Traditional Land Practices
In short
Reconnecting with indigenous land practices, farming & building
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Reconnecting with indigenous land practices, farming & building
Student
In exploring the conditions that severed Black communities’ relationship with the land, I came to understand that this rupture was both a cost of and a consequence of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Recognising that our spiritual and biological survival is inseparable from our connection to land, I began a process of relearning practices that had been suppressed or forgotten, while also imagining what new futures might be possible. To support this journey, I have undertaken immersive study in traditional and regenerative land practices: the F.I.R.E. Immersion at Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, a natural building and earthen plasters course at Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica, and the ROOTS 72-hour Permaculture Design Course at Solidarity Yaad in Jamaica.
If anyone talks about healing our relationship to the land as a means towards sovereignty for Black communities, Soulfire Farm will likely enter the conversation. Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center dedicated to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Based in upstate New York, they run a week-long immersion programme for people of Black, Indigenous, and Latin heritage to deepen their connection to the land and gain skills in regenerative farming grounded in Afro-Indigenous farming practices and histories. During this week I learnt:
Rancho Mastatal is a sustainability education center, permaculture farm, ecolodge and community rooted in environmental sustainability, meaningful, place-based livelihoods, and caring relationships. As one of the leaders of sustainable building practices, in Central America. Rancho Mastatal offer a 2-week long Natural Building course, teaching all the foundations of building a home from natural, local materials. During this course I learnt:
Grounded in the principle that traditional permaculture practice rarely references the indigenous origins of many of the principles and practices it embodies, the ROOTS PDC, run by the stewards of Soul Flower Farm, seeks to reclaim this origin, by teaching the traditional 72-hour Permaculture Design Course through the lens of indigenous practices from communities across the globe while also adding an additional 24-hours to go deeper into other ancestral land practices. Course content includes:
