May 10, 2023 • 45 mins
From Queer & Well's Earth Day event: A Conversation with Layel Camargo of Shelterwood Collective & Inés Ixierda of Sogorea Te Land Trust
As queer Black and brown folks, what does it look like to be reconnected to land our ancestors stewarded before colonialism & white supremacy? What are the ways we can come back to this land and rebuild not only the land itself, but our relationships to it. How are organizations like Sogorea Te Land Trust & Shelterwood Collective creating spaces and avenues for us to take part in these practices? Join us for a discussion on the importance of our relationship to land and how to strengthen those bonds during a time of climate crisis and change.
Layel Camargo (them/them) is Co-Creator & Cultural Strategy Lead of Shelterwood Collective. Layel is Yaqui and Mayo of the Sonoran Desert. As a transgender and gender non-conforming person, they’ve dedicated the last decade advancing climate justice through storytelling by creating campaigns like ‘Climate Woke’ with The Center For Cultural Power and supporting media projects like ‘The North Pole Show’ with Executive Producers Rosario Dawson and Movement Generation, Justice and Ecology Project. They are the producer and host of Did We Go Too Far, a climate justice podcast. Most recently, Layel was named on the Grist 2020 Fixers List. They graduated from UC Santa Cruz with degrees in Feminist Studies and Legal Studies.
Inés Ixierda is an interdisciplinary Mestizx artist and media maker with a background in youth work, decolonial nonprofit administration, and community organizing. She leads Sogorea Te Land Trust's art and media, coordinates projects, organizes events, and works on the land with plant medicines.
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Sogorea Te’ Land Trust cultivates rematriation and calls on us all to heal and transform the legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.
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Episode transcript
RadicallyFitOakland.com
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As queer Black and brown folks, what does it look like to be reconnected to land our ancestors stewarded before colonialism & white supremacy? What are the ways we can come back to this land and rebuild not only the land itself, but our relationships to it. How are organizations like Sogorea Te Land Trust & Shelterwood Collective creating spaces and avenues for us to take part in these practices? Join us for a discussion on the importance of our relationship to land and how to strengthen those bonds during a time of climate crisis and change.
Layel Camargo (them/them) is Co-Creator & Cultural Strategy Lead of Shelterwood Collective. Layel is Yaqui and Mayo of the Sonoran Desert. As a transgender and gender non-conforming person, they’ve dedicated the last decade advancing climate justice through storytelling by creating campaigns like ‘Climate Woke’ with The Center For Cultural Power and supporting media projects like ‘The North Pole Show’ with Executive Producers Rosario Dawson and Movement Generation, Justice and Ecology Project. They are the producer and host of Did We Go Too Far, a climate justice podcast. Most recently, Layel was named on the Grist 2020 Fixers List. They graduated from UC Santa Cruz with degrees in Feminist Studies and Legal Studies.
Inés Ixierda is an interdisciplinary Mestizx artist and media maker with a background in youth work, decolonial nonprofit administration, and community organizing. She leads Sogorea Te Land Trust's art and media, coordinates projects, organizes events, and works on the land with plant medicines.
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Sogorea Te’ Land Trust cultivates rematriation and calls on us all to heal and transform the legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.
LINKS
Episode transcript
RadicallyFitOakland.com
Gemini Moon Botanicals
Audio recording support from Popperz!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
By six by six seven eight alrise you rise, We Risebey Risebey Rise
Rise We rise, We rise,Rise Rise Rise, We rise, we
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rise, Rise Rise, We rise, We rise, Riseley Ride We Rise.
Our community media sponsors a Radically Fitand Gemini moon Botanicals event Queer and
Wealth a QTEI Bipocaba Miss Fair withtechnical support from pappers are Red local DJs.
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We are sharing o the speakers panelsfrom this gorgeous Earth Day gatherrine.
We are so excited to share theserecordings with you all. Queer and One
is a queer, trans Black,Indigenous, and people of color centered wellness
fare, including panels discussing what environmentaland social justice looks like in tandem with
community care as we continue to navigatecapitalism and white supremacy. More information and
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links to these speakers can be foundin show notes. We hope you enjoy
this brilliant dialogue. We'll jump intothis recording hearing from Luca Page, the
founder of radically Fit Oakland and oneof the key organizers of the event.
The audio begins mid sentence. Lucais introducing the panel to the land and
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also the ways in which access hasbeen stripped from us from a lot of
our lives and what it looks liketo kind of come back to that and
be able to Steward Land. Andwe reached out to folks in community who
are doing incredible work on behalf ofIndigenous people, people of color and black
folks to Steward Land and have beendoing this work for a long time.
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So today with us we have Inezof Segourte Land Trust and we also have
Lyle from a shelter Wood collective WHOAand Lyle is also doing us a huge
favor and as the star of theshow. And we'll be leading the conversations
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that we're having today, and alsowe have another panel later this afternoon.
Cat Brooks will be here alongside ChristinaChase to talk about some social and political
things that we want to discuss too. We'll talk again, but yes,
I'm gonna hand the mike to Leo. Thank you so much, Thank you
everybody. All Right, queer andwellness am I rights? Like, how
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can you be queer but not bewell? Right? It's debatable, it's
debatable, debatable. All right.Well, I'm so fortunate enough to be
up here with you in s It'salways so nice to share space with you
and ins has come out to theland, and I feel like we always
find ourselves in similar panels talking aboutqueerness and land. So I'm excited for
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us to talk a little bit aboutour work. I don't know if you
want to share your pronoun and thenwhat do you do? Um on the
day to day? Sgorte awesome,what's up, y'all? I used she
her pronouns and I'm super happy tobe here today. Um. I work
with Sigorte Lanches. I'm the creativelead with the project, and I'm also
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an artist and media maker here inOakland. And when I saw this invite
for this event, I really wantedto be a part of it because I
used to organize a queer art andcraft fair called Queer Magic Makers back in
the day here Yes, And oneof the things that we wanted to do
was like, you know, we'relike, we need queer spaces where there's
like not do this wellness, orwhere there's not like appropriation, there's not
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homophobia. We're trying to prioritize queerand trans people of color. And one
thing that we did every year wascollect money to pay the Shirtwoomi Land tax
for Sigotay, And what we're recognizingis like, even as we're creating queer
spaces, even as we're trying tocreate these other kinds of spaces, you
know, we need to recognize whoseland we are on. And when I
first moved to Oakland, I hadthe chance to start working with Karina Gould,
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who's the tribal chairperson for the ConfederatedVillages of LaShaun, whose land that
we are on right now, andso before, you know, my kind
of education about this place in thisland was straight from her. We worked
in an after school program for Nativeyouth here in Oakland, and so since
then I've been able to you know, I was a part of the group
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that started Sigota Land Trust and we'rean urban Indigenous women led land test here
in Oakland and the Greater Territory returningland to indigenous hands. And our work
here has been really important because we'reco founded by the tribe whose land that
we are on. They're still hereand they're still fighting to protect their sacred
sites. They're working with inner tribal, urban Indigenous people from all over to
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try and find a new way forus to connect on land, to bring
land back to indigenous people's access sothat we can have food, medicine,
ceremony, cultural activities, chilling.So that is a very quick and brief
introduction to Sagorite and me, andI guess I will pass it back to
you, Lael, because we havekind of talked about some of these topics.
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I know we first kind of engagedin queer projects on indigenous land.
This talk that we did about howdo we create justice on stolen land?
So I would love to hear moreback to you. Thank you, And
this is going to feel like aconversation. You're all witnessing enus and lyall
and dialogue. So I'm Lael.I use say them their pronouns. I'm
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one of the co founders of ShelterwoodCollective, which is a nine hundred acre
Black Didigenous queer led stewardship project forcultural change, and we were born out
of the COVID shutdown and the murderof George Floyd. I don't ever forget
that about our story, because itwas what was happening in the world that
really enraged us into movement. Andthe whole purpose of our project is scale
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is if you could get queer communityspecifically to increase the scale of impact around
their values. This world would bein such a better place. So we
like to say that in about tenyears, we would love to be the
smallest queer led project, and thatis a dream that we have. And
a lot of that is because wedreamt of ten thousand acres and we like
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to say nine hundred acres is ourcompromise. So a lot of who we
are is we currently a steward landon the Kashaya Band of Pomo Indians territories
in Cinema County. I'm a descendantof Yaqui Mayoyoma tribes of the Sonoran Desert,
so that southern Arizona and northern Mexicoand we're split by the border,
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and I grew up on Kumiya territoriesin San Diego, California. I say
this because, like, how oftendo you have the opportunity to talk about
these indigenous legacies that we're just allbenefiting from every day. Like the Alone
people have a particular culture that reallyweaves itself into Oakland, And so my
work is really focused on cultural change. Is I look at our projects as
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part of a cultural movement towards roomatriation, towards land back, towards reparations,
towards this healing that we really needas black Indigenous people of color in order
to survive and adapt with climate change, and that that is our birthright.
Our survival, our ability to thrive, that's our birthright. So we really
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think about it holistically, where basicallyyou could throw any radical framework and we've
been experimenting with it, transformative justice, horizontal, collective decision making, all
those things, because that's really ourtraditional ways, that's what has been stolen
from us. And my co founderlikes to say that our removal from the
natural world was a violent act towardsus that we need to repair. And
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I say that because we take leadershipfrom the Kashayah and we take leadership from
organizations like Cigorite. So a lotof my work is around thinking about this
broader network of our work and acomplex place that we hold. And I
think you and iis we hold thisoften is like as Latin x Latine people
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who are around indigenous sovereignty, howdo we hold that complexion when we come
from a three hundred, four hundredyear old colonial system that's literally created a
hybrid community of people, and Ifeel like I came into this movement really
thinking of myself as a Mexican,but I'm indigenous to son And the more
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that I've learned about my identity,I'm like, wait, people are still
fucking here, Like what is thismind fuck that these white Spanish people did
to me? And us being leadersand advocates of roomatreation. That says something,
that says something about our de colonialjourney. I just love to hear
from you at Sulgortate, like whatspeaks to you about the rematriation movement?
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How do you navigate those complex identities? Well, first of all, I
come here with the recognition that I'ma guest on this land, and though
not every single thing that brought mehere was of my own choice, as
so many of us can say thatI am still a guest, and so
that like to conduct myself as aguest, to come with respect, to
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listen, and to ask permission.And I think that one of the things
that's been really important and that's reallyuplifted Silgorte Land test and the work of
reom atriation is so many people reallyrecognizing our own roles in this entire system
of colonization and then kind of likeplugging in to unraveling that, right.
And so Sigurte is inner tribal,meaning folks from all tribes in the United
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States, but also folks that areindigenous to other places. We have folks
from pow and other islands. Wehave my family is from Bolivia, from
South America, we have folks fromthe Pacific and all over, right.
And why because so many indigenous peoplehave been displaced and relocated and are here
in Oakland. Actually, Oakland inthe Bay Area has the second highest density
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of Indigenous people of anywhere in thecountry, second to la because of genocidal
relocation policies that forced people to cities, right. And so one thing that
happened after that is people started organizingwith each other. And Sigrte is a
part of that lineage of organizing,right, people who are like, how
do we save our cultures and practicesovereignty in this own way, practice spirituality,
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practice culture. And so that's whatwe're trying to do right now.
And I think that we are ableto do different ways without even having access
to land through struggle and survival.But as land comes back, we're seeing
how we're able to deepen that andalso start to work with other folks that
have had experiences of oppression under colonialism, you know, across different groups,
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across folks that are housed in andhouse folks that have a lot of resources,
redistributing those folks that have no resourcesputting in work. And I think
that we're braiding together something that haspossibility and hope thanks for reminding us around
just the complexity of indigenating, specificallyhere in Oakland, because I even have
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a hard time understanding it outside ofthe border ideology, Like Indigenous people actually
exist all around the world because weare rooted in place, and it's like
the way in which we need toreclaim honor the actual peoples whose lands you
live on, and also recognize what'sthe decolonial journey for yourself so you can
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continue walking this path, moving towardsthis path in a way that honors the
earth and that honors Indigenous people.And I just I always look at Sigarte
and I'm just like constantly learning abouthow you all are navigating this in an
urban location, like we're very rural, and it almost feels a bit easier
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in rural location because you have therez, we understand whose family, whose
actual family stewarded our land three fourhundred years ago. You don't have that
in urban settings. You really losea lot of that because of how hyper
quick and how much colonizations escalated inthis I know that we probably spend a
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lot of time thinking about our relationshipto land. And I think that as
a guest on Kashaya specifically for usat Shelterwood, is we are very much
trying to navigate the two spirit practicesof Kashaya tribes while also trying to create
the space for quite frankly centering theBlack Healing Project around what it means to
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belong to place when you literally haveyour existence be eradicated because of the slavery
in this country. And so weare unapologetically holding the complexity of holding that
journey for black queer folks while alsohonoring the two spirit practices of the Kashaya.
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And I'm just gonna tell you y'all, that shit is not easy,
like it is like complicated, becauseyou're talking about these are your lands and
there's these people that we love thatwe want them to feel like they belong
here. And the reason why wewant that is because our resiliency is a
collective is what can come from this. So when I think about Latin X
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folks and land A people, they'renot far from that. Like we have
literal identities of people who have beencreated as an erasure of their indigenous identity,
so they're part of that journey.And so when I think about like
my folks, like my family who'sMexican, my wife who's Guatemalan, our
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understanding and are remembering of our indigenousways while also honoring the privileges that we
have had because of that colonial project. It's the fucking shit show that we're
in for the next twenty years.So I'm so glad that I get to
do this alongside Sagote, and I'mso glad that I get to do this
alongside my collective members and along youall you're here listening to us, because
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I imagine you think about this allthe time. So yeah, so I
think I'll feed back into relationship toLand and would love to just hear some
tenderness in s what does relationship toland look like for you? And you
tell me if you want to takethis conversation somewhere else spoo, because I'm
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ready to go wherever you want togo. Well, the first things I
was thinking is like, how manylayers of like learning about the land there
is. And you know, I'velived in Oakland for almost two decades and
I know a lot of the history. But like, now that we have
access to land through Sigote, I'mlearning a much deeper layer of history.
So when land comes back and wetry to find its whole story from when
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it was first stolen, right,what has this land been through? Right?
So even for example, there's thislittle tiny slice of land in West
Oakland, it's between two houses,and trying to think, like how did
this little slice of garden about twentyfive feet wide and I think like ninety
feet long come back to Sagoorte Andso tracing that we find all these interesting
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things in the history, like thatone piece of land tells us a story
of gentrification of West Oakland. Ittells us there used to be a famous
jazz singer that lived in this garden. That was her garden in the forties
and fifties when West Oakland was likethrive and then we saw it was shut
down for years and years. Andit's just very interesting to be able to
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you know, follow it all theway to win, Like someone first made
the piece of paper that said thisland is now owned, right and during
that time when the Aloni were inhiding, and then to come back and
like last week we had a youthgroup there making medicine with lantifas that were
growing on rematriated land and talking aboutgrief and so to me, it was
such a beautiful thing and like tobe able to see like such a tiny
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piece. And I mean, Ithink that that's the when you're saying like
the city and the rural and wehave a youth program out Silvery Tate,
which is really dope, but youknow a lot of the youth have never
had access to land. They literallydidn't know food grows in dirt, you
know. So like it's it's ahuge learning curve. And to be able
to like share these teachings and sharethese things on land that has been returned
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has this layer of like, um, there's gonna be justice for y'all,
you know, like it's not learningthese important things. And like for me,
there was this huge hypocrisy through school. But like wait, wait a
minute, what about our history orwhat about these other things that are missing
and for them they can actually feellike it's possible, like we might be
able to stay in Oakland and workand live here as Indigenous people throughout future
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generations. And so I think that'sreally cool, that's so powerful. I
loved that we were actually just talkingbefore this panel about how forward thinking Sagourty
in Shelterwood is and that that initself feels so radical. And I think,
as you were talking right now andlike the impact that we're already having
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just by existing, how many peopleare starting to organize to create these same
across the country, and that that'sthe whole reason why we exist. We
want more little brown youth to beable to say I don't actually have to
move from where I live, Likeif I plant this tree, I can
see it grow and maybe my kidscan tend to it. And I think
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that's what we are gonna need toget ahead of climate change. That's what
we're gonna need in order for usto organize around our survival, and that
we have been doing that. Oneof the things that really make us passionate
about, you know, besides thefact that queer people are like the best,
but one of the things that makesus really passionate about queerness is that
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queer people, we have experienced thelevel of rejection, whether it's society,
whether it's been your family, whetherit's been that one friend that you did
not even think was going to behomophobic when you came out to them,
and that that rejection has forced usto organize communities, has forced us to
organize family, has forced us toorganize safe spaces like the Queer Magic Makers,
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Queer and well like, yeah,the reason why we do events like
this is because we know what wego through. We know that if we
don't organize for ourselves, people aren'tgoing to take care of us. That
is a climate resilience strategy, y'all, climate resilience strategy. Your identity has
literally taught you how to organize yourpeople so you can survive climate change.
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Right that shit in a grant,Go get the money, like we need
this right now, We need thisright now. So that's why Shelterwood really
focuses on queerness as our resilience strategy. When we look at the ecology,
like, there's so much queerness init, and that's what gives me so
much hope. Just like that thehistory is not the only thing We're I'm
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doing. We'ren't doing the biology,We're in doing the physics. We're I'm
doing everything the ways that we thinkabout that so, you know, bringing
it back to wellness, bringing itback to connection to land. We are
reflected on land. And that's whatShelterwood aims to do. How do we
bring everybody who needs to rest,people who need to strategize, people who
are excited to dream, and justgive them the space to do it.
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And that's what catalyzed us. That'swhat made our work possible. And I
think looking at the leaders of Ceglority, that's what probably made them want to
exists too. You know, es, this is awesome. I'm just so
glad I get to talk together,y'all feel in this convoc does it make
you feel well? But does itmake you feel queer? All right?
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So I think, like what Iwant to speak and pivot a little bit
is to talk about like now thatwe've been in this work for you know,
a bit, and I will say, mettiness to transformative justice organizing,
so we've had quite a similar trajectoryactually, And the next panels on transformative
justice just so you know, andabolition and alternatives to the carceol system and
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all that cool stuff. So justplanting that seat. But we've had a
similar trajectory, and I'm wondering,have you noticed a change in the rematriation
work, in the lamb back movement, in the reparations movement that kind of
makes you feel hopeful for where we'reheaded, And if you can kind of
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some of that spice of what you'renoticing, what wakes you up in the
morning, what makes you excited tohop on that zoom call because you always
spend a lot of time on zoomcalls. Okay, all right, it's
real fucked up. Just yeah,I'd love to hear if there's anything that's
changing that really gives you hope thatyou would love to share. Um,
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well, just you know, Ihave I put this was a long time
ago. I think when when weat land return was happening, I made
a Google alert for land back andthere was nothing right. But now they
start coming in right. So tome, one of the exciting things is
it is spreading. There's land back, is something that comes through, It's
popping up in the news another youknow, land is being returned, and
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I think that that is so amazingand exciting. I think the possibilities are,
like I can't even begin to imaginehow it's going to multiply itself,
Like with simple things like months landis out of speculative for profit market,
then that whole entire labor of payingrent is gone. Like imagine our movements
if we didn't have to have everyonepaying rent. Imagine the work that we
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could do, Like it would bephenomenal. Right, So those I can
see how it's immediately like just openingamplifying the possibilities. That is super super
exciting to me. And that somany people that are involved in different kinds
of social justice work I was thinkingabout this is really related to transformative justice.
It's like people are really starting tobe like, what is the historic
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harms that are built into the workthat we're doing, Like we can't just
say we're environmental justice and forget thatwe're on stolen land, you know,
like justice is also justice for indigenouspeople, it's also justice for black people,
it's also justice for the earth.Right, So I see that that
manifesting more and more as you know, folks are reaching out to silgriditate from
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all kinds of different justice movements andbeing like, you know, we're getting
it together to get some land in. You should have that land. We
want to do our work on it. But it's really land. We're just
mobilizing resources to get it to you. And so many conversations like that are
starting. That's making me feel that, you know, we really have the
possibility of changing the way that we'restructured and the way that we can move
forward. Land back, landbacker givesyou hope, Glad back, give the
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lamb back. Oh yeah, yeah, that gives me hope as well.
I'm trying to think what gives mehope about what we're doing. Well,
we're talking a little bit. Ikind of wanted to know if you don't
have to wrap up soon, butcan you talk a little bit about your
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own relationship with fire? Oh yeah, yeah, we can definitely talk about
that. Sorry. Yeah, wehave to also keep track of time.
Yeah, So I mean that doesactually give me hope. Yeah, that
gives me hope. So we havea nine hundred acre forest, say about
twenty acres of that is you know, buildings, and then literally everything out
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is just forest. We've spent thelast well before we even started this process,
and I want to highlight this becausethis speaks to the audacity of planning,
of which I think our people actuallygreat at is. We did a
whole data survey of Colorado, southernCalifornia, and northern California the Pacific Northwest
around how much rains have been comingin the last thirty years, when fire
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has rolled in in the last tenyears, whether there's snow, whether there's
anticipated global temperature changes that we're noticingin these specific pockets. So we literally
thought about what was the most resilientplace for our people, y'all, and
we picked the second wettest area inthe state of California. We got there
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and there was two creeks that runfull year in California, there's like two
springs that are just constantly giving water. That is a blessing, like a
real, real blessing. And wereally feel like the land picked us.
We did a ceremony before we've beenput in an offer on the land.
I'm mostly spelling this out because ifspirit is calling you to engage with the
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land in a ceremonial way, reallylean into it and find the local indigenous
people to connect around how you candeepen that connection. And because of the
water is why it feels so possibleto bring in the relationship with fire.
So there there's a narrative shift,and specifically in Sonoma County, and y'all
have probably also been seeing it inthe Bay area. That fire is actually
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good. Fire can help spread seedsof oak, which are one of the
native species here that we have toencourage that, y'all are some people are
possibly getting some shade from looks liketan oak, I don't know, and
that because of that we have toincorporate fire back into that ecosystem. It
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helps the biodiversity of the space,which helps support our two important native trees,
which redwood and oak. The morethat we've learned about this land just
in the short year and a halfof being here is that this was a
traditional food shed for the local Kashia. So there was like a whole oak
island that folks would common harvest,and then there was a redwood ridge that
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kind of helps protect that oak island, and the oak island is a big
part of the thing. I'm sayingthis to you. I'll probably should be
showing you a map, but itto us, it's it's kind of our
little gay island and when we sectionit off, or like when we're going
to do certain ecological work, wevery much use like red, orangeyellow,
green, blue, purple. Sowe're very gay there and us bringing in
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fire has been a lesson. We'velearned that we can't do it without indigenous
communities. So every time we burnthe Kashaia send out a representative. They
help us make sure that no artifactsare being disrespected. We have a forestry
team that we've invested three years overa couple million dollars so that they can
grow a network of foresters that arenon traditional, that are not having to
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go through traditional pathways, who arewomen of color, who are men of
color, who are queer. Westill have our sprinkle of white men because
we're in Sonoma County and they reallydo know their shit. So we're learning,
but it's being led by a radicalblack mail and so we are literally
funding a new jobs opportunity for folkswho can caretake to the forest. Y'all,
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like when we think about how muchcan we dream? It doesn't stop
with us existing, It stops withhelping other people exist. Just like you
all bring in youth to help thembring their vision to life. So as
we're doing wildfire practices. We're doinga lot of partnership management, and it's
great because we can bring in theceremony, we can bring in the aspects
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of tending, and then we're burning. We're burning an acre out We're at
the point where we've learned how todo pile burns, how to use chainsaws,
like queer folks out there with chainsaws. It's really hot, it's fire,
it's lit. I'm a little tooold to be saying that. And
the reason why I say this isfire is good. We're about to change
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that relationship. And we're burning largeacreage where we have this high intensity restoration
project. Because if you look atan acre of the nine hundred acres,
traditionally, pre colonization, there wouldhave been a hundred trees in that acre.
Right now they're six hundred. That'sa crisis of mismanagement by white supremacy.
(28:33):
They have literally removed humans from tendingto the forest. So it's made
it that wildfires are having the catastrophethat we see here in California. That's
what we're fighting against. We're tryingto create a new model that includes this
awareness of our traditional ways of tendingto the forest. And when I tell
you all, our ancestors tended tothousands of acres, selected which tree species
(28:56):
that were going to encourage and mitigatedwhich other species we're going to compromise that
species from thriving. They said,here's the oak. The oak seems to
like that one animal, that oneinsect that insects seems to eat that.
All right, we're going to growthat shit a lot. And then they
did that for thousands of acres.And I'm super simplifying. I know there's
a lot of high tech indigenous knowledgethere, but that's the scale we're trying
(29:21):
to get at, is that peoplecan take care of thousands of acres.
We can do that. The factthat you think that you can't is a
Western conservation model that has taught youthat you are bad for nature. And
that's a European belief because you knowwhat they were doing in Europe before they
came here. They were fucking uptheir forests. So when they got here
(29:42):
and they saw our little sexy brownasses, they're like, oh, these
are fucking them up too. It'slike, no, y'all, we were
doing it right. You actually shouldhave came here and learned from us.
So I say this because fire isone element, sacred element that we're starting
to incorporate, which is bringing ina lot of healing for us and healing
to the forest. And that comesin balance with water because we are in
(30:06):
a state of drought, even thoughwe had these huge waters and some areas
are saying they're not a drought anymore. Climate change isn't going to go away,
so we really have to plan howdo we be in better relationship with
water? How do we be inbetter relationship with fire? So we're doing
that shit. Oh yeah, yeah, thanks for asking. I was like,
(30:27):
this is gonna be in as aspotlight. Yeah, I think,
you know, in the spirit ofwellness. I was just curious, how
do you take care of yourself?How does the gortate take care of themselves
minus being the batties that you allare well. I appreciate that question,
because y'all it's rough out here,and even when like wonderful things happen,
(30:51):
like a land comes home to itsancestral caretakers, we remember like all the
other lands that are still you know, under threat, and all the people
who don't have lands to be on, and literally, like you know,
with a land return also comes grief, you know, of all the other
lands. Right, so taking careincludes being with land. I had like
(31:14):
a healer of Courandeta, who wouldjust, you know, make me just
lay on earth, to lay yourwhole body on the land, right,
that is a medicine, do thatfor an hour a day. So I
do that, I lay on earth. And then But also we were talking,
I want to mention a couple ofthings. We're doing some structural things.
We have a thirty two hour week. We have hibernation two weeks off
paid every winter. We have culturaland ceremony leave, which is not vacation,
(31:41):
it's paid time for you to goconnect with your culture. And those
are things that we're trying to belike, how how can we do this
for the long haul? How dowe bring people back into their wellness?
And so those are a couple ofthe practices. And I know you had
mentioned some things too, so I'dlove to hear about some of the stuff
that Shelter would. Yeah. Thanks, I mean we're kind of just copying
that too. So we two havea thirty two hour work week. Yeah,
(32:07):
in theory, when you when youlive full time on the land,
it's like thirty two hours, butyou know people come at rare hours and
then you know you're kind of havingevenings where you have to go check on
a couple of piles that are burning. Anyways, it's non traditional, but
it's all healing. This is whatwe chose, right, this is what
we want. This is what wewant folks to be doing. We also
(32:27):
have a hibernation period, which isactually very beautiful to hear that you all
do as well. It's actually newknowledge for me as we shut down in
the winter for a month because thewinter is a high intensitive season for the
natural environment. You have trees thatare really shedding, You have a lot
of death on the land, anda lot of the supportive ecosystems for a
(32:50):
forest goes to sleep, so thatimpacts how much water is able to be
collected, whether a tree's releasing morebranches. You literally have roads getting blocked.
Now we have power shutoffs because ofour monopolized energy grid system, so
we will not talk about that.So I think in wellness we really adopt
some of the ways as you areall moving, and on top of that,
(33:10):
we really embrace transformative justice, sowe really practice horizontal governance. That
means everybody's voice is valued, butwe support leadership. If you feel like
moving with this project is important andI don't see anything that's of detriment.
Besides I don't have capacity or Idon't feel like I have all the details
(33:31):
to make a proper decision, youshould still be encouraged to move towards that
project in a way that fulfills yourheart. I'm talking about a hybrid between
hierarchies and horizontal and that's important whenyou are doing large scale land management because
you have to be able to trustthe people that you work with to make
decisions over your wellbeing and the wellbeingof an ecosystem. We basically have two
(33:55):
full time jobs, y'all. Wehave the computer work of managing the nonprod
in building an organization, and thenthe literal clock in time of having a
go tend to a pile that's burningor checking with the forestry crew to make
sure that everything's going well. Andso with that requires a sense of trust
between the collective members. So thatgives me wellness because it feels like returning
(34:19):
to our ancestral ways of how wevillaged together. And the last thing I'll
say is we have fully embraced conflictand tension. Every quarter every three months,
we have an hour and a halfwhere we sit and you just ask
how you're doing, and you know, all this shit comes up. I'm
(34:40):
fucking tired, i haven't been ableto take my lunch all every day.
I'm pissed that you sent that emailwithout talking to me about it. It
all comes up, y'all, andthat is our natural ways. Are people
sat in ceremony to flesh this shitout together. And I think that's what
pulled me to TJ. I feellike in some common stations back in the
(35:00):
day, you were on that tipas well, and so that gives me
wellness. The more that we candisrupt your what you do for work,
that's your purpose and if you're notaligned with it, there needs to be
a quick shift. And when Isay that, it's like important to know
that your nine to five is yourlife and if it's filled with conflict and
(35:22):
tension and navigating so many dynamics.This is the world that we are trying
to fight for where you can befree to execute your purpose and to live
in alignment with your values. Andwe really try to do that at Shelter
because we know it doesn't stop withus. We're the ones that are bearing
the brunt of setting up the nonprofit, of figuring out the fundraising of you
(35:42):
know, renovating so many buildings forthe next two to three years. But
it doesn't stop there. We wanta community of twenty to thirty people.
We want to volunteer network of onehundred and fifty to two hundred people who
can come and say that's the treeI take care of in the winter.
It literally that's the nine hundred acrescale that we want. So we just
(36:04):
think about wellness really holistically, becausewhy the fuck not. And as queer
people, that's part of what we'velearned. You've learned that when one system
isn't fulfilling you, maybe the familyunit, maybe the friend network, you
kind of go build somewhere else,and as we grow up, they all
start to kind of catch up toeach other and then it starts to feel
(36:27):
like a more managed At least that'smy hope that everybody's experiencing that, and
we have the ability as queer peopleto manage the complexity of returning back to
life holistically, like I feel likeit's in our DNA. I feel like
that's what our ancestors were to ourpeople, you know, so when we
talk about queer and wellness, it'sreally you. You are the most important
(36:50):
asset, the most important person,the most important thing to your community,
and like, don't untap that powerjust because you feel limited by the structures.
Yeah, and that's our wellness.We get to live that in our
little queer forests and we hope thateverybody here can at some point come and
touch that forest. And if Imay steal a little bit more in us,
I'm so sorry. Is we're reallythinking about disability justice at Shelterwood.
(37:15):
Is the outdoor space in the environmentalspace does not think about folks who have
disabilities. And we're literally working witha disability rights activists. We're designing a
cabin right now, which I'm onlysaying it because this is the space to
say it. We want to namethat cabin Stacy park Millburn Cabin, so
our people are gonna be reflected inthe forest. And so if you don't
(37:39):
know who that is, you definitelyneed to go google. Stacy Milburn an
amazing disability rights leader, and weneed to bring folks who have disabilities to
the forest, to a natural environment, to an ecological realignment because similarly to
how we value queer resiliency, folkswith disabilities have navigated a fucking society that
(38:00):
has made it impossible for them tosurvive, and yet they're still here.
We have so much to learn fromthese people, and they're so important to
our communities, very very important.So the better that we can help accommodate
in these early stages and extend theforest to them, whatever way that looks
like, is really important to us. So wellness all around. I know
(38:25):
we're getting to the end of ourtime, but there's a couple of things
I want to shut out from Silgoorte. But first I wanted to see if
there's any questions. So did anyonehave any questions about Shelterwood or the work
that Sigurte is doing, but thework that hest does, yes, oh
(38:45):
yeah. So the question is howis the pandemic impacting our work and how
are we still navigating it. Ithink that the pandemic has actually like amplified
the need for this work I've seenit, contrary to other things really growing
during this time, kind of abunch of things that weren't working. I
(39:05):
feel like people are like all right, let's get rid of that and let's
try something new. Every kind ofradical land project I know about is getting
new kinds of support and growing,So I think that I mean, it's
also been very difficult for our communities. It's really emphasized where you know,
we had to step up and likefeed our folks, you know, support
medical things. But in terms ofa larger movement, I feel like the
(39:30):
pandemic I should light on how ourcurrent structures are just like savagely inadequate to
meet our needs, and people arereally stepping up to build something else.
Es can I ask you all aboutyour himetica values and do you mind sharing
a little bit about that? Yeah. So, so Gorgia Lantos has a
project called Himetica, which is theTrochano word for everything together in one place,
(39:52):
and it's our emergency response hubs andwe did start those at the beginning
of the pandemic with the first pieceof land and East Oakland and it's basically
like a spot where when it goesdown, we have some supplies. You
know, there was fires going throughOakland at that time, and so we
knew, oh, we should havea shipping container that can't burn that has
(40:12):
some medical equipment in it. Ithas respirators in adult and kids sizes,
and over the years we've been ableto add a water catchment system, solar
panels. We have our garden thereand we're also collecting seeds and medicine.
And what if we could have thatat every garden. What if we could
have that in every part of town. And it's been interesting because the land
that comes back is, you know, it's in deep East Oakland, West
(40:36):
Oakland. It's a part of townwhere you know, people don't always respond
when you make a call to emergency. And so it's part of this,
you know, in this theme ofwe're taking care of us, we got
to build what we need and sothat's part of him. Climate resiliency,
survival hubs. Yeah night, Iwant to learn more about how we can
spread that in a rural setting.To the pandemic made shelter would possible,
(40:59):
it is the shutdown the shutdown.Siri literally listened to us and said,
that's what I figured. The pandemicmade shelter would be possible because philanthropists and
funders were in a place of desperation, because we were all in our homes
(41:20):
that they didn't know what was thebest way to support, which means there's
a big piece of possibility there.And so if we can look at some
of these crisises that happen in oursociety, and there's going to be more
because that's the nature of climate changeas a place of possibility to move the
pendulum for our people, we aregoing to do that. That's what benefited
(41:44):
Cugoritate, and so Shelter Would wasborn out of philanthropy being willing to contribute
to something like us. Yeah,thank you, thank you for that.
If anybody has any more questions,I don't know, if you knows,
are you going to hang out herefor a little bit, Yeah, feel
free to hit us up and Ihave some info stuff. We have a
flyer for this Queer Projects on IndigenousLand panel we did which had some really
(42:07):
interesting land projects throughout California that areunsettling and decolonizing, and I got some
landbacked stickers for you too. Socome up and thank you everyone. I
was wonderful to be here. Thankyou as always, it's so nice to
talk to you and just here whaty'are Thank you, Lea, thank you,
(42:27):
thank you, thank you good thankyou. So much Lyle Leniness.
We got stickers up here and flyersfor sagore Te Lantras, so I feel
free to come up. Please return. At three o'clock we're going to have
another panel. We take care ofus. Lyall will join this and moderate
our guests. We have Christina Chaseof National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance and
(42:53):
we have Cat Brooks of Anti PoliceTerror Project. So please get food,
stay hydrated. Check out the vendorsinside. Thank you so much. Queer
(43:15):
and Well was presented by Gemini MoonBotanicals and radically Fit Oakland. Radically Fit
is the Bay Area's radical community.Jim rooted in fat liberation and joyful movement
for all queer, trans, blackand brown folks and their allies, regardless
of experience, size, or ability. You can learn more at radically fit
(43:37):
Oakland dot com. Thank you forlistening to the we Rise podcast. You
can learn more about our cultural productionat we Rise production dot com. We'd
love to hear from you, andyou can email us through the link on
(43:58):
our website and connect with us onInstagram and Facebook at we Rise Production and
on Twitter at we Rise Producers.We Rise is a labor of love and
We deeply appreciate your support. Ifyou're able, you can contribute to our
Patreon or PayPal, which you canfind on our website. Shout out to
our brilliant music producer Diasporatical, tothe inspirational youth of Pink Panther Sorority for
(44:24):
our theme song, our compassionate transcriptionistYolanda Mendoza, and to our collaborators,
creatives and visionaries lifting hearts and mindsin classrooms, on stages, in zoom
rooms, and on frontlines across TurtleIsland and overseas. By six by six
(44:51):
seven and rise you rise, Weriseby riseby rise. Rise We rise,
we rise. He rise, werise, rise we rise. We rise.
(45:15):
He rise, We rise, Werise, We rise, We rise,
We rise, we rise
By six by six seven eight alrise you rise, We Risebey Risebey Rise
Rise We rise, We rise,Rise Rise Rise, We rise, we
(00:25):
rise, Rise Rise, We rise, We rise, Riseley Ride We Rise.
Our community media sponsors a Radically Fitand Gemini moon Botanicals event Queer and
Wealth a QTEI Bipocaba Miss Fair withtechnical support from pappers are Red local DJs.
(00:51):
We are sharing o the speakers panelsfrom this gorgeous Earth Day gatherrine.
We are so excited to share theserecordings with you all. Queer and One
is a queer, trans Black,Indigenous, and people of color centered wellness
fare, including panels discussing what environmentaland social justice looks like in tandem with
community care as we continue to navigatecapitalism and white supremacy. More information and
(01:18):
links to these speakers can be foundin show notes. We hope you enjoy
this brilliant dialogue. We'll jump intothis recording hearing from Luca Page, the
founder of radically Fit Oakland and oneof the key organizers of the event.
The audio begins mid sentence. Lucais introducing the panel to the land and
(01:42):
also the ways in which access hasbeen stripped from us from a lot of
our lives and what it looks liketo kind of come back to that and
be able to Steward Land. Andwe reached out to folks in community who
are doing incredible work on behalf ofIndigenous people, people of color and black
folks to Steward Land and have beendoing this work for a long time.
(02:04):
So today with us we have Inezof Segourte Land Trust and we also have
Lyle from a shelter Wood collective WHOAand Lyle is also doing us a huge
favor and as the star of theshow. And we'll be leading the conversations
(02:25):
that we're having today, and alsowe have another panel later this afternoon.
Cat Brooks will be here alongside ChristinaChase to talk about some social and political
things that we want to discuss too. We'll talk again, but yes,
I'm gonna hand the mike to Leo. Thank you so much, Thank you
everybody. All Right, queer andwellness am I rights? Like, how
(02:50):
can you be queer but not bewell? Right? It's debatable, it's
debatable, debatable. All right.Well, I'm so fortunate enough to be
up here with you in s It'salways so nice to share space with you
and ins has come out to theland, and I feel like we always
find ourselves in similar panels talking aboutqueerness and land. So I'm excited for
(03:13):
us to talk a little bit aboutour work. I don't know if you
want to share your pronoun and thenwhat do you do? Um on the
day to day? Sgorte awesome,what's up, y'all? I used she
her pronouns and I'm super happy tobe here today. Um. I work
with Sigorte Lanches. I'm the creativelead with the project, and I'm also
(03:37):
an artist and media maker here inOakland. And when I saw this invite
for this event, I really wantedto be a part of it because I
used to organize a queer art andcraft fair called Queer Magic Makers back in
the day here Yes, And oneof the things that we wanted to do
was like, you know, we'relike, we need queer spaces where there's
like not do this wellness, orwhere there's not like appropriation, there's not
(04:00):
homophobia. We're trying to prioritize queerand trans people of color. And one
thing that we did every year wascollect money to pay the Shirtwoomi Land tax
for Sigotay, And what we're recognizingis like, even as we're creating queer
spaces, even as we're trying tocreate these other kinds of spaces, you
know, we need to recognize whoseland we are on. And when I
first moved to Oakland, I hadthe chance to start working with Karina Gould,
(04:25):
who's the tribal chairperson for the ConfederatedVillages of LaShaun, whose land that
we are on right now, andso before, you know, my kind
of education about this place in thisland was straight from her. We worked
in an after school program for Nativeyouth here in Oakland, and so since
then I've been able to you know, I was a part of the group
(04:45):
that started Sigota Land Trust and we'rean urban Indigenous women led land test here
in Oakland and the Greater Territory returningland to indigenous hands. And our work
here has been really important because we'reco founded by the tribe whose land that
we are on. They're still hereand they're still fighting to protect their sacred
sites. They're working with inner tribal, urban Indigenous people from all over to
(05:11):
try and find a new way forus to connect on land, to bring
land back to indigenous people's access sothat we can have food, medicine,
ceremony, cultural activities, chilling.So that is a very quick and brief
introduction to Sagorite and me, andI guess I will pass it back to
you, Lael, because we havekind of talked about some of these topics.
(05:32):
I know we first kind of engagedin queer projects on indigenous land.
This talk that we did about howdo we create justice on stolen land?
So I would love to hear moreback to you. Thank you, And
this is going to feel like aconversation. You're all witnessing enus and lyall
and dialogue. So I'm Lael.I use say them their pronouns. I'm
(05:55):
one of the co founders of ShelterwoodCollective, which is a nine hundred acre
Black Didigenous queer led stewardship project forcultural change, and we were born out
of the COVID shutdown and the murderof George Floyd. I don't ever forget
that about our story, because itwas what was happening in the world that
really enraged us into movement. Andthe whole purpose of our project is scale
(06:18):
is if you could get queer communityspecifically to increase the scale of impact around
their values. This world would bein such a better place. So we
like to say that in about tenyears, we would love to be the
smallest queer led project, and thatis a dream that we have. And
a lot of that is because wedreamt of ten thousand acres and we like
(06:41):
to say nine hundred acres is ourcompromise. So a lot of who we
are is we currently a steward landon the Kashaya Band of Pomo Indians territories
in Cinema County. I'm a descendantof Yaqui Mayoyoma tribes of the Sonoran Desert,
so that southern Arizona and northern Mexicoand we're split by the border,
(07:04):
and I grew up on Kumiya territoriesin San Diego, California. I say
this because, like, how oftendo you have the opportunity to talk about
these indigenous legacies that we're just allbenefiting from every day. Like the Alone
people have a particular culture that reallyweaves itself into Oakland, And so my
work is really focused on cultural change. Is I look at our projects as
(07:29):
part of a cultural movement towards roomatriation, towards land back, towards reparations,
towards this healing that we really needas black Indigenous people of color in order
to survive and adapt with climate change, and that that is our birthright.
Our survival, our ability to thrive, that's our birthright. So we really
(07:49):
think about it holistically, where basicallyyou could throw any radical framework and we've
been experimenting with it, transformative justice, horizontal, collective decision making, all
those things, because that's really ourtraditional ways, that's what has been stolen
from us. And my co founderlikes to say that our removal from the
natural world was a violent act towardsus that we need to repair. And
(08:13):
I say that because we take leadershipfrom the Kashayah and we take leadership from
organizations like Cigorite. So a lotof my work is around thinking about this
broader network of our work and acomplex place that we hold. And I
think you and iis we hold thisoften is like as Latin x Latine people
(08:35):
who are around indigenous sovereignty, howdo we hold that complexion when we come
from a three hundred, four hundredyear old colonial system that's literally created a
hybrid community of people, and Ifeel like I came into this movement really
thinking of myself as a Mexican,but I'm indigenous to son And the more
(08:56):
that I've learned about my identity,I'm like, wait, people are still
fucking here, Like what is thismind fuck that these white Spanish people did
to me? And us being leadersand advocates of roomatreation. That says something,
that says something about our de colonialjourney. I just love to hear
from you at Sulgortate, like whatspeaks to you about the rematriation movement?
(09:18):
How do you navigate those complex identities? Well, first of all, I
come here with the recognition that I'ma guest on this land, and though
not every single thing that brought mehere was of my own choice, as
so many of us can say thatI am still a guest, and so
that like to conduct myself as aguest, to come with respect, to
(09:41):
listen, and to ask permission.And I think that one of the things
that's been really important and that's reallyuplifted Silgorte Land test and the work of
reom atriation is so many people reallyrecognizing our own roles in this entire system
of colonization and then kind of likeplugging in to unraveling that, right.
And so Sigurte is inner tribal,meaning folks from all tribes in the United
(10:07):
States, but also folks that areindigenous to other places. We have folks
from pow and other islands. Wehave my family is from Bolivia, from
South America, we have folks fromthe Pacific and all over, right.
And why because so many indigenous peoplehave been displaced and relocated and are here
in Oakland. Actually, Oakland inthe Bay Area has the second highest density
(10:28):
of Indigenous people of anywhere in thecountry, second to la because of genocidal
relocation policies that forced people to cities, right. And so one thing that
happened after that is people started organizingwith each other. And Sigrte is a
part of that lineage of organizing,right, people who are like, how
do we save our cultures and practicesovereignty in this own way, practice spirituality,
(10:50):
practice culture. And so that's whatwe're trying to do right now.
And I think that we are ableto do different ways without even having access
to land through struggle and survival.But as land comes back, we're seeing
how we're able to deepen that andalso start to work with other folks that
have had experiences of oppression under colonialism, you know, across different groups,
(11:13):
across folks that are housed in andhouse folks that have a lot of resources,
redistributing those folks that have no resourcesputting in work. And I think
that we're braiding together something that haspossibility and hope thanks for reminding us around
just the complexity of indigenating, specificallyhere in Oakland, because I even have
(11:35):
a hard time understanding it outside ofthe border ideology, Like Indigenous people actually
exist all around the world because weare rooted in place, and it's like
the way in which we need toreclaim honor the actual peoples whose lands you
live on, and also recognize what'sthe decolonial journey for yourself so you can
(12:01):
continue walking this path, moving towardsthis path in a way that honors the
earth and that honors Indigenous people.And I just I always look at Sigarte
and I'm just like constantly learning abouthow you all are navigating this in an
urban location, like we're very rural, and it almost feels a bit easier
(12:22):
in rural location because you have therez, we understand whose family, whose
actual family stewarded our land three fourhundred years ago. You don't have that
in urban settings. You really losea lot of that because of how hyper
quick and how much colonizations escalated inthis I know that we probably spend a
(12:43):
lot of time thinking about our relationshipto land. And I think that as
a guest on Kashaya specifically for usat Shelterwood, is we are very much
trying to navigate the two spirit practicesof Kashaya tribes while also trying to create
the space for quite frankly centering theBlack Healing Project around what it means to
(13:13):
belong to place when you literally haveyour existence be eradicated because of the slavery
in this country. And so weare unapologetically holding the complexity of holding that
journey for black queer folks while alsohonoring the two spirit practices of the Kashaya.
(13:33):
And I'm just gonna tell you y'all, that shit is not easy,
like it is like complicated, becauseyou're talking about these are your lands and
there's these people that we love thatwe want them to feel like they belong
here. And the reason why wewant that is because our resiliency is a
collective is what can come from this. So when I think about Latin X
(13:56):
folks and land A people, they'renot far from that. Like we have
literal identities of people who have beencreated as an erasure of their indigenous identity,
so they're part of that journey.And so when I think about like
my folks, like my family who'sMexican, my wife who's Guatemalan, our
(14:18):
understanding and are remembering of our indigenousways while also honoring the privileges that we
have had because of that colonial project. It's the fucking shit show that we're
in for the next twenty years.So I'm so glad that I get to
do this alongside Sagote, and I'mso glad that I get to do this
alongside my collective members and along youall you're here listening to us, because
(14:41):
I imagine you think about this allthe time. So yeah, so I
think I'll feed back into relationship toLand and would love to just hear some
tenderness in s what does relationship toland look like for you? And you
tell me if you want to takethis conversation somewhere else spoo, because I'm
(15:03):
ready to go wherever you want togo. Well, the first things I
was thinking is like, how manylayers of like learning about the land there
is. And you know, I'velived in Oakland for almost two decades and
I know a lot of the history. But like, now that we have
access to land through Sigote, I'mlearning a much deeper layer of history.
So when land comes back and wetry to find its whole story from when
(15:26):
it was first stolen, right,what has this land been through? Right?
So even for example, there's thislittle tiny slice of land in West
Oakland, it's between two houses,and trying to think, like how did
this little slice of garden about twentyfive feet wide and I think like ninety
feet long come back to Sagoorte Andso tracing that we find all these interesting
(15:46):
things in the history, like thatone piece of land tells us a story
of gentrification of West Oakland. Ittells us there used to be a famous
jazz singer that lived in this garden. That was her garden in the forties
and fifties when West Oakland was likethrive and then we saw it was shut
down for years and years. Andit's just very interesting to be able to
(16:06):
you know, follow it all theway to win, Like someone first made
the piece of paper that said thisland is now owned, right and during
that time when the Aloni were inhiding, and then to come back and
like last week we had a youthgroup there making medicine with lantifas that were
growing on rematriated land and talking aboutgrief and so to me, it was
such a beautiful thing and like tobe able to see like such a tiny
(16:30):
piece. And I mean, Ithink that that's the when you're saying like
the city and the rural and wehave a youth program out Silvery Tate,
which is really dope, but youknow a lot of the youth have never
had access to land. They literallydidn't know food grows in dirt, you
know. So like it's it's ahuge learning curve. And to be able
to like share these teachings and sharethese things on land that has been returned
(16:53):
has this layer of like, um, there's gonna be justice for y'all,
you know, like it's not learningthese important things. And like for me,
there was this huge hypocrisy through school. But like wait, wait a
minute, what about our history orwhat about these other things that are missing
and for them they can actually feellike it's possible, like we might be
able to stay in Oakland and workand live here as Indigenous people throughout future
(17:17):
generations. And so I think that'sreally cool, that's so powerful. I
loved that we were actually just talkingbefore this panel about how forward thinking Sagourty
in Shelterwood is and that that initself feels so radical. And I think,
as you were talking right now andlike the impact that we're already having
(17:37):
just by existing, how many peopleare starting to organize to create these same
across the country, and that that'sthe whole reason why we exist. We
want more little brown youth to beable to say I don't actually have to
move from where I live, Likeif I plant this tree, I can
see it grow and maybe my kidscan tend to it. And I think
(17:59):
that's what we are gonna need toget ahead of climate change. That's what
we're gonna need in order for usto organize around our survival, and that
we have been doing that. Oneof the things that really make us passionate
about, you know, besides thefact that queer people are like the best,
but one of the things that makesus really passionate about queerness is that
(18:22):
queer people, we have experienced thelevel of rejection, whether it's society,
whether it's been your family, whetherit's been that one friend that you did
not even think was going to behomophobic when you came out to them,
and that that rejection has forced usto organize communities, has forced us to
organize family, has forced us toorganize safe spaces like the Queer Magic Makers,
(18:47):
Queer and well like, yeah,the reason why we do events like
this is because we know what wego through. We know that if we
don't organize for ourselves, people aren'tgoing to take care of us. That
is a climate resilience strategy, y'all, climate resilience strategy. Your identity has
literally taught you how to organize yourpeople so you can survive climate change.
(19:07):
Right that shit in a grant,Go get the money, like we need
this right now, We need thisright now. So that's why Shelterwood really
focuses on queerness as our resilience strategy. When we look at the ecology,
like, there's so much queerness init, and that's what gives me so
much hope. Just like that thehistory is not the only thing We're I'm
(19:29):
doing. We'ren't doing the biology,We're in doing the physics. We're I'm
doing everything the ways that we thinkabout that so, you know, bringing
it back to wellness, bringing itback to connection to land. We are
reflected on land. And that's whatShelterwood aims to do. How do we
bring everybody who needs to rest,people who need to strategize, people who
are excited to dream, and justgive them the space to do it.
(19:49):
And that's what catalyzed us. That'swhat made our work possible. And I
think looking at the leaders of Ceglority, that's what probably made them want to
exists too. You know, es, this is awesome. I'm just so
glad I get to talk together,y'all feel in this convoc does it make
you feel well? But does itmake you feel queer? All right?
(20:15):
So I think, like what Iwant to speak and pivot a little bit
is to talk about like now thatwe've been in this work for you know,
a bit, and I will say, mettiness to transformative justice organizing,
so we've had quite a similar trajectoryactually, And the next panels on transformative
justice just so you know, andabolition and alternatives to the carceol system and
(20:37):
all that cool stuff. So justplanting that seat. But we've had a
similar trajectory, and I'm wondering,have you noticed a change in the rematriation
work, in the lamb back movement, in the reparations movement that kind of
makes you feel hopeful for where we'reheaded, And if you can kind of
(21:00):
some of that spice of what you'renoticing, what wakes you up in the
morning, what makes you excited tohop on that zoom call because you always
spend a lot of time on zoomcalls. Okay, all right, it's
real fucked up. Just yeah,I'd love to hear if there's anything that's
changing that really gives you hope thatyou would love to share. Um,
(21:21):
well, just you know, Ihave I put this was a long time
ago. I think when when weat land return was happening, I made
a Google alert for land back andthere was nothing right. But now they
start coming in right. So tome, one of the exciting things is
it is spreading. There's land back, is something that comes through, It's
popping up in the news another youknow, land is being returned, and
(21:45):
I think that that is so amazingand exciting. I think the possibilities are,
like I can't even begin to imaginehow it's going to multiply itself,
Like with simple things like months landis out of speculative for profit market,
then that whole entire labor of payingrent is gone. Like imagine our movements
if we didn't have to have everyonepaying rent. Imagine the work that we
(22:08):
could do, Like it would bephenomenal. Right, So those I can
see how it's immediately like just openingamplifying the possibilities. That is super super
exciting to me. And that somany people that are involved in different kinds
of social justice work I was thinkingabout this is really related to transformative justice.
It's like people are really starting tobe like, what is the historic
(22:30):
harms that are built into the workthat we're doing, Like we can't just
say we're environmental justice and forget thatwe're on stolen land, you know,
like justice is also justice for indigenouspeople, it's also justice for black people,
it's also justice for the earth.Right, So I see that that
manifesting more and more as you know, folks are reaching out to silgriditate from
(22:51):
all kinds of different justice movements andbeing like, you know, we're getting
it together to get some land in. You should have that land. We
want to do our work on it. But it's really land. We're just
mobilizing resources to get it to you. And so many conversations like that are
starting. That's making me feel that, you know, we really have the
possibility of changing the way that we'restructured and the way that we can move
forward. Land back, landbacker givesyou hope, Glad back, give the
(23:17):
lamb back. Oh yeah, yeah, that gives me hope as well.
I'm trying to think what gives mehope about what we're doing. Well,
we're talking a little bit. Ikind of wanted to know if you don't
have to wrap up soon, butcan you talk a little bit about your
(23:37):
own relationship with fire? Oh yeah, yeah, we can definitely talk about
that. Sorry. Yeah, wehave to also keep track of time.
Yeah, So I mean that doesactually give me hope. Yeah, that
gives me hope. So we havea nine hundred acre forest, say about
twenty acres of that is you know, buildings, and then literally everything out
(24:00):
is just forest. We've spent thelast well before we even started this process,
and I want to highlight this becausethis speaks to the audacity of planning,
of which I think our people actuallygreat at is. We did a
whole data survey of Colorado, southernCalifornia, and northern California the Pacific Northwest
around how much rains have been comingin the last thirty years, when fire
(24:22):
has rolled in in the last tenyears, whether there's snow, whether there's
anticipated global temperature changes that we're noticingin these specific pockets. So we literally
thought about what was the most resilientplace for our people, y'all, and
we picked the second wettest area inthe state of California. We got there
(24:44):
and there was two creeks that runfull year in California, there's like two
springs that are just constantly giving water. That is a blessing, like a
real, real blessing. And wereally feel like the land picked us.
We did a ceremony before we've beenput in an offer on the land.
I'm mostly spelling this out because ifspirit is calling you to engage with the
(25:07):
land in a ceremonial way, reallylean into it and find the local indigenous
people to connect around how you candeepen that connection. And because of the
water is why it feels so possibleto bring in the relationship with fire.
So there there's a narrative shift,and specifically in Sonoma County, and y'all
have probably also been seeing it inthe Bay area. That fire is actually
(25:30):
good. Fire can help spread seedsof oak, which are one of the
native species here that we have toencourage that, y'all are some people are
possibly getting some shade from looks liketan oak, I don't know, and
that because of that we have toincorporate fire back into that ecosystem. It
(25:53):
helps the biodiversity of the space,which helps support our two important native trees,
which redwood and oak. The morethat we've learned about this land just
in the short year and a halfof being here is that this was a
traditional food shed for the local Kashia. So there was like a whole oak
island that folks would common harvest,and then there was a redwood ridge that
(26:17):
kind of helps protect that oak island, and the oak island is a big
part of the thing. I'm sayingthis to you. I'll probably should be
showing you a map, but itto us, it's it's kind of our
little gay island and when we sectionit off, or like when we're going
to do certain ecological work, wevery much use like red, orangeyellow,
green, blue, purple. Sowe're very gay there and us bringing in
(26:38):
fire has been a lesson. We'velearned that we can't do it without indigenous
communities. So every time we burnthe Kashaia send out a representative. They
help us make sure that no artifactsare being disrespected. We have a forestry
team that we've invested three years overa couple million dollars so that they can
grow a network of foresters that arenon traditional, that are not having to
(27:00):
go through traditional pathways, who arewomen of color, who are men of
color, who are queer. Westill have our sprinkle of white men because
we're in Sonoma County and they reallydo know their shit. So we're learning,
but it's being led by a radicalblack mail and so we are literally
funding a new jobs opportunity for folkswho can caretake to the forest. Y'all,
(27:25):
like when we think about how muchcan we dream? It doesn't stop
with us existing, It stops withhelping other people exist. Just like you
all bring in youth to help thembring their vision to life. So as
we're doing wildfire practices. We're doinga lot of partnership management, and it's
great because we can bring in theceremony, we can bring in the aspects
(27:47):
of tending, and then we're burning. We're burning an acre out We're at
the point where we've learned how todo pile burns, how to use chainsaws,
like queer folks out there with chainsaws. It's really hot, it's fire,
it's lit. I'm a little tooold to be saying that. And
the reason why I say this isfire is good. We're about to change
(28:11):
that relationship. And we're burning largeacreage where we have this high intensity restoration
project. Because if you look atan acre of the nine hundred acres,
traditionally, pre colonization, there wouldhave been a hundred trees in that acre.
Right now they're six hundred. That'sa crisis of mismanagement by white supremacy.
(28:33):
They have literally removed humans from tendingto the forest. So it's made
it that wildfires are having the catastrophethat we see here in California. That's
what we're fighting against. We're tryingto create a new model that includes this
awareness of our traditional ways of tendingto the forest. And when I tell
you all, our ancestors tended tothousands of acres, selected which tree species
(28:56):
that were going to encourage and mitigatedwhich other species we're going to compromise that
species from thriving. They said,here's the oak. The oak seems to
like that one animal, that oneinsect that insects seems to eat that.
All right, we're going to growthat shit a lot. And then they
did that for thousands of acres.And I'm super simplifying. I know there's
a lot of high tech indigenous knowledgethere, but that's the scale we're trying
(29:21):
to get at, is that peoplecan take care of thousands of acres.
We can do that. The factthat you think that you can't is a
Western conservation model that has taught youthat you are bad for nature. And
that's a European belief because you knowwhat they were doing in Europe before they
came here. They were fucking uptheir forests. So when they got here
(29:42):
and they saw our little sexy brownasses, they're like, oh, these
are fucking them up too. It'slike, no, y'all, we were
doing it right. You actually shouldhave came here and learned from us.
So I say this because fire isone element, sacred element that we're starting
to incorporate, which is bringing ina lot of healing for us and healing
to the forest. And that comesin balance with water because we are in
(30:06):
a state of drought, even thoughwe had these huge waters and some areas
are saying they're not a drought anymore. Climate change isn't going to go away,
so we really have to plan howdo we be in better relationship with
water? How do we be inbetter relationship with fire? So we're doing
that shit. Oh yeah, yeah, thanks for asking. I was like,
(30:27):
this is gonna be in as aspotlight. Yeah, I think,
you know, in the spirit ofwellness. I was just curious, how
do you take care of yourself?How does the gortate take care of themselves
minus being the batties that you allare well. I appreciate that question,
because y'all it's rough out here,and even when like wonderful things happen,
(30:51):
like a land comes home to itsancestral caretakers, we remember like all the
other lands that are still you know, under threat, and all the people
who don't have lands to be on, and literally, like you know,
with a land return also comes grief, you know, of all the other
lands. Right, so taking careincludes being with land. I had like
(31:14):
a healer of Courandeta, who wouldjust, you know, make me just
lay on earth, to lay yourwhole body on the land, right,
that is a medicine, do thatfor an hour a day. So I
do that, I lay on earth. And then But also we were talking,
I want to mention a couple ofthings. We're doing some structural things.
We have a thirty two hour week. We have hibernation two weeks off
paid every winter. We have culturaland ceremony leave, which is not vacation,
(31:41):
it's paid time for you to goconnect with your culture. And those
are things that we're trying to belike, how how can we do this
for the long haul? How dowe bring people back into their wellness?
And so those are a couple ofthe practices. And I know you had
mentioned some things too, so I'dlove to hear about some of the stuff
that Shelter would. Yeah. Thanks, I mean we're kind of just copying
that too. So we two havea thirty two hour work week. Yeah,
(32:07):
in theory, when you when youlive full time on the land,
it's like thirty two hours, butyou know people come at rare hours and
then you know you're kind of havingevenings where you have to go check on
a couple of piles that are burning. Anyways, it's non traditional, but
it's all healing. This is whatwe chose, right, this is what
we want. This is what wewant folks to be doing. We also
(32:27):
have a hibernation period, which isactually very beautiful to hear that you all
do as well. It's actually newknowledge for me as we shut down in
the winter for a month because thewinter is a high intensitive season for the
natural environment. You have trees thatare really shedding, You have a lot
of death on the land, anda lot of the supportive ecosystems for a
(32:50):
forest goes to sleep, so thatimpacts how much water is able to be
collected, whether a tree's releasing morebranches. You literally have roads getting blocked.
Now we have power shutoffs because ofour monopolized energy grid system, so
we will not talk about that.So I think in wellness we really adopt
some of the ways as you areall moving, and on top of that,
(33:10):
we really embrace transformative justice, sowe really practice horizontal governance. That
means everybody's voice is valued, butwe support leadership. If you feel like
moving with this project is important andI don't see anything that's of detriment.
Besides I don't have capacity or Idon't feel like I have all the details
(33:31):
to make a proper decision, youshould still be encouraged to move towards that
project in a way that fulfills yourheart. I'm talking about a hybrid between
hierarchies and horizontal and that's important whenyou are doing large scale land management because
you have to be able to trustthe people that you work with to make
decisions over your wellbeing and the wellbeingof an ecosystem. We basically have two
(33:55):
full time jobs, y'all. Wehave the computer work of managing the nonprod
in building an organization, and thenthe literal clock in time of having a
go tend to a pile that's burningor checking with the forestry crew to make
sure that everything's going well. Andso with that requires a sense of trust
between the collective members. So thatgives me wellness because it feels like returning
(34:19):
to our ancestral ways of how wevillaged together. And the last thing I'll
say is we have fully embraced conflictand tension. Every quarter every three months,
we have an hour and a halfwhere we sit and you just ask
how you're doing, and you know, all this shit comes up. I'm
(34:40):
fucking tired, i haven't been ableto take my lunch all every day.
I'm pissed that you sent that emailwithout talking to me about it. It
all comes up, y'all, andthat is our natural ways. Are people
sat in ceremony to flesh this shitout together. And I think that's what
pulled me to TJ. I feellike in some common stations back in the
(35:00):
day, you were on that tipas well, and so that gives me
wellness. The more that we candisrupt your what you do for work,
that's your purpose and if you're notaligned with it, there needs to be
a quick shift. And when Isay that, it's like important to know
that your nine to five is yourlife and if it's filled with conflict and
(35:22):
tension and navigating so many dynamics.This is the world that we are trying
to fight for where you can befree to execute your purpose and to live
in alignment with your values. Andwe really try to do that at Shelter
because we know it doesn't stop withus. We're the ones that are bearing
the brunt of setting up the nonprofit, of figuring out the fundraising of you
(35:42):
know, renovating so many buildings forthe next two to three years. But
it doesn't stop there. We wanta community of twenty to thirty people.
We want to volunteer network of onehundred and fifty to two hundred people who
can come and say that's the treeI take care of in the winter.
It literally that's the nine hundred acrescale that we want. So we just
(36:04):
think about wellness really holistically, becausewhy the fuck not. And as queer
people, that's part of what we'velearned. You've learned that when one system
isn't fulfilling you, maybe the familyunit, maybe the friend network, you
kind of go build somewhere else,and as we grow up, they all
start to kind of catch up toeach other and then it starts to feel
(36:27):
like a more managed At least that'smy hope that everybody's experiencing that, and
we have the ability as queer peopleto manage the complexity of returning back to
life holistically, like I feel likeit's in our DNA. I feel like
that's what our ancestors were to ourpeople, you know, so when we
talk about queer and wellness, it'sreally you. You are the most important
(36:50):
asset, the most important person,the most important thing to your community,
and like, don't untap that powerjust because you feel limited by the structures.
Yeah, and that's our wellness.We get to live that in our
little queer forests and we hope thateverybody here can at some point come and
touch that forest. And if Imay steal a little bit more in us,
I'm so sorry. Is we're reallythinking about disability justice at Shelterwood.
(37:15):
Is the outdoor space in the environmentalspace does not think about folks who have
disabilities. And we're literally working witha disability rights activists. We're designing a
cabin right now, which I'm onlysaying it because this is the space to
say it. We want to namethat cabin Stacy park Millburn Cabin, so
our people are gonna be reflected inthe forest. And so if you don't
(37:39):
know who that is, you definitelyneed to go google. Stacy Milburn an
amazing disability rights leader, and weneed to bring folks who have disabilities to
the forest, to a natural environment, to an ecological realignment because similarly to
how we value queer resiliency, folkswith disabilities have navigated a fucking society that
(38:00):
has made it impossible for them tosurvive, and yet they're still here.
We have so much to learn fromthese people, and they're so important to
our communities, very very important.So the better that we can help accommodate
in these early stages and extend theforest to them, whatever way that looks
like, is really important to us. So wellness all around. I know
(38:25):
we're getting to the end of ourtime, but there's a couple of things
I want to shut out from Silgoorte. But first I wanted to see if
there's any questions. So did anyonehave any questions about Shelterwood or the work
that Sigurte is doing, but thework that hest does, yes, oh
(38:45):
yeah. So the question is howis the pandemic impacting our work and how
are we still navigating it. Ithink that the pandemic has actually like amplified
the need for this work I've seenit, contrary to other things really growing
during this time, kind of abunch of things that weren't working. I
(39:05):
feel like people are like all right, let's get rid of that and let's
try something new. Every kind ofradical land project I know about is getting
new kinds of support and growing,So I think that I mean, it's
also been very difficult for our communities. It's really emphasized where you know,
we had to step up and likefeed our folks, you know, support
medical things. But in terms ofa larger movement, I feel like the
(39:30):
pandemic I should light on how ourcurrent structures are just like savagely inadequate to
meet our needs, and people arereally stepping up to build something else.
Es can I ask you all aboutyour himetica values and do you mind sharing
a little bit about that? Yeah. So, so Gorgia Lantos has a
project called Himetica, which is theTrochano word for everything together in one place,
(39:52):
and it's our emergency response hubs andwe did start those at the beginning
of the pandemic with the first pieceof land and East Oakland and it's basically
like a spot where when it goesdown, we have some supplies. You
know, there was fires going throughOakland at that time, and so we
knew, oh, we should havea shipping container that can't burn that has
(40:12):
some medical equipment in it. Ithas respirators in adult and kids sizes,
and over the years we've been ableto add a water catchment system, solar
panels. We have our garden thereand we're also collecting seeds and medicine.
And what if we could have thatat every garden. What if we could
have that in every part of town. And it's been interesting because the land
that comes back is, you know, it's in deep East Oakland, West
(40:36):
Oakland. It's a part of townwhere you know, people don't always respond
when you make a call to emergency. And so it's part of this,
you know, in this theme ofwe're taking care of us, we got
to build what we need and sothat's part of him. Climate resiliency,
survival hubs. Yeah night, Iwant to learn more about how we can
spread that in a rural setting.To the pandemic made shelter would possible,
(40:59):
it is the shutdown the shutdown.Siri literally listened to us and said,
that's what I figured. The pandemicmade shelter would be possible because philanthropists and
funders were in a place of desperation, because we were all in our homes
(41:20):
that they didn't know what was thebest way to support, which means there's
a big piece of possibility there.And so if we can look at some
of these crisises that happen in oursociety, and there's going to be more
because that's the nature of climate changeas a place of possibility to move the
pendulum for our people, we aregoing to do that. That's what benefited
(41:44):
Cugoritate, and so Shelter Would wasborn out of philanthropy being willing to contribute
to something like us. Yeah,thank you, thank you for that.
If anybody has any more questions,I don't know, if you knows,
are you going to hang out herefor a little bit, Yeah, feel
free to hit us up and Ihave some info stuff. We have a
flyer for this Queer Projects on IndigenousLand panel we did which had some really
(42:07):
interesting land projects throughout California that areunsettling and decolonizing, and I got some
landbacked stickers for you too. Socome up and thank you everyone. I
was wonderful to be here. Thankyou as always, it's so nice to
talk to you and just here whaty'are Thank you, Lea, thank you,
(42:27):
thank you, thank you good thankyou. So much Lyle Leniness.
We got stickers up here and flyersfor sagore Te Lantras, so I feel
free to come up. Please return. At three o'clock we're going to have
another panel. We take care ofus. Lyall will join this and moderate
our guests. We have Christina Chaseof National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance and
(42:53):
we have Cat Brooks of Anti PoliceTerror Project. So please get food,
stay hydrated. Check out the vendorsinside. Thank you so much. Queer
(43:15):
and Well was presented by Gemini MoonBotanicals and radically Fit Oakland. Radically Fit
is the Bay Area's radical community.Jim rooted in fat liberation and joyful movement
for all queer, trans, blackand brown folks and their allies, regardless
of experience, size, or ability. You can learn more at radically fit
(43:37):
Oakland dot com. Thank you forlistening to the we Rise podcast. You
can learn more about our cultural productionat we Rise production dot com. We'd
love to hear from you, andyou can email us through the link on
(43:58):
our website and connect with us onInstagram and Facebook at we Rise Production and
on Twitter at we Rise Producers.We Rise is a labor of love and
We deeply appreciate your support. Ifyou're able, you can contribute to our
Patreon or PayPal, which you canfind on our website. Shout out to
our brilliant music producer Diasporatical, tothe inspirational youth of Pink Panther Sorority for
(44:24):
our theme song, our compassionate transcriptionistYolanda Mendoza, and to our collaborators,
creatives and visionaries lifting hearts and mindsin classrooms, on stages, in zoom
rooms, and on frontlines across TurtleIsland and overseas. By six by six
(44:51):
seven and rise you rise, Weriseby riseby rise. Rise We rise,
we rise. He rise, werise, rise we rise. We rise.
(45:15):
He rise, We rise, Werise, We rise, We rise,
We rise, we rise
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The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
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