). I am neurodiverse, energetically sensitive, and my ACE score is 9 out of 10. I have found meaning in my complex early traumatic experiences through holding space for others’ who also have experiences of alienation, in pursuit towards authenticity and more joyfully loving, connected relationships within themselves and with beings in their lives.  

All too often, people feel defined by others’ perception of them. From very early ages, many cannot survive without choosing to belong at the peril of their own authentic being. I believe that’s a form of soul murder. Gender, sexuality, spirituality, and identity authentically belong to the person living the experience, and I support each individual’s right to self-determination and autonomy. 

I believe racial justice, decolonizing systems and care, gender and identity justice, human rights, and eco-justice are all intrinsically, intersectionally linked. Any idea or value which allows us to teach or tolerate blindness to the aliveness in ourselves, others, and the world (as described by Robin Wall Kimmerer as a ‘language of animacy’ in Braiding Sweetgrass, pp. 48-59), to reciprocity (ibid., p. 272), fails to address oppression. Issues related to structural and personal denial of inequities, justice, reciprocity, and the foundations of evil and inhuman systems (many of my ancestors supported and strengthened many of these abuses) perpetuated generations enforcing inexcusable exploitation of anyone not identified as in-group with the Christian white European male dominant colonizing class.

Dominant systems in much of the world and in the United States denies the right to justice for “the whole of Creation,”(Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, p. 322), an idea rooted in the Onondaga Nation’s precepts of “the Great Law of Peace” (ibid, p. 318-321), which is echoed (although focused on humanity) by Audre Lorde, when she “warned America against fighting against some oppressions but not others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1pNsLsHsfs She insisted, ‘There is no hierarchy of oppression.’ All oppressions must be recognized and fought against simultaneously. She pushed American society to understand that although we possess different identities, we are all connected as human beings,” (Audre Lorde, n.d., cited by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, retrieved on 6/30/22, from https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/social-identities-and-systems-oppression" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); text-decoration: underline;">https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/social-identities-and-systems-oppression).