The Inherited Privilege of Being Connected to Land
How I (as an American) benefit from the very same colonial systems of violence & oppression of which we are collectively fighting against in the movement for Ceasefire in Gaza
Picture of a burnt Douglas Fir tree in the old growth forests outside Darrington, WA. Taken by Marika Clymer 5/4/24.
Whilst walking through lands I call “home” that are scarred from last year’s wildfire, I cannot help but hear the Earth whisper to me: that the Element of Fire is a sacred spirit that is not only an expression of the Earth herself, a spirit that gives all life to this place we - everyone on this planet - calls Home, but is also a spirit that has been abused, bound, and weaponized by colonial systems to violently displace and uproot peoples from their homelands.
This land I call home.
To stand upon on this ground,
this very ground,
this sacred ground,
of which all ground is sacred
is a benefit I receive from the very systems of oppression I fight against, is an unearned prosperity given to me through violence from the very systems of oppression I experience internal resistance to - access to homelands being a human right that belongs to all of us, but that which has come at the cost of the lives and culture of the many Coast Salish Indigenous tribes.
The fulfillment of the “American Dream”, and the ideologies that fueled Manifest Destiny and the movement from East to West, shares deep, deep similarities with the Zionist movement that has been ravaging Palestinians for generations. They both see their access to Land as righteous, supported by God, and can “rightfully” be attained through the violent displacement of communities of people(s), human and more-than-human. It is reinforced by the colonial and nationalist delusion that access to Land is not a human right, and made possible by a collective sickness of objectification of the Land, thus categorizing “it” as a commodity to be bought and sold. The illusion of boundaries, borders, and territory.
Objectification - noun
ob·jec·ti·fi·ca·tion/əbˌjektəfəˈkāSH(ə)n/
the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object
Dehumanization - noun
de·hu·man·i·za·tion/ˌdēˌ(h)yo͞omənəˈzāSH(ə)n,ˌdēˌ(h)yo͞oməˌnīˈzāSH(ə)n/
the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities
I struggle to find a word that perhaps precedes both of these, the root that has poisoned this planet for centuries, one that is antithetical to the belief that the Earth and all of its inhabitants intrinsically have spirit. It is through the removing of this connection to the spirit in all things, disconnection from traditional animist beliefs, that make objectification and dehumanization the foundation of oppressive ideologies. Ideologies that have become reality.
It can be easy to ignore the histories of the lands upon which our feet are firmly planted.
It can be slightly more challenging to ignore the histories of our personal familial lines, and the traumas that haunt our bodies, our relationships to the land, and each other.
For a majority of us Americans, it is okay to acknowledge that many of our families have storied histories, narratives passed down be that spoken or unspoken - stories of violence, displacement, and immigration to these lands. My very own Obachan having feet she always kept covered because they were so disfigured by walking through the smoldering remains of a city in ruins - she too was in seek of safety - coverfrom the missiles that rained down on Japan during World War II. It is quite palpable, the image of her feet which I only saw once as a little girl, mixing with the present visceral tingling in the soles of my feet as I contemplate what it would be like to have the very same skin that is the first point of contact with the Earth to be burned and scarred forever. My heart begins to race and my eyes dart from one part of the room to the other, even as I write these words.
Many of our elders and ancestors came to this land to be “free” from violence, to seek safety, in search of the very same prosperity that was promised by the “American Dream”, perhaps not knowing, or ignoring the fact that our ability to access these lands was made possible through an inconceivably violent past.
It is okay to acknowledge our own histories, and perhaps vital to the cause for us to re-connect with the grief and trauma of what it feels like to be displaced from our homelands. But, I implore myself to explore and integrate the reality that, in this very moment, I am able to walk outside the door of my house, and place the soles of my feet - skin unscathed, unscarred, and in fact soft from being enclosed in wool socks all through the winter - onto the cool, damp grass in my backyard.
E A R T H.
In this moment, I am able to firmly plant my feet upon the Earth. But in Gaza, in this present moment, the feet of Palestinians are being violently uprooted from their homelands. With each step, mycelial threads being torn from the soil that has fostered life for their community for generations upon generations. That, without a doubt, many of them have feet openly wounded with second and third degree burns such that my grandmother endured - and yet must persist forward in seek of safety.
In the fight for ceasefire in Gaza, and the fight against Zionist ideologies that afford some but not all the privilege of access to homelands, we fight against the colonial systems that displace and uproot many peoples around the world from their homelands, too. As Carolyn (@acknowledgewellness, you can also read her Substack here) reminded me this morning, colonial violence is not just ravaging Gaza, but also Tigray, Armenia, Ughyer, Congo, Sudan, Haiti, among others.
Being uprooted from homelands,
being deprived of the human right to have access to land,
being deprived of the intrinsic right to all living beings,
Not having access to clean water, (a reminder that Flint, Michigan and other parts of the Northern Midwest United States still do not have clean water),
Not having access to clean air, as the air is thick with smoke and gunpowder in Gaza,
is an experience ravaging not only communities around the world, but the very heart of connection to this Earth that is alive within us all - that which connects us to the Land, and to each other.
Displacement from the lands we call home is an experience that connects us all.
An Invitation into Eco-Somatic Embodied Practice
If you have access to any exposed Earth, I invite you to firmly plant the bare soles of your feet to it. With each exhale of gentle breath, drop your Presence from wherever it sits down the body into the feet. Embody each of the cells that are experiencing the Earth beneath them, thoughtfully moving through the various senses.
What do you physically feel? What is the texture of the ground you are standing on? What is the feeling of your weight upon the Earth? Is the ground moist or dry? Cool or warm? Firm or soft?
Tap into senses beyond tactile, physical sensation - sight, smell, hearing, and others.Begin to soak in all of these senses through the perspective of your feet. Can your feet contextualize, interpret, and feel how the space you are in is absorbed into the Earth? How are the sounds of cars passing, the wind blowing through leaves, or the houses/buildings that surround you apart of what the Earth is holding?
If you feel able, begin asking your feet the stories they hold. What are the threads of relationship that tied your ancestors to the Land? Can you hold space for any grief, rage, or otherwise? Do your feet feel compelled to move or to firmly root themselves? Can you hold space for not only disembodiment/disconnection/disassociation from the feet to the rest of your body, but also to the land?
If you feel able, begin asking the Earth of her experience of your ancestral lines and/or your personal body upon her skin. Can you hold space for rootedness, deep reaching connections into the core of the Earth? Can you hold space for her love and nurturing energy hoping to comfort and gather you into her arms?
If you feel able, ask your feet to connect to the land in Gaza. What is the land there feeling? Can you envision the textures and sensations of the ground there? What is the energy held in that land in this moment? Can you feel the pattering of thousands of soles of feet, in desperate movement for safety? Can you hold space for what their feet & bodies are feeling - the stress of labored movement in an attempt for survival, the impact of hard, compacted ground, crawling its way up legs like ivy made of hot coals, quietly strangling the hearts, minds, lives, and spirits of Palestinians?
Ask your body what it would like to do with all of these feelings, sensations, and experiences from this exercise. Do you need to process what you have experienced? Do you need to move the energy from one part of the body to the other? Do you need to ask the Earth to hold or take some of this energy? Do your feet need to move? Does your body need to move? Do you need to make art, make music, call a friend, receive a hug, massage oil into your feet, or more?
“Bodies of Land”, Issue #002
a seasonal zine in collaboration with Carolyn Egan (@acknowledgewellness), Jonathan Koe (@jonathankoeofficial), and myself will be released next week sometime. If you are an organizer fighting for Palestinians and ceasefire in Gaza, please reach out to me or Carolyn directly to receive a free copy.
Marika: hello@energeticecologynw.com
Carolyn: info@acknowledgewellnessllc.com