Who’s Our Printer?

We’re partnering with Brick City Printing to print these shirts and we’re so excited!! Brick City Printing is a badass, local (in so-called St. Louis where Terra’s founder, Erin Monahan, lives), woman-owned, union made, print shop! It was crucial for us to find a printer that aligns with our anti-oppressive, pro-union values and we found that with Rebecca at Brick City Printing!

Because this is our first time ordering shirts from a local printer we’ll be shipping them ourselves, so please allow about 2-4 weeks to receive your shirt. We’ll probably be able to get it to you much sooner, but we’ve just never done this before and want to give ourselves extra time and not make promises we can’t keep!

The Meaning Behind the T-Shirt:

Why do we encourage you to stop glorifying John Muir?

John Muir directly encouraged and aided Indigenous genocide through his writing and "environmental activism." We often praise him for his work in creating the national parks, but just like Muir's writing, the parks are rooted in exclusion and violence towards Indigenous peoples.

The parks are said to preserve what European colonizers called "the wilderness," a construct created in order to keep Indigenous peoples from accessing their homelands. This was also a convenient way white settlers could justify reservations under the guise of helping Indigenous communities to be "civilized."

We want to acknowledge and give thanks to Jolie Varela of Indigenous Women Hike (IWH) for bringing this to the forefront of conversations in the outdoor industry. A portion of the proceeds will go to IWH!

Often people who feel loyalty to the national parks (because the wealthy elite have done well to tout them as environmental sanctuaries), will argue, "But the national parks would be vulnerable to vandalism, abuse, and private corporations looking to extract the resources if we didn't have the national parks in place."

And to that we remind you that the original peoples of the Turtle Island (and across the globe) have been, and always will be, the original stewards of The Land. Who is better suited to protect the land than those who have been here for time immemorial?! Why are we not looking to them? Why are we not uplifting their voices and work, and centering their stories in conversations about the environment?

Mostly it's white people who feel shocked by these sentiments because it puts into question their version of reality that they have been conditioned to believe in. National parks are *not* the penultimate of environmentalism. In fact, they are a byproduct of the grand scheme of colonization. They are the result of centuries of Indigenous dispossession and genocide (Read Mark David Spence’s Dispossessing the Wilderness for more on that!).

The National Park System and the narratives we tell about it, serve as propaganda to manufacture consent among the masses for ongoing colonization.

If we need to re-think our handed-down heroes, like John Muir (puke emoji), who/what else do we need to re-think? How are our organizations set-up? How can we get rid of the oppressive structures inside of them? What about how we treat each other? Are we caring and making room for mental health days? Are we budgeting for equitable outcomes for everyone involved? Does our organization's impact create equitable outcomes for all?

We hope these shirts will help you start conversations and take action against the myriad ways imperialist-white supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy (as bell hooks called it, may she rest in power) manifests not just in the outdoor industry, but also in our organizations, networks, and even within ourselves.

Oh yeah, and fuck John Muir.

Want to learn even more? Check out this article we published back in April 2019!

Thank you for your support!

As a queer, feminist-led media platform that is proudly unsponsored and unapologetic, your support means the world to us! We remain dedicated to our mission of delivering a feminist response to the outdoor industry by way of our articles, podcast, newsletter, workshops, and courses! We believe in promoting environmental and economic justice and our business model mirrors this. We prioritize the Earth, the people, all sentient beings, and personal well-being in everything we do.