The US was formed through the ongoing attempted genocide of Native people. It was built on stolen land by stolen lives. capitalism had to be invented through the forced separation between (many) indigenous people and our lands and plants.
But DYK? Capitalism was created through the violently enforced separation of Black people: — from our homes — from our lands — from each other — from our children — from our plants — from our ancestors — from our bodies
capitalism was originally manifested via the forced separation between Black people and our lands. capitalism was created via the enforced separation of Black people from our plants. evidence? 100% cotton.
DYK? Cotton was originally an abortive resistance to breeding chattel slavery. DYK? not only the people captured to farm it but also the cotton plant itself came from Africa, the mother continent.
DYK? in order to Make cotton profitable slavers had to figure out how to stop African American women from using the African American plant as an herbal medicine effective against rape (rape with intention to enslave unborn babies).
you can’t remove indigeneity from Blackness. if you disagree it’s time we part.
you cannot separate indigeneity from the ways in which enslaved and kidnapped African-Indigenous people (meaning BOTH people who were indigenous to Africa, of various tribes and numerous locations on the continent, who gave birth to Black people AND Afro-indigenous mixed ethnicity people born of relations between Native Americans and African Americans, many of whom were also or subsequently enslaved) were able to interact with plants and the land for survival in the Americas. Calling on and collaborating with plants as reproductive medicine to stop colonizers from profiting from rape and slavery is radical, care, sacred, solidarity, resistance, indigenous, and spiritual AF.
http://sustainableherbsproject.com/claudia_ford/
Separating Black people and Blackness from indigeneity is just wrong, a next step after attempting to separate Black and Indigenous from Human… in a pattern to pry humans, Black and Indigenous people from the earth and its resources. In order for kyrairchy to win it needs indigenous people to be separated from the earth. it must steal land and commit genocide. antiblackness is one of the principle tools to enact this agenda. Fabricating a distance between the concept of indigenous people and the continent of Africa has been always a taproot of kyriarchy. #landback #Blackpeopleareindigenous
Capitalism was INVENTED via the violently enforced separation of BLACK (indigenous people whites called “Black” around the world) people:
— from our homes
— from our lands
— from each other
— from our children
- from our kin
- from our lovers
- — from our plants
- — from our ancestors
- — from our bodies
- from other indigenous people
Radical care is the energy directed toward healing these wounds. Ancestral wisdom is the knowledge that to heal this would heal the entire planet. Divine alignment is the embodiment of this truth and healing at all levels from the micro to macro cosmic.
The most brilliant of myriad examples to me personally is in celebrating Black mages and mothers. We are emblematic of this necessary and powerful continental and planetary healing.
Now that the winter holidays have officially commenced, I propose a empowering toast for my movement siblings wiiith:::
Zobo/tsobo/sobo in the motherland (Nigeria) AKA Sorrel (in Jamaica and across the Caribbean) AKA Agua de Jamaica/saríl (in Mexico and across LatinxAmerica) AKA Red Drink (on Turtle Island aka US)
This beverage of the Black Diaspora can be enjoyed hot or cold, with or without alcohol (rum is tradish), and could be called the original family friendly refresher before being appropriated by koolaid AND probably the original mocktail.
Given the pandemic conditions of 2020 it is significant to note that the base for Sorrel/Jamaica is a healing herbal tea of, among other ingredients, Roselle Hibiscus flowers.
The original Red Drink is a HEALTH food, loaded with nutritious vitamins and botanical properties including large amounts of vitamin C. Additional spices like ginger and cinnamon are also well known immune boosters.
Incidentally sorrel, the other unrelated herb also found in our diaspora cultures and cuisine, is anti carcinogenic too.
Thus in the process of being culturally appropriated (along w Br’er Rabbit AKA Bugs Bunny) our festive Red Drink, traditionally served at holiday gatherings including xmas and Juneteenth, went from being something to sip on that prevents heart disease and lowers blood pressure to basically diabetes in a cup.
ANYWHOO There’s Never been a better time to reclaim Black healing ways for our health and vitality! I’ve been drinking an easy version of this all day.
1 teabag of organic hibiscus tea + spoonfull of honey or brown/raw sugar, squeeze of lime, generous dash of pumpkin pie spice, slice of fresh ginger, all in hot water.
Gonna try a super boosted intuitive recipe soon and Ill post that to the Patreon (link in bio)!
CHEERS!
“I clutch at her, as if at any moment her spirit might slip through my fingers. If I’d known she waited for me in death, I would have embraced it, run toward it. With her is everything I ever wanted, the peace she took with her when she died. With her, I’m finally safe.
“After all this time, I’m home.
“She runs her hands over my braids before kissing my forehead. ‘You will never know how proud we are of everything you’ve done.’
…
“I can’t go back to that world. I won’t survive that pain.
“‘Zel, Orisha still needs you.’
“‘I don’t care. I need YOU!’
…
“Her dark eyes sparkle as tears fall, their warmth landing on my face.
…
“When I open my eyes, I want them to close. I want to see my mother.”
— Toni Adeyemi, Children of Blood & Bone
Every midwife knows
that not until a mother’s womb
softens from the pain of labour
will a way unfold
and the infant find that opening to be born.
Oh friend!
There is treasure in your heart, it is heavy with child.
Listen.
All the awakened ones, like trusted midwives are saying,
welcome this pain.
It opens the dark passage of Grace.Rumi
Nothing has radicalized me more than Black motherhood. nothing could.
motherhood in the modern conception is quite literally an impossible task. I would go so far as to call it in the case of Black and brown mothers particularly and all the more so if they’re unwed/solo parents, an indentured servitude, to be euphemistic.
when you are a mother your body hosts at least two ppl. and that does not end after pregnancy. you produce food from your body. or not but it is expected that you do produce food in someway to sustain both ur child and your own energy to work and care for and feed that child. at minimum.
your attitude and personality are expected to change. and they will but those changes may or may not meet or even come close to the expectation. your hair teeth belly boobs skin bones mood sexuality and more are all subject to potentially DRASTIC change. Most often not in a way that society will celebrate or appreciate. you are way more likely to have known what was coming with your first period than any of this information about postpartum. so its not only multiple huge changes its multiple huge transitions with extremely limited information. also bc the information you may get is likely to be false. or simply not true for you and your body. no matter from whom you ask. seriously.
you know what this requires? motherhood? you know what a person and body needs when going through multiple life changing changes at once while supporting a new life in addition to their own? It demands SUPPORT.
You know what the patriarchy is ALL about and does? takes AWAY that and any support it can possibly confiscate. Money. An emotionally intelligent partner. Time. A partner with time available to help. Food growing outside your door. Access to Natural places to go rest and restore. Connection to your ancestors and their traditional beliefs and practices and ceremonies esp for mothering and birthing. Language to talk about what we’re experiencing. Capacity for friendship even to be honest. Ancestral Medicines. Self esteem. Appreciation for our bodies no matter what shape or size or color or changes. Clean water. Clean air. Stable housing. A village mocambo or affordable and safe childcare. Quality education and information. Choices. Abortion access and after care. Affordable/free contraception. Stigma free sexuality. Etc etc etc
Motherhood makes abortion access so much more sacred. And vice versa. Abortion access makes motherhood so much more sacred. And vice versa. #prochoiceisprolife #fullspectrumdoula #radicalcare #rematriate
We Make the Road by Walking: Intentions and Background
I started this group (Neverending Gathering) when I first moved to Santa Cruz bc I became obsessed with an idea that came to me to gather Black Mages for a healing retreat there. As yall know I got displaced after a bitter struggle w a 55% last year before anything like that could materialize.
Then while in exile in Texas for the past year I decided to draft a petition to #createsanctuaryforBlackmages bc enough is enough. and we belong and deserve the rainbow already!
The underlying principle is the same and it is not only strong AF — the energy behind it is growing! Can you feel it?
Welcome. I want to build and grow a sanctuary with you. A home and a retreat. A healing place of belonging. It will be GORGEOUS WILD and LUXURIOUS. It will accessible including flexibility from its foundation.
It could be one place… or it could one time of year, or it could be both, or it could be several times a year, or several locations over years. The possibilities are endless…
I invite you to tap into your wildest dreams for STABILITY, PROTECTION, ABUNDANCE, and FREEDOM and ask your future selves for the guidance to manifest it.
I propose to gather and manifest and medicine make TOGETHER across distance and time and difference.
Let’s use our imaginations our desires our values our skills our magic our resources and networks to create space and experiences worthy of our precious selves as Black womxn in the struggle.
This is not my first rodeo. trying to do/set up something like this has been my dream for years and I have launched more than one campaign behind these themes of utopia and wanted to create a new home for myself and others like me.
I have lived and traveled around the world and it is one of the things I am most grateful for in life
Squatting in Switzerland and imagining new purposes for shared space. Setting up ateliers studios and creative gathering space language tables etc in one house or on a whole lot.
Hoodoo and Black spiritual tradition background. My great grandfather started Trinity Temple with a dream and it still stands today.
Our herstorical legacy. Reparations are overdue.
New York City — built over African burial ground
Los Angeles — founded by Black & Native group
Chicago — founded by Black man, Ojibway name of place
Philadelphia — MOVE bombing of Black utopian community
Tulsa — massacre of Black Wall Street
Santa Cruz — stolen by murder of free Black man and Native genocide
Keep it going; tell me more! #BlackLandMatters #LandBack
Maroonage
California as an original site of maroonage. So basically learning that California was native land & a place that free blacks tried to make a utopia and safe place for us founding cities like LA & Santa Cruz — Why come to find out the founder of Santa Cruz was Black AND they murdered him & took his land/fortune💡😱 I learned this, the murder and motive pt, yesterday. It alllll makes sooo much sense— WP murdered and stole AGAIN. #LandBack!!!!
Doing it for the planet as original stewards. Our mission is coded into our DNA. We will do it well or not at all, because we will do it if we want to or not at all. And we want to because it nourishes us fully beyond anything else we’ve ever known. Maybe daunting but in an antiblack world riddled with misogynoir maybe it’s not so hard to just do better for us through an intense and impassioned FOCUS on manifesting our own wellbeing — in its broadest sense.
For my and all of the Elevated communal Black and Indigenous Ancestors. BTW An important word on Blackness & Indigeneity, folks:
“Blacks — even those who were part Indian — were simply labeled as black on the Dawes Rolls, yet those Indians mixed with white were labeled Indian.” ………… HELLLOOOOOOOO!!!!!! #StopErasingUS. #StillHere. #Antiwhackness
Black and Native Womxn did This tho.
Black and Native womxn did That tho.
Black and Native womxn tho.
Black and Native. Tho.
I have a blood tie to the matriarchy this nation should rightfully be.
My ancestors survived the very first Thanksgiving.
My ancestors land was stolen with their displacement to the very first reservation.
My ancestor’s kidnapping sparked the revolutionary ascent of a legendary warrior queen who single-handedly staved off colonizers and enslavers.
My ancestors traveled one back and one forth across the Atlantic in the same ship. The Treasure the white lion the guiding star…
My ancestors were single mothers with land.
The sacred rivers of my ancestors are the Lukala and the Nansemond. Our lands are Tsenacomoca and Ndongo — “our place” “the land”
Umbilicus Universal Quantum Physical Communication
Our Mothers are one, and if two, the Water and the Earth.
This is the spirituality I speak of. It exists with or without human order.
The seed of the satellite moon of the Dogstar Sirius whose roots extend sowing life throughout the universe. Discovered by the Dogon ancestors of Senegal. Ancestors indigenous to Turtle Island also believe we descend from the stars. The North Star guided Saint Harriet to freedom with her passengers.
That star lies in the constellation known to the Greeks as the bear, Arkos Megara, Ursa Major.
Inspired by The Secret Life of Plants which I watched in the bathtub at the New Moon last night, the best time for stargazing.
Plants can communicate with these stars in outer space and they understand us better than we know ourselves. They are ancestors, too — plantcestors. They are always waving at us. If we listen they absolutely communicate with us too. They have mirror neurons and empathetically match our moods.
I make art for the ancestors. I make art for the earth. I make art for plants, and like good parents they smile that bewildered smile that says I wish I understood better how this is really useful but I believe in you my child.
“We’ve been led to this moment, pushed in the tiniest, most obscure ways.”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone
The present “crowning” moments are Medicine making, heartbreaking, temperature taking times. Medicine making is not just in the material but also in the spiritual care and attention put into the process. Every awareness of the layers and levels enhances the healing properties of the medicine.
Plants in the same vicinity bloom at the same time. Bodies in the same vicinity bleed at the same time. The blood nourishes the blooming plants and the blooms ease the bleeding bodies. We are the rich ones who observe this connection and are able to facilitate the medicine.
Follow your heart. It is the connection, the cord to the starseed direction of your highest ascent/good, growth. It is the only way anyway to get anywhere worth going.
Housing must be a human right, respected as law everywhere. That would give honor to Ala, Asase Ya, Tonantzin, Unci Maka, Geb, Gaia, Pachamama. Our planet, Planet Parent, Plantcestor, Earth.
I want the Earth to be proud of my work. The Earth’s people and especially anybody feeling lost or estranged from or needing protection on this Earth from its enemies to find refuge in my words and images.
Connection is our birthright and our Matriarchal authority. Rematriation is about restoring and reclaiming CONNECTION and the power of connection in and of itself.
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