INTRO
With the unfolding state of the world, we will need to go back and gather what has been lost along the way. Lifeways our ancestors knew. Connection our ancestors cultivated.
Hello! My name is Camlyn. I’m an emerging earth-worker connected to a community of several others. I use the term earth-worker because farmer or gardener doesn’t convey all the ways we interact with the earth. Though we come from various backgrounds, we seem to share an inner compass guiding us back to our relationship with land. Because of so many oppressive systems, we get disconnected from this relationship our ancestors enjoyed. Sure, to reconnect, we could enroll in any number of ecological programs. But not all programs teach in the cultural and spiritual ways we have lost.
Our ultimate goal is to raise at least $11,000 for the educational experiences we need.
I work in a number of creative industries and collaborate with a variety of artists and organizers. Some years ago I began an intentional return to earth, without knowing what that meant or how to go about it. I started learning from urban growers in Salt Lake City and working in their fields. That’s how I met Daley Yoshimura and some of the colleagues I write on behalf of today.
Daley Yoshimura is a Queer Yonsei (4th generation of Japanese lineage) artist whose ancestors found kinship with other Japanese folx, bonded through shared culture, farming, spirituality, & (unsurprisingly) intense racism, discrimination, & displacement. She seeks to strengthen that connection her ancestors had with the earth, and do so with new knowledge, understanding, & in relation with those that have multi-generational intimate relationships with these lands as well.
THE PROBLEM
My grandparents and great-grandparents share the common Black experience of fleeing the country (overt racism) and moving to the city (semi-disguised racism.) Due to a continual diaspora, I have family in the Carolinas, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, California, and various regions across the U.S. My parents brought me to the Goshute, Paiute, Shoshone, Timpanogos, and Ute ancestral lands we know as Utah; lands that have always had a multicultural history.
Recently my Salt Lake City-based collaborators from communities of color came together as interpersonal ruptures renewed what our bodies and lineages have experienced across the world for thousands of years (violation of trust, displacement, food and housing insecurity, survival mode, difficulty engaging in rest, disconnection with earth, etc.) Gathering the wisdom from these experiences, we now dig deeper to discern what we need, how we want to live, who to work with, and how to be in right relationship as we go.
We, like many earth-workers of color, lack equity and autonomous access to land. There is a real and constant threat of removal when land is shared, leased, or lent. We seek autonomy not just to grow food or medicine, but to privately engage in our cultural and ancestral practices.
We could fundraise to buy land. Yet we know the heartbreaking loss that occurs when hopeful endeavors like this ultimately fail or dissolve due to a number of factors. What will establish the foundation, resilience, culture, and stability of a land project? This question can bring up a lot of insight! So far we feel
- Reconnecting with culturally relevant earth-knowledge can keep us grounded in who we are
- If we have the land’s blessing, that adds a whole lot of stability to our work
We value a communicative relationship with land. If the land has an agenda different from our own, we intend to follow its instructions. This is a subtle language to learn! So before we buy land, we seek teachers who make it their practice to ask and listen when the land says, “No.”
Obviously there is a whole world of people in all of our cultures who rely on land as their livelihood and give gratitude for its production. This literally feeds us! But my colleagues and collaborators aren’t sure we’ll follow those models. We have a different objective.
While we are grateful for the education and garden space white allies offer, our knowledge and practices simply are not whole if they are not rooted in ancestral and Indigenous teachings. (And personally, I’d rather not have observing eyes on me when I burst into song, dance, or prayer in the garden.) So, allies, now you can support by helping us learn from the educators we would choose for ourselves!
Please help us employ earth-workers from communities of color, connected to our heritage.
MISSION STATEMENT
We seek to connect to our heritage and be in right relationship with ourselves, land, and earth-workers of color. We return to this source in order to heal, ground, and joyfully create from wholeness.
THE BUDGET
Funding is dedicated to:
1. Educational courses and workshops
2. Indigenous consultations
3. Research & operational costs
We’ve identified at least 10 culturally relevant teachers and experiences that excite our earth-loving hearts. We’ve already committed some monthly expenses to this education. But many of us are self-employed with volatile income. This is why my colleagues and I seek your support. Not only can we not actually afford this healing knowledge by ourselves, it’s also hard to set aside the time for research or education when taking work off means a bill doesn’t get paid. So our goal is to fairly pay these educators without requiring steep costs for the students.
COST BREAKDOWN AND MILESTONES
- offering to the Timpanogos Nation - $500
- workshop offering #1 with Chef Jean Mendieta - $1,000
- ½ the cost for The People’s Medicine School - $300
- organizer stipend - $1,200
$3,000 Mark!
- Indigenous consultation & research trip - $900
- workshop offering #2 - $1,000
- research & grant team stipends - $1,500
$6,400 Mark!
- leadership development facilitated by Indigenous educator - $2,000
- taxes they gonna charge us - $1,300
$9,700 Mark!
- leadership development facilitated by earth-worker of color - $1,300
$11,000 total goal
WHAT’S UNDERWAY
Our relationships are rooting and growing! At my own expense, I’ve arranged travel to meet with identified earth-teachers to confirm alignment and solidify upcoming workshops. We’ve applied for grants and will continue doing so. Any additional funds this campaign or these grants award us will go towards:
1. Expanding the number of students who can participate
2. Paying better stipends
3. Covering whatever gaps this campaign or grants may not fill
4. Foundational funding for what we create in 2027 (Yes, of course we’d love some land. Hence preparing our relational and cultural stability)
THE SELECTION PROCESS
When it comes to selecting teachers or educational experiences, we prioritize learning from those who can trace the lineage of their knowledge back to trusted elders; those who haven’t separated their science from a code of cultural principles. As mentioned, we also value teachers who know how to ask the land what it wants and then listen. When the land says, “No,” they give up their agenda, do not proceed, or follow whatever instructions are given instead. That takes a lot of inner and outer work! But it’s how we want to live.
THE PEOPLE
These educational experiences are designed for:
1. A core leadership team of earth-workers of color
2. A wider community of students interested in the workshops offered (2-4 a year)
Daley and I connect monthly with a larger, aligned community of about 9-14 growers and organizers (and counting). These multi-racial organizers come from mutual aid, art, queer, and land based associations. Like a ripple, we’ll share the workshop offerings with these organizers and the communities they serve. You’ll find updates on this page!
Some teachers we’ve identified are indigenous to the lands we reside on, and some are indigenous to neighboring regions. Being in right relationship with and contributing to the wellness of Indigenous communities is inseparable to our care of land and our ancestral healing.
The first donations we receive will go to the Timpanogos Nation . While we know there are numerous Indigenous tribes and causes in our area, rather than give different groups donations of 30 dollars, we’ve decided to give a larger offering to a nation “unrecognized.” In total, at least a third of our budget goes towards Indigenous led organizations–though it will probably amount to more than that. We have some exciting options when it comes to Indigenous cultural sensitivity training. If you know of resources, referrals, or trainings, please send them our way!
Chef Jean Mendieta is also on our list of teachers. A practiced workshop educator, chef Mendieta demonstrates how to grow food from the earth and artfully prepare it for our bodies in a way informed by ancestral traditions.
A number of us have enrolled in The People’s Medicine School facilitated by Rootwork Herbals .
We could go on! But we don’t want to publicly share all the teachers’ or students’ identities here because we don’t have consent to. Our relationships are still forming. (Also do you really want me to write 16 bios?) Many are rightfully cautious with their collaborations. Our intentions go beyond hiring these educators for one experience. We hope to maintain an ongoing, reciprocal relationship because a village is the best teacher. Once we are further along in developing trust and exchange consent, we’ll happily share more of who we are in relationship with!
THE VISION
Imagine the opposite of burnout.
Imagine grounding ourselves every day, even in the middle of this storm.
Imagine creating from that place of groundedness and connection rather than reactivity.
Imagine what it could’ve been like if communities had never been colonized and severed from their traditional ecological knowledge and their ancestral practices.
I can see it. Sometimes I can feel it. There are communities and teachers out there living it.
On a global scale it would take a lot of work. But a household could do it relatively fast. And if that household had a good enough relationship with 10 organizers, well then...
But let’s not get ahead of the very important journey! The journey is already the destination, which is practicing right relationship, here and now. We heal now. We ground now. We joyfully create now.
Thank you for reading and showing up for us!
RESOURCES
People’s Medicine School by Rootwork Herbals (There is an April 1 deadline to join a cohort!)
Recognizing our Indigenous hosts
Timpanogos Nation
Camlyn's Linktr.ee