Over land and sea, river, by bus, boat, bike, b***o and train, I will be travelling to COP30 in November 2025 to engage with other community leaders fighting to protect the Earth. In November of this year, people from all over the world will gather in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River, to attend COP30, the UN Conference on the Climate Crisis. Popular organizations will come together to raise the voice of those who are heard least, those who have the most to say. SICSAL, the global Oscar Romero network, is sending its co-President, Emilie Teresa Smith. Thus, a pilgrimage by: bike, bus, train, b***o, boat – lots of boats – from Vancouver on Coast Salish Territories, down Turtle Island, to Abya Yala. (The COP conference is November 10–21). The SICSAL network has connections all along the route. Members and friends will join the pilgrimage, even just for a day or two, and will host pilgrims and create events and activities in their own communities. A Poetic Journey
The other element of ÉPICO is to gather and share this story, share the voices of community leaders, activists, children, elders, along the way. We will co-create an epic poem lifting up the stories of love, concern, commitment, and struggle in honour of Our Beloved Mother Earth. These verses will be gathered and shared as the pilgrimage processes, posted online, and eventually printed. These will be in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and any other languages that are present on the route.
