I am sitting with a question I have heard repeatedly from students: Is it still possible to do health equity work now and in the future? Some may see this as an existential crisis in academic public health. But it doesn’t need to be if we get curious. What is underneath their question are others—why am I doing this work? How can I do this work in this moment of intense adversity? How will this work support me now and in the future?

Answering the ‘why’ requires a deep and honest interrogation of one’s values and explicit naming of one’s purpose on this land and in this time. To help us answer the how, we can turn to several powerful sources: ancestral knowledge, an intrinsic and shared element of Black and other cultures of color; the Indigenous principle of Seven Generations; and the lessons from past solidarity and movement building.

We know we can do health equity work now and in the future because our ancestors did. We can learn from the tactics and strategies they deployed while also finding gratitude, fortitude, and comfort that their love and commitment brought us here.

At the Reclaiming Indigenous Ecologies of Love conference in May, Dr. Donald Warne (Oglala Lakota) characterized the “magic of now” as the opportunity to learn from the past while visioning the future to take transformative action in the present—acts both small and large. Acts grounded in love across generations that will guide and sustain our continued struggle for liberation. Collective acts where love and ancestral knowledge can be shared and radically seeded as part of the “magic of now.” Dr. Ruha Benjamin describes this radical seeding in her book Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want. This looks like coming together in community to build our capacities and synergies to advance equity in the local spaces and places that we know and are connected to.