Engaging in Reparations
Responsibility for Repairing Relationships and Stewarding the Land
Grandmother Cherry Sanctuary is located on the occupied and ancestral land of Abenaki First Nation People. We recognize the violence of settler colonialism, racialized capitalism, Western European dominant culture oppression, and cultural appropriation of plant medicine and how as white-bodied land stewards of Western European descent, we collude in these systems even with our intentional efforts to practice anti-racism and decolonization. We are committed to a lifelong path of unlearning and relearning, building relationship with multi-cultural communities, and being in integrity to transformative justice movement building with the EmpowR Transformation Web of Change Makers and our shared community building efforts. Grandmother Cherry Sanctuary is intentionally designed to be a communal space for collective healing and accountability while remembering animist roots and spiritual practices to reweave relationships of reciprocity and communal care as part of shifting away from dominant cultural norms of separation and individualism.
A commitment to reparations is offered by engaging in the following practices and weaving these practices into EmpowR Transformation offerings:
- Regenerating the land from colonized land management practices by healing the soil, protecting the water, and supporting biodiversity by replanting native plants and medicines while caring for non-native plants with the same appreciation and intentional embracing of diversity.
- Unlearning and relearning from indigenous voices, practicing ancestral healing work, and being students of our own animist roots.
- Listening carefully to the seen and unseen beings of the land to help guide how to care for the sanctuary.
- Centering equity and belonging in EmpowR offerings and being committed to our intentionality and accountability to transformative justice and emergent strategy.
- Holding space for people to listen and re-awaken their sacred relationship with the Earth, and how that may inform creating the cultural conditions for a just and liberated world.
- Building capacity for community-supported herbalism and Earth-based medicine offerings that can support collective healing and creating fractals of new culture and systems.
- Exploring how the sanctuary can be a part of cultural easement to provide medicinal plant access to Abenaki-descended people.
- Cultivating a community-centric approach to bring sustainability to the efforts to manifest sanctuary visions.
Acknowledgement of the Work We Move Forward
Deep gratitude and reverence to many visionary culture builders, change makers, activists, and thought leaders who inform our work. As a part of a movement building for transformative justice and collective liberation, we are committed to learning from and moving the work forward of many teachers, including:
adrienne maree brown, Resmaa Menakem, Sherri Mitchell (She Who Brings the Light), Layla F Saad, Tema Okun, Kimberle Crenshaw, Grace Lee Boggs, Norma Wong, Jean Houston, Joanna Macy, Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining), Tara Brach, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kimberly Latrice Jones, Heather McGhee, Sonya Renee Taylor…