Relatives

Relatives
By Sylvia Gomez G.
@Ruge

Young Girl:
Lately the park floods easily.

I haven’t been able to practice for months.

What is this?
How cute! You’re coming with me.

I haven’t seen a bird in the neighborhood for a long time.

Finally I’m home!

I’m really hungry!

This will be fine for a while.

Let the television be my company while I eat.

Signs: NO ALAMINA SI ALA VIDA
NO A LA MINA

How horrible! I lost my appetite.
Could it be that we don’t have the knowledge or technology to find solutions?

Mysterious voice: There is knowledge and technology. The problem is the relationships.

Young Girl: Why are you talking to me? Who are you?

Macaw: Calm down! You’ve read stories about dreams; remember Alice, right?

Young Girl: I remember.
Are we going to a world of wonder?

Macaw: We will travel, but to discover our kinship; how we are connected to this wonderful world.

Young Girl: Kinship? What are you talking about bird?
There are no feathered ones among my relatives.

Please explain what do you mean with relationships! You’re making me dizzy with these riddles!

Macaw Narration: The world is a big system. Each element, species, process is essential to sustain life.

Macaw: The imbalance of one element affects the entire system.

Young Girl: They are connected even if they are far away?

Macaw: Without Amazon rainforest, there will not be water in the mountains.

Macaw Narration: For centuries many human cultures have known how to maintain this relationship of reciprocity.

They resist to disappear, and protect mountains and forest that they inhabit.

Macaw Narration: At one point in history, a human culture separated itself from the rest of nature and set out to bring that way of seeing and living everywhere.

On the one hand, nature, wild, feminine, conquerable.

On the other hand, masculinity, civilization, progress.

Macaw Narration: A part of humanity believed itself superior to nature.

The disconnection led them to not know where the things they consume come from…

…and where does it go what they throw away.

Macaw Narration: They converted their non-human relatives…

…into resources.

Young Girls: But what about progress, development? We still need the resources to live better.

Macaw: What if instead of living better, we decided to live well?

Macaw Narration: There is a lot of wisdom and ideas on how to live differently.

Macaw: By changing our perspective, we can learn form nature to find solutions to the challenges we face…

Young Girl: I can’t imagine how we could live differently.

Macaw: Sometimes remembering is essential to nourish imagination.

Young Girl: Bean, corn, pumpkin, chili?

Farmer: Species complement, nourish and protect each other.

Macaw: La Milpa is an example of antique planting practices and technologies, from Mesoamerican cultures.

Man: We learned from forests and brought their technology to our city.

Macaw: Have you ever seen a forest accumulating garbage or bad smells?

Woman: In addition to composting organic waste, we strengthen our community!

Young Girl: Incredible!

There’s a lot to learn from nature.

Are we able to do it?

I feel angry.

I’m inspired!

I’m scared.

Macaw: What you feel is empathy. It may be painful, but it helps to heal, it allows us to see different.

Young Girl: I think I’m starting to believe that an other world is possible. I can imagine it.

Macaw: The joy you feel is belonging.

Parent: Honey, where are you going so eagerly?

Young Girl: To revolutionize the world with my relatives!

Man 1: Let’s imagine solutions to bring back the birds so that we can also return to the park.

Bee: I can pollinate!

Old man: I remember there used to be a lot of trees. At that time there were lots of birds. What if we recover the native forest?

Young girl: You are right!
Trees give us so much. They are home, they provide shade, and they protect us from floods. Let’s plant trees! But not just any tree.

Lady: Let’s find out what the forest was like here before the floods… This will tell us what kind of trees to plant.

Bird 1: It’s about time they thought of us! I can participate by dispersing seeds!

Little girl: I want us to be able to play in the park again, but it’s flooding.

Squirrel´s thought: Drawing of an acorn

WHAT IS ‘NBS’ ABOUT THIS COMIC?

Many of the challenges we face today stem from a growing disconnect between people and the natural world around us. This separation blinds us to the truth that our relationship with nature is deeply reciprocal: nature provides us with countless essentials—food, medicine, fresh water, and protection from natural disasters. Yet, when we harm nature, we not only diminish these resources but also open the door to harsher, often irreversible consequences: destructive floods, rising temperatures, storms of increased intensity, and the tragic decline of biodiversity. Indigenous communities, along with some others, maintain a profound connection to their lands, embodying a harmony that we might all learn from. But what we need now is not just isolated examples; we need a broad, inclusive movement that embraces this connection.

This comic serves as a song, a call to renew and deepen our ties to the earth. It invites us to listen, really listen, to nature’s voice and recognize her gifts with respect and gratitude. We must not simply look at nature as a resource to use, but as a living partner in a shared journey. Reconnecting with the natural world can guide us toward a more balanced, sustainable way of living—one that values the wisdom of nature and takes responsibility for its care. Let this be an invitation to engage, to honor, and to act in concert with the environment, so that we—and future generations—may continue to enjoy and safeguard the incredible gifts nature offers.