On October 22nd, members of the Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero (ccg0) coalition gathered at Tacoma City Hall for the Rock of Burden action. The third and final event of our launch month. Following the coalition’s powerful October 5th launch and a reflective field trip to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge on the 20th, this powerful demonstration brought our message directly to city officials. Five papier-mâché rocks—painted by several different community groups, bearing images and words representing the burdens their communities face—were held by coalition members and paraded in front of the city council. These rocks symbolized not only the weight of the burdens carried by Tacoma’s communities, such as environmental degradation, housing insecurity, and the climate crisis, but also the weight of the decisions made by bodies like the City of Tacoma. Conversely, they represented the strength of the people of Tacoma, particularly those who choose to shoulder and share those burdens, working together to fix what they feel the city has neglected.
Before filing into council chambers, the coalition gathered outside City Hall to rally and center our focus. Talison from Climate Alliance of the South Sound shared some powerful chants he had been working on, which resonated with everyone in attendance. The rhythm and energy of his words unified the group, with arms being pumped and energy flowing, helping set a powerful tone for the action ahead.
About Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero
Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero (ccg0) is an Indigenous-led and a community-led campaign rooted in the Lakota principle of Mitakuye Oyasin—”we are all related.” Indigenous organizers and movement leaders have long recognized more and more that we are stronger together. ccg0 embodies this belief, bringing together a broad coalition of groups, including Black Panther Party WA, Tacoma 350, Conversation 253, Climate Alliance of the South Sound, and Native Daily Network. Each of these groups has a say in how this coalition does its work, ensuring its actions align with their missions. The two-year campaign aims to leave our city better than we found it, by addressing shared burdens such as environmental degradation, housing insecurity, and the impacts of climate catastrophe.
While ccg0 draws strength from Indigenous leadership, we know that the climate crisis is a threat to everyone. Our teachings and prophecies compel us to bring everyone into this fight. This campaign is already showing the power of stepping out of silos and into community, as groups come together to work on these urgent, shared threats. The strength of ccg0 lies in its commitment to collective action, to stand together, and to take real steps toward protecting our lands, waters, and people. You can read more about the ccg0 campaign, past events, goals and future events by clicking here.
Making Rocks
The creation of the papier-mâché rocks was a collaborative art project, emblematic of what we aim to achieve with ccg0. It started with emails flying back and forth, figuring out the right materials and logistics, until, finally, we found ourselves gathered at 350 Tacoma, our hands busy applying strips of papier-mâché to the base structures. The atmosphere was electric, filled with laughter, ideas, and quiet determination. These art builds became a space where coalition members—representing diverse groups—could come together, exchange stories, and physically shape something that symbolized the collective burdens we all carry. Each layer of papier-mâché felt like another layer of solidarity, bringing us closer to the final vision.
Once the structures were ready, the real magic began. The rocks were painted by several different community groups, each adding their own unique images and messages. You could feel the care and thought that went into every brushstroke, as the burdens of environmental degradation, housing insecurity, and climate injustice were brought to life in color. Coordinating the builds and painting sessions wasn’t easy, but it reflected the power of collaboration and creativity. These rocks, like our work with ccg0, are about building together—turning our struggles into something we can lift up and use to inspire change. As with the Tacoma Community Tree project that will hang at 350 Tacoma, this collaborative art initiative will continue to evolve over the next two years, giving more people the chance to add their voices and art to the movement. – Scroll to the bottom to see a reel from one of our art builds.
A Burden Shared
Before any of our Rock of Burden speakers took the mic, an interesting dynamic emerged. Four of the five community members who spoke at the open comment period addressed the issue of houselessness and displacement. Two called for more enforcement against houseless people, while two others advocated for better support and solutions for them. This was particularly striking for us, as we had chosen rocks to represent our burdens largely because they symbolized the $160,000 worth of boulders the city has placed in our neighborhoods to prevent houseless people from sleeping. A few phone-in speakers also raised the issue, showing that while the community may not agree on the solutions, there is broad agreement that the problem is out of hand. This shared recognition marks a critical starting point for working together to address houselessness in Tacoma.
This moment underscores a challenge for the ccg0 coalition—to bring people together on solutions that actually work. It’s a call to educate our community on what has been proven effective and what hasn’t. If we can align those who see houselessness as an issue, regardless of their current stance, we can create pathways toward real, lasting change. The solutions need to address the root causes and create tangible, long-term benefits for the community. This is our opportunity to build a Tacoma where we become our own heroes again—championing our city, our people, and lifting each other up to greatness. By working together, we can create the city we all want to live in, one that truly reflects the strength and heart of its people.
Addressing Electeds
Returning to Council Chambers after several years, the changes in the room were hard to miss. The seating was reduced, and a wall now separated the speakers from the council, pushing us farther back than before. Sean Arent, speaking before us on behalf of Tacoma for All, was there advocating for a workers’ bill of rights. Although his main focus differed from ours, Sean had also been part of the Rock of Burden event, helping to paint one of the boulders. “I don’t like what you’ve done with the place,” he said, pointing out the barriers that now stood between the council and the community. His observation captured a shared frustration—that the council was not just physically distanced from us but increasingly out of touch with the realities its people face.
When it was my turn to introduce the Rocks of Burden, I told the council that this coalition was formed because they simply hadn’t done enough. I shared my own story as a resident of South Tacoma, where we face a 25-year life expectancy gap. I pointed out that the council had approved a warehouse on the only bit of green space in the area, a critical space for aquifer recharge, with a “mitigated determination of non-significance.” “We can read between the lines,” I told them. “The only thing not significant to you is our lives.”
Barb Church from Conversation253 then took the mic, bringing decades of lived experience in Northeast Tacoma. She recalled the Asarco Copper Smelter era, describing how she could taste copper in her throat. Barb reminded the council of the fight against the world’s largest methanol refinery—a project promoted by a former mayor while they were still in office—and how the people of Tacoma had defeated it. With urgency in her voice, she condemned the doubling of the LNG refinery’s capacity without promised public input. “Honor the sacred,” she instructed. “Honor the land.”
When Stacy Oaks of 350 Tacoma stepped up to the mic, her delivery was poetic and unflinching. She didn’t just speak; she wove a powerful narrative that painted a stark picture of the council’s continued failures. “For too long, Tacoma’s government has created burdens for its residents—burdens you refuse to acknowledge or violently sweep under the rug of business as usual,” she began.
Then, in what felt like a rhythmic chant, Stacy drove the message home:
Burdens become boulders, become weight that we carry on our shoulders,
Never given help to set them down.
Many carry them until we’re prematurely in the ground,
Yet before we make our final sound,
Our souls cry because the next generation is still bound.
Her words hung in the air, as she linked the council’s inaction to the ever-present burdens borne by Tacoma’s most vulnerable communities. She spoke of South Tacoma, “crushed by pollution that steals 25 years of their precious life,” calling out the hypocrisy of the council posing for photo ops planting saplings, even as urban forests were being cut down. Stacy condemned the misallocation of funds, as tax dollars went toward “another raise for an unelected city manager” while the city chose to “buy boulders first to block tents instead of funding services for our houseless neighbors.”
Her conclusion was a rallying cry: “Enough is enough! It’s time to break Tacoma’s toxic cycle, and every one of you sitting in those seats has the power to do that—and we need you to do it.”
Aife from Climate Alliance of the South Sound followed, addressing not the council but the people in the room. “I know you don’t listen to me,” Aife told the council, turning their attention to the audience. “We need to get organized, we need to stand together united. We cannot wait on these people(she gestures over her shoulder to the council members sat at the dais) “they won’t do it, so we have to! There is nothing to be scared of in building community.”— This call to action was direct and clear: it was up to us to protect our planet, our communities, and each other. In her wrap up Aife hit it home “there is nothing worth sacrificing, we have a planet to protect that we live on.”
Phil Harty, also with CASS, echoed Aife’s message. “This is a climate catastrophe, here in Tacoma,” he said. He pointed to the council’s continuous greenlighting of industrial projects that burden South Tacoma—a low-income, racially diverse community—calling it what it was: environmental racism.
Then, 17-year-old Rat stepped up to speak. His voice shook with emotion, but his words were unwavering. “This is personal for me,” he said. “I’m only 17, and by 2030 I’ll barely be in my twenties and climate change will be irreversible if we keep going the way we’re going. I feel like I have no future, I really don’t. my parents did and my grandparents did, but I don’t…and it’s all because of what you’re doing. I don’t understand you, I don’t understand any of you.” Rat’s raw honesty pierced through the room, a reminder that the youth are staring down a future they did not create but are forced to inherit
Marilyn Kimmerling, a Tacoma elder and activist legend, spoke next. She told how she had made one of the Rocks of Burden alongside “Veterans for Peace and Doctors for Social Responsibility.” Marilyn’s words emphasized the reality of displacement and homelessness, pointing out that the boulders represented the rocks displacing houseless people—when the city’s focus should be on building shelter. “Winter is coming,” she warned, “and without shelter, people die. We need to be spending our money on shelters, not boulders.”
Gemini, of the Osage Nation and Climate Alliance of the South Sound, typically defiant, shared a deeply personal struggle: “I’m trying to start a family. I’m trying to have a baby. But what am I going to do when I die 25 years younger than my constituents? What will happen to my child?” Then she turned to the audience behind her: “I know what I will do—I will fight.”
Last to speak was Ovunayo from the Black Panther Party WA. Looking at the wall that now divides the council from the public, he began, “I love this sign of imperialism—this is beautiful right here. This is exactly the symbol of imperialism, division, because you don’t give a shit about the people.” Quoting Aaron Dixon, he said, “The people are tired, and they want change.”
“We currently have a climate catastrophe, which you are adding to. We have a mental health catastrophe, which you are adding to. A housing catastrophe, which you are adding to. A food catastrophe, which you are adding to. A healthcare catastrophe that you are adding to,” he listed, his voice charged with urgency. “Our government—local, federal, and globally—refuses to acknowledge it because they are owned. Capitalism will be our undoing.”
The Next Step
The next step in our journey is the Speaking Truth to Power Workshop at 350 Tacoma (311 Puyallup Ave) on Nov 9th.
