Earth Day Reflections: Whose Land Are You On?
This week’s Earth Day has me thinking about, of course, nature and our connection to her. It can be easy to forget, when AI, social media, 24hr news cycles and all of the machinery of our modern life feels more “human” (read: robot) than “nature”. And yet, we exchange air with plant life, we bleed like any animal, and our lives in this body are finite. I don't know about you, but that's super exciting and helps to ground me in what is real and true. I love this Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer quote below from her book Braiding Sweetgrass, which presents an Indigenous orientation to humans and the natural world. When I first read it, it blew me away. I was certainly indoctrinated into the Christian - “man must have dominion over the …[earth]” bit.
“In the Western tradition there’s a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top — the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation — and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as ‘the younger brothers of Creation.’ We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn — we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out. They live both above and below ground, joining Skyworld to the earth. Plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away.”
When I think of nature, I also think of land acknowledgements, especially when Dr. Robin Wall Kimmer’s name is put into the mix. She’s a famous Indigenous (Potawatomi Nation) botanist, professor, and author. Here is another quote of hers from Braiding Sweetgrass, that speaks to the historical pain her ancestors indured at the hands of the government of being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands.
“My ancestors were ‘removed’ three times — Wisconsin to Kansas, points in between, and then to Oklahoma. I wonder if they looked back for a last glimpse of the lakes, glimmering like a mirage. Did they touch the trees in remembrance as they became fewer and fewer, until there was only grass?”
Photo of me and my pup on the bayou in colonized New Orleans, not far from where in 1599 the Indigenous peoples helped the French colonizer Pierre LaMoyne, Sieur d'Iberville, to navigate the waters connecting the Gulf of Mexico to what is now the French Quarter and Mississippi River. I’m wearing a “You are on Native Land” hat made by an Indigenous company out of Los Angeles - Urban Native Era.
Do you practice land acknowledgements? If so, when was the first time you started or were introduced?
I had heard them spoken and used but I had never been encouraged to share in a group until my 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training in 2021 with Ignite Yoga - Susanna Barkataki’s program. This was also an experience of a race-based affinity space - not my first - that lasted for nearly a year and was incredibly uplifting and supportive! More on that in next week’s blog post;).
For that year-ish long training, every time our cohort or the full YTT program met (it was all virtual because pandemic), we shared our land acknowledgements in addition to our pronouns. As the program was international, including my cohort, some folks were not living on colonized or occupied land. But, those of us on Turtle Island (colonized as North America) and many other places globally, the land acknowledgements remind us of who was on the land before colonization. It honors the indigenous peoples of a land. Land acknowledgements honor the truth of history, instead of erasing history and people. Living in the colonized French Quarter of New Orleans at the time, my land acknowledgements were for the Chahta Yakni (Choctaw) and Chitimacha peoples of Southeast Louisiana. That got me into deep research of the tribes (federally recognized or not) in the area. Houma Nation is one that stands out, as Houma is a name of a town outside of New Orleans and the tribe holds some events open to the public. They have also been impacted by hurricanes in the past decades, including Hurricane Ida that landed in 2021 - on the same day, x years later as Hurricane Katrina! My fitness and yoga students rallied to help donate through classes at Aetheria, my virtual fitness and yoga studio. Basically, it's all related.
If you've never practiced this, there is a great website resource here - to check on whose land you are living in or visiting. In Liberation 101: The Crossroads of Desire, Knowledge, and Action, we will get comfortable with these and dig deeper. If you're reading this and are white and a cis/het woman, this is a course for us to journey towards allyship and accomplish - ship with the destination of liberation. This is about doing “our work” as white people - moving beyond shame, guilt, or apathy into solidarity. It is possible!
Consider after reading this post, checking out the website of land acknowledgements and searching your current place of residence. Also review the Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer quotes above. Then set a 5 minute timer journaling -
1. What comes up as you read both of the quotes?
2. What comes up as you consider area you reside in and what it was like and who was there pre-colonization?
3. What do you want to learn more about now that you’ve got this nugget of information?
4. Land acknowledgement is a first step - ultimately what indigenous leaders are asking for is land back. Free write about what land back means to you and could mean for you.
