Honor the Earth is creating a world where Indigenous Sovereignty is recognized, respected, and upheld. We envision a future where communities thrive with honor, abundance, and in right relationship with Mother Earth. We do this in three ways: Organizing the movement around the needs of the People and Mother Earth; investing in Indigenous leadership, self-determination, frontline struggle, healing, and the next generation; and protecting the land, the people, and all that we hold sacred. This is how we are building a future that is anti-imperialist, decolonial, de-militarized, disabled-inclusive, gender-inclusive, anti-racist, and abolitionist.

We know it’s always been easier to name the many broken systems in our world than it is to offer up viable alternatives. Yet, visionary organizing is both possible and absolutely critical to the decolonization movement.

This is where you come in.

As a cultural worker who belongs to an oppressed people, my job is to make revolution irresistible.

— Toni Cade Bambara

We’re collecting digital submissions of original artworks across various media that respond to this prompt: what does a sovereign Indigenous future look like?

We’re inviting Indigenous and Black artists across the globe to help us envision a sovereign Indigenous future — a future that has grown beyond colonization, genocide, imperialism, prisons, white supremacy, ableism and all the other modern systemic oppressions.

Winners will receive a cash prize of $2,000-$3,500.

Grace Lee Boggs

“Every crisis, actual or impending, needs to be viewed as an opportunity to bring about profound changes in our society. Going beyond protest organizing, visionary organizing begins by creating images and stories of the future that help us imagine and create alternatives to the existing system.”

  • Indigenous and Black Peoples have long upheld the importance of art as an integral part of maintaining our values, cultures, lifeways, and Sovereignty. Settler colonialism has worked hard to eradicate and exploit our art forms through genocide and commercialization because they understood how powerful our art can be. 

    Because of this, we intend to uplift the role of Indigenous and Black Artists in the movement to protect the Land. We believe that artists can lead us toward a decolonized future by depicting what exactly we are moving towards. As organizers, it’s our role to identify and resist extractivism and false solutions to climate change. Artists are vital to identifying what comes next in the transition.

  • Successful submissions will consider the following:

    • The end of extractivism

    • Land return and full sovereignty of Indigenous and Black Peoples

    • Decolonized social infrastructure in the following areas: education, healthcare, energy, food, housing, transportation, medicine, childcare, safety, culture/language revitalization, or labor

    • Building kinship among relatives

    • Right relationship with Mother Earth

    • Traditional art forms and media

    • Gender justice, anti-racism, anti-ableism, anti-colonialism, and abolitioncription text goes here

    • Submissions are due on October 10, 2025.

    • Artists can be located anywhere in the world. Preference will be given to Indigenous and Black artists.

    • Winners will be selected and announced in early November.

    • We will accept the following types of media: digital art, drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, photography, poetry, film. But we are only accepting digital submissions — so if creating an oil painting, please only send us a high-resolution image of the painting.

    • We will be accepting original work only. No AI. The work must have been created within the last year and cannot have already won another submission contest or have been a commissioned piece.

    • Artists need to submit a short statement (up to 500 words) or a short video (up to 2 minutes) accompanying their piece that should explain how their artwork envisions a decolonized future, reflects their own experience, and/or details decolonization in their own community. Again, AI cannot be used to generate your statements or videos.

    • Artists who submit their work will also be considered for ongoing projects with Honor the Earth.

    • By submitting work, artists may allow HTE to share the pieces as part of a larger showcase, not intended to highlight specific pieces but the art program as a whole  — for example, a montage video of all art submissions, or a digital mural of the submissions. This is completely optional and will not impact your chances of winning.

    • Winners will receive a cash prize of $2,000-$3,500. We will select up to five (5) winners.

    • By agreeing to be a selected winner of this contest, artists grant HTE a non-exclusive license to use their art for communication, development, and commercial purposes. HTE will not “own” the work - the artist still maintains full ownership rights, but HTE will have the artist’s express permission to share the artist’s work in ways that align with HTE’s mission and vision. HTE will always credit the artist when sharing work.

    • Those not selected for a prize will be entered into a raffle with the potential to win $250 in cash. Up to ten (10) raffle winners will be selected.

  • You can apply using the form here: bit.ly/RadicalArt

  • Reach out to us at info@honorearth.org and someone will get back to you ASAP!

Land back is a demand, a stand
against the Age of Exploration and Extraction,
a call for the Time of Reconciliation, the Now of Restoration.

Land back is an understanding
that tomorrow isn’t promised, but today we can return
the power to the earth and her stewards.


Stone Mother by Tanaya Winder