{"id":97095,"date":"2025-02-19T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T09:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/communicating-for-land-defense-lunar-cycle-as-strategic-guide\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T09:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T09:00:15","slug":"communicating-for-land-defense-lunar-cycle-as-strategic-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=97095","title":{"rendered":"Communicating for Land Defense: Lunar Cycle as Strategic Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"


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La Sand\u00eda Digital<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>WITNESS<\/i><\/a> created <\/i>a methodology<\/i><\/a> to offer guidance on creating a participatory strategic communication plan for strengthening land defense, which is based on key analogies that explain the stages of our work: lunar phases and the seeding process.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"Background story: our first gathering to share knowledge and create methodologies<\/h5>\n

In 2018, WITNESS joined La Sand\u00eda Digital in a participatory assessment<\/a> of communication for land defense in Mexico. For this exercise, we invited movement actors, human rights defenders, journalists and organizations from Chiapas, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Sonora, Baja California, Jalisco and Mexico City to talk about communication goals, tactics, narratives and challenges in communicating for the defense of the Earth and the territories of Mexico.<\/p>\n

Read more about this assessment here<\/i><\/b>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on the results of this assessment, we organized the 1st School of Strategic Communication for Land Defense: \u2018Earth & Territory\u2019<\/a> to urgently strengthen the strategic muscle of movements in Mexico. This journey of crafting a methodology for the school led us to write the guide<\/a>: \u2018Building the World We Dream of\u2019. <\/a><\/p>\n

D<\/i><\/b>ownload our Guide in Spanish here<\/i><\/b>.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe imagine a strategic community communication that weaves voices, in horizontal, cyclical processes\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This Guide aims to assist land defenders and movements in formulating a communication plan in a participatory manner. The Guide includes other methodologies from collectives such as Narrative Practices Collective<\/a> and Cultural Hacking<\/a>, among others, that support and align with our plan (objectives & audiences), and collaborate with us to build narratives of hope. The Guide\u00a0 points to the use of the planting\/seeding process which follows the moon\u2019s cyclical phases to explain each stage of the communication plan.<\/p>\n

Following the phases of the moon to seed the worlds we dream of<\/b><\/h5>\n

The cycle of the moon opens up the possibility of a step-by-step timeline and hands-on, participatory framework for crafting a communication plan to support land defense efforts led by movements.<\/p>\n

To describe each stage of the communication plan, we relied on the Indigenous science of the lunar planting\/seeding cycle which moves from preparing the land to plant, to finding the seeds and planting them, then nurturing the land and cultivations, and finally, harvesting the fruit and vegetation. Similarly, the four stages of communication that follow the lunar planting cycle would look like: planning, production, implementation and evaluation.<\/p>\n

If done right, the moon accompanies us in the entire\u00a0 process, from seeding our communication plan to its growth. We begin this process with the new moon, moving through all of the lunar phases until we reach the end of the last quarter of the moon.<\/p>\n

At the center of the cycle, we weave in our \u2018listening\u2019 practice, which nourishes each stage. At this juncture, we begin to know the plurality of discourses and understand different points of view, to identify their sources, and to establish an authentic dialogue.<\/p>\n

Download the \u2018Cycle of the moon\u2019 in English here.<\/a><\/p>\n

We hope the following steps and stages of our process will help you with your own communication practices:<\/p>\n

\"\"New moon \u2013 preparation or planning phase
<\/b><\/h5>\n

We begin this initial planning phase with the new moon, when the face of the moon is not yet visible. This is the seed and soil preparation phase, a time to focus on looking inward to connect with our collective experience in order to clarify what we really want and dream of growing. Here, we consider our individual and collective\u00a0 strengths, and what other ingredients we would need to add to achieve our dreams.<\/p>\n

This is also a listening phase. We collectively build a reality assessment. In this first phase of planning, our aim is to carry out an analytical exercise that looks at our current contexts, the key actors and the histories of our movements, so that our collective political vision is brought alive, and is in alignment with the communication plan that we craft together.<\/p>\n

We also pay attention to the narrative that will propel us into the next stage, which is the production phase.<\/p>\n

Steps corresponding to this first phase:<\/p>\n