land acknowledgement: an embodied practice

I wake up at dark early and do my routine. I set the kettle to boil, get tea ready.

I go outside then step off the porch to stand barefoot next to my first garden bed. I begin my gratitudes: thank you Earth for my life, thank you for my daughters, garden, family, friends; I go on and on, listing. I thank the cardinal flowers for the hummingbirds that love them, the parsley for hosting swallowtails. I inhale and exhale deeply, mindful of my dependence of clean fresh breath for vitality. 

I thank the wind for blowing, welcome its caress. If I hear birds, I thank them for their song, a different sort of caress. I thank each season for the gifts unique to it. I thank the dark for what it brings to light. I thank the trees next door, across the street; the ones I have daily relationship with. I thank the stars, moon and clouds, whatever is in view at the moment. 

Sometimes it is so cold, I do this fastly. Sometimes I linger. Either way, I breathe and root my feet into my Mother, kiss the ground through my soles, yes through my soul, to feel Her embrace. I ponder the thousands of species that have slithered, crawled, flitted, flown, climbed right here through the centuries. I recognize my eventual return to Her. Gratitude wells up for what She provides; indeed for Her divine and dependable abundance for all beings. She is home.

I wake up at dark early to practice a new routine.  

In this daily ritual I acknowledge the trauma of settler colonialism; acknowledge the ingrained paradigm of  supremacist capitalism within myself; acknowledge our capacity for direct relationship with Earth, our birthright as humans-from the Latin, humus, meaning Earth. 

It is simply not enough to acknowledge the past here on this continent while globally, presently, Indigenous peoples are increasingly threatened by extractive capitalism. As the number of Indigenous defenders murdered rises yearly, as globalization interferes with more Indigenous cultures in their symbiotic relationship with Earth, we must take land acknowledgement into the present and future tenses as well as into our own past tense; we must embody it.

We too, once upon a time, were indigenous to a land, a culture, a people that understood ourselves as of the land which sustained us. I want to remember what was hardwired into my being centuries ago. When I stand barefoot in the midwest, I imagine a blood ancestor barefoot in the mideast also paying homage to our divine Mother; I imagine other ancestors who may have stood on this very spot to pay homage, a chorus across time, geography, and lineage. A chorus that undoes the distance-and delusions-of supremacy, colonialism and capitalism. The delusions that keep us from right relationship with Earth.

A line from ee cummings comes to mind, "here is the deepest secret nobody knows..."

And yet we do know. The land upon which I live doesn't belong to me. Just as the squirrels nesting in the honey locust next door don't own the tree. That is a capitalist approach to Earth. By acknowledging, instead, we belong to Her, we recognize the covenantal relationship at the heart of belonging. To make acknowledgement be about ownership is sacrilege, like pinning a swallowtail to a board. Let us emancipate acknowledgement from the performative gesture of colonizers. 

I wake up at dark early to embody a new routine.  

When I finish my gratitudes, I become quiet; offering silence, listening, as hospitality, as space for the deepest secrets, my own Indigenous relationship with Earth, to sing within my blood. Yes we do know. Those sacred routines are dormant within us, waiting to be acknowledged. 

doctrine of signatures

Who are we

to deem You

invasive?

 

We, the humans who

don’t restrain ourselves  

overstep every ecosystem

to satisfy whim

                        restrain You from inhabiting a wood.

 

We, who

trash handy plantain, dandelion, purslane

trash intact habitat  

for junk food and trash

trash Your berries as junk.

 

Who

carpet creation with concrete

            choke green photosynthesis with grey paralysis

            to outspread our paths and palaces

                        fear Your presence as aggressive.

 

Humans who

through scientific prowess

menace kith and kin

with extinction

extinguish Your migration.

 

We, the humans who

hack the yielding hips of Earth

explode Her breasts    mine Her arteries

for our addictions

stymie Your vining through poison munitions.

 

Who we are

cannot fathom

what Earth is unfurling.

 

May                             be

Honeysuckle

                                                            metaphor a mirror

                                                            a reflection we refuse

to reflect upon.

 

                                                            May                 be

                                                                        Honeysuckle

                                                            afflict a thicket with antidote

                                                            for the plagues we inflict

                                                            upon each Other.     

 

                                                            May         be

 Honeysuckle

                                                            serve Her purposes—

emissaries on

reconnaissance.

 

May be

Honeysuckle

are decomposing

this 

Now.

 

Maybe

Earth wants

Her biome

we call home

to become

fallow

           for

   what 

     may

follow    

sunflowers and selfies

To catch the 7:04 sunrise, we left in the early dark. Along the forty minute drive, we savored hot coffee and morning stillness while alert for deer. As the cityscape unraveled into countryside, we felt ourselves expand. The dawn revealed sheer white sheets of mist over fields of late soybean, speckled golden brown. At times skunk peppered the cold air.

For weeks, friends had posted pictures of themselves on social media in a sea of sunflowers. Their smiling faces peeked up at brown seedheads bigger than basketballs, their toddlers shaded under petals like little elves. Based on their pictures we imagined acres of sunflowers, their splendor magnified through the rays of the rising sun. But when we turned down the final rural two lane road to our destination, we felt underwhelmed. Then, disillusioned.

Indeed there were acres of sunflowers. I glanced around and noticed smiley faces and hearts in some of the flowers' brown faces. Seeds deliberately pulled by humans. This felt disrespectful, like a mutilation. Why assert, mark territory in this heedless way?

As we approached the fields we sought a path, not wanting to disturb or trample vegetation underfoot. But the ground was hard soil without mulch or weeds. Maybe a stray morning glory vine or bindweed, but it was mostly barren. This field of gorgeous sunflowers typified industrial farming. This was monoculture. Of course it was. What did I expect?

Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop, plant or livestock species, variety or breed in a field or farming system at a time.

Monoculture is destructive. It hinders beings from living where and how they're naturally inclined to, as multi-species ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems present a pluralistic population that cohabitate in mutually beneficial, self-sustaining ways. A mono-crop field, in this case for sunflowers, requires intensive chemical intervention. Because the inputs to maintain an artificial habitat for a target species compromise that habitat, more chemicals are required to support the species, which degrades water, air and soil. 

Our ecological collapse and extinction crisis are driven in large part by monoculture. How can I celebrate this albeit stunning instance of it, knowing it is the brainchild of practices that ruin habitats for living beings?

I stood on the cracked bald ground, a haze obscuring the sunrise. I felt sad. What is monoculture but the elevation or separation of a species, breed or genetic strain at the expense of others? At the expense of the collective good? I know this seems a stretch, but glorification of monoculture is connected to ethnic cleansing, racial profiling and race based subjugation that have devastated people the world over. Besides, there is little life for these sunflowers shivering in the morning cool when you think about what life could have been if they existed in a prairie or plains ecosystem with the other plants, critters and insects that make up their natural family. Were they lonely?

In case you want to dismiss my question as anthropomorphic, remember that the science which once claimed certain races couldn't feel pain and were intellectually inferior created monoculture farming, is also the science now 'discovering' plants communicate and in their own plant way, form community. 

A truth long known by peoples who honored belonging to mutually beneficial pluralistic ecosystems. 

But if you're just there for the selfies and hoped to catch the sun shimmer on the green, yellow and brown bodies of sunflowers, none of what these beings actually need--matters.

That's how supremacy works.

 

climate change mitigation list: check your supremacy

Whenever environmental issues are discussed, overpopulation comes up. Specifically, educate brown and black females in the Global South to produce less offspring.

This is painful. It disregards the sovereignty of brown and black females who look like me and live in the part of the world I come from. It also sidesteps the issue of overconsumption by the Global North. Specifically, Americans. 

Since we tend to think of consumption as the purchase of material goods, we don’t see how it’s manifest in other forms or how pervasive it is. Entertainment, recreation, sports, fitness, travel, pets and pet care, amusement parks, water parks, cruise ships, skating rinks, lawns and landscaping, housecleaning services, horse and car racing, delivery services, refrigeration, health and medical care, escalators, elevators, work and school commutes, beauty salon and spa services, renovation, remodeling, plastic and cosmetic surgery, washing machines, dryers and so on are normalized forms of consumption.

Unless you’re desperately poor, many Americans live like a friend I recently visited. His beautifully decorated four bedroom, 2 ½ bath home holds at least two flat screen TVs and two personal computers. He and his partner sport smart watches and fit bits. Since they both love gadgets, their cats drink from a gurgling fountain while the food dispenser and litter box are automated. One of their cats recently suffered kidney failure and requires daily dialysis.

They each have their own vehicles as well as a motorcycle. They live in a house with a fenced in yard and a two-car garage full of toys: canoes, bikes, fishing and camping gear. When the weather is inclement they go to a gym to run, cycle or swim. They frequently travel for triathlons and vacation in other countries. Cleaning and landscaping services keep their green lawn leaf and weed free and their home spotless. For most Americans, this seems normal and desirable.

All of this requires a tremendous amount of materials and energy.

In fact, the average US citizen consumes 17 acres of resources to everyone else’s 7. We even consume more calories. If everyone on the planet lived like Americans, it would take over four planets to support us all. 

Yet whatever strategies Environmentalists of the Global North (EGN) come up with involve greening our opulent lifestyles. For example, on the micro level, use an energy efficient dishwasher then on the macro level, advocate for green technology to run said dishwashers.

We don’t, however, question these fundamentally unsustainable, unnecessary machines. Nor do we address the massive sports, lawn, fitness and entertainment industries or our increasing appetite for any of the aforementioned; all of which are uncommon in countries whose populations we want to control. Even though they are childless, my dear friends, mentioned earlier, do not live a lifestyle the planet can support. 

To advocate for solar panels to power automated litter boxes in the Global North yet urge citizens of the Global South to diminish their actual, literal existence is a form of supremacy.

Consider the tactics aimed at reducing carbon put forth by the popular, Project Drawdown. They focus on greening or retrofitting transportation, energy & city infrastructure with telecommuting, wind farms and rooftop gardens, for example. It’s quite startling to read through categories –energy, transport, buildings, materials—then to run into the category, women and girls.

To regard females as something to retrofit, along with refrigeration and insulation, is a form of supremacy. It is a form of green washing and even virtue washing to suggest that this agenda is about empowering females.  

To be clear, of course I want women and girls to be educated. Parity is a perennial issue for females. But let’s educate females because it is their right to be educated. Let’s educate females to have full sovereignty over their lives. To educate girls and women so they don't produce offspring is no different than forcing women to produce offspring. Both fit someone else's  agenda if the desired number of offspring isn't the woman's intention. Moreover,  since women and girls are disproportionally impacted by ecological collapse, empowerment-for women's own needs in their own context -is vital.

We feel entitled to speak into unfamiliar cultural and religious contexts to promote family planning but seemingly turn a blind eye to in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, fetal surgery or NIC unit heroics performed here--yet more forms of consumption. If indeed, overpopulation is at the crux of our ecological collapse, then are environmentalists protesting at fertility treatment centers on Fire Drill Fridays? I saw no mention of addressing the fertility industry in Project Drawdown or other climate change mitigation lists put forth by EGN.

Besides, here in America, the equal rights amendment hasn’t been ratified, the maternal mortality rate is rising, access to family planning is under siege, child marriage is a thing and there’s still a pay gap. In fact, the US ranks 51 of 149 countries in terms of gender equity. We could use a little female empowerment in our own backyards. 

It is form of supremacy to ignore what you need to fix but busy yourself ‘fixing’ others.

It is also in keeping with America and its allies’ geo-political pursuit of empire: virtue washing (fight for freedom and democracy) to support an unsustainable lifestyle (exploitation and extraction of resources, labor and energy).  It begs the question, what are EGN really after? Preserving the lifestyle of the Global North or fostering a habitable planet for all living beings? 

If EGN are invested in education, then let’s make a concerted effort to retrofit America’s educational system since the US has the highest percentage of climate deniers. Along with transport, energy, food and city infrastructure, let’s tackle the Department of Education. Let’s teach the millions of children, female and male, in America to be ecologically literate so that we can have a livable planet. Maybe then Americans and other Global Northerners will learn the impacts of consumerism that disproportionally endanger females worldwide. Maybe ecological literacy would empower us to consider sustainable, equitable lifestyles that do not require the erasure of brown and black people.

Maybe the infrastructure that needs to be retrofitted is the supremacist heritage of the EGN.