If There's No Reparations, It's Not Permaculture
If there's no reparations, it's not permaculture.
My dear fellow settler-lineage permaculture educators in the US: we're teaching on stolen indigenous land! The stuff we're teaching comes from (often appropriated or stolen) place-based people's knowledge-ways!
we're also teaching on land historically farmed via violent, racist kidnapping, displacement, and enslavement of Black farm workers, and theft of their agricultural knowledge-ways!
we're on land / eating food that continues to be largely farmed and tended by POC farm workers who are being exploited financially, physically, and in their knowledge/skills!
This is where our food comes from, and where we teach this place-based process known as permaculture, which holds that Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share are inextricably woven. Nowhere is this more clear than in the historical and ongoing simultaneous theft, violation, domination, extraction, and disposability enacted by our systems on lands and their peoples.
Given this, it's our responsibility - as in response-ability - to include reparations, redistribution, and return, both financially, and in terms of land and knowledge, in the foundation of our teaching practices and businesses.
There's so many ways to do this, and you don't need to let perfectionism get in your way - you can start right now!
Find out whose indigenous land you're on, and where you can send a portion of your proceeds every time you teach there as reparations and "back rent"
Provide solidarity rates / NOTAFLF class slots so that people aren't required to be paying you to get access back to their own stolen knowledge-ways!
Contribute funds or services (or both - find out what's needed first though) to land-back and knowledge-back organizations and projects in your area!
Move money towards mutual aid efforts and requests that are run by and support folks who come from lineages of stolen land, labor, and knowledge!
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Want to learn more about permaculture and Fair Share? Join me and Rancho Compasión for a permaculture weekend!
Join me for a Permaculture Weekend!
Saturday, September 30, & Sunday, October 1
10 am - 5 pm
Hosted by Rancho Compasión in Nicasio, CA and taught by me, Rachel Economy, this fun weekend deep-dive is for anyone who wants to learn ecological design skills for creating beyond-sustainable gardens, landscapes, and communities. You'll leave with a design for your own garden or space! No experience required, beginners welcome! Those with some experience in gardening or sustainability will also get new and deeper tools and frameworks from this workshop. Liberation centered in content and teaching practices <3
Sliding scale, Solidarity & Redistribution rates available and encouraged.