If you’re wondering how you can support those most impacted, we recommend utilizing these resource compilations from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.
Caring for Land Means Caring for People
We have been hearing from our network of land stewards as we continue to witness acts of cruelty and violations of civil rights in the Twin Cities, where our organization is based and where a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents has made it unsafe for neighbors to move through daily life. At the same time, we are witnessing immense community stewardship and abundant acts of neighborly care that reflect the world we want to live in.
In this moment of collective grief, Climate Land Leaders are reflecting on how land stewardship and care for one another intersect in times of crisis. We reached out asking participants to reflect on the following questions:
- In a time of communities being under strain or threat, what does land stewardship mean to you?
- What examples of mutual aid are you seeing in your local community?
- How do you see the values and concerns of your community (whether rural or urban) shaping your response to what’s happening in Minneapolis and across the state?
- What can land teach us about caring for one another through conflict and uncertainty?
- How does your relationship to place influence how you respond to moments of upheaval?
Below we’ve included a few Climate Land Leaders’ responses:
Paula Westmoreland (MN & WI)
When you are connected to a place, you feel it in your bones and in your heart. It is a part of you. It is the land you know, the water, the soil, the people you share space with, the plants and animals that call it home. It is your circle of care. When your circle is attacked you respond in the ways that you can – giving of your time, raising alarms, donating food and money for rent, protecting the vulnerable, showing compassion and kindness, standing up for what’s right, and calling out what’s wrong. This is what Minneapolis and St Paul have been doing and will continue to do … show resolve and persistence in the face of aggression. It is what anyone would do to protect those in their circle of care.
Leslie Kaup (MN)
The land we steward includes the critters and plants and people in and around it– our neighbors, our friends, our visitors. Land stewardship, for me, has always included taking care of people. I live in a rural area, where folks haven’t had to think about scarcity of resources during times of conflict in the same ways that urban areas have in recent years. Now we are. I am so in love with my community right now, as we collect donations, patrol areas around schools and factories, give children rides to school, buy groceries for families who are afraid to leave their homes. We are connecting with our neighbors in a way I’ve never seen before. We are supporting our immigrant-owned businesses. We are hosting trainings so that folks know their rights.
The land we steward includes the critters and plants and people in and around it– our neighbors, our friends, our visitors. Land stewardship, for me, has always included taking care of people. This crisis makes me want more people to have relationships with the land I steward. Winter is hard, and this winter feels harder than most. I am thinking every day of how this land can provide food, comfort, and sanctuary to more members of my community. My relationship to this land is a balm during rough times. I can walk through woods and fields and get out of the doom racing through my head. And instead fill myself with birds and leaves and lichen and moss, living thoughts.
Doug Zehr (IL)
I’m a farmer
I love the country
I love my Republican neighbors
I love my Democrat neighbors
I love America
I loved the way it was
We used to watch America burn once a day
At 6 PM with Walter Cronkite
It seemed bearable
We were going to be okay
Walter was calm
Now we can watch America burn all day
And all night if we can’t sleep
On FaceBook
Nobody is calm
I’m tired
I’m tired of the ICE show
We don’t need it
Undocumented immigrants have committed a crime
A misdemeanor
So make them pay
Let them pay for their crime in the courts
They can and they will
Let ICE do its job
The one it always did
Get the murderers and rapists
Not the grandpas and preschoolers
And the parents making a difference in their community
We have nothing to fear from immigrants
They have always, always brought progress
Not Progressive
Not Democrat
Because most become more conservative
At least with age
Just like me
Immigrants have always made America greater
And there’s still room to grow
But we have to make room for love
Love thy neighbor
Republican or Democrat
Conservative or Liberal
Citizen or Immigrant
Love thy neighbor
Because we have no choice
If we want to make America great again
Because I love America
I love the Country
I’m a farmer
Meg Nielsen (MN & WI)
Even though we are saddened beyond tears by the ICE agent perpetrated events in Minneapolis during the past few weeks, we are grateful beyond belief for the example of community togetherness set by our brothers and sisters there. Like roots in the ground, thousands of ordinary people in the Twin Cities banded together to support their neighbors, bringing food, providing comfort and affirming them simply by being present. Day after day they have upheld one another through candlelight gatherings, worship services, protest marches, stirring songs that urged us to hold on, and the kind of resolute, muffled hugs you can only give while bundled for extreme cold.
Their example makes all of us at Climate Land Leaders uniquely aware of the continuing importance of our work in regenerating the soil, protecting our water and building community in all biospheres both above and below the ground. We are all connected, all part of the sacred web of creation. What harms one part adversely affects the whole. The events in MN make us acutely aware of the importance of standing with our human brothers and sisters. But it also shows us the significance of strengthening the bonds that unite all beings, human or otherwise. In healing the earth, we heal ourselves. Healing is reciprocal.
In the words of the song we’ve heard sung so often during marches and gatherings during the past weeks, “Hold on, my dear ones, here comes the dawn.”
Jane Shey (IA)
The presence in Minneapolis and St. Paul of an armed militia and the citizens’ response demonstrates the fierce care for community by so many in the various neighborhoods. But it also exposes the need to dominate and control that has been sanctioned by our government. It is the same need to dominate that almost led to the extinction of our Native American communities and enslaved our African American brothers and sisters. It is a lack of respect and appreciation for the richness of culture and community.
The people of the Twin Cities have embraced Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ, “all my relatives” in the Lakota language. Just as I am a steward of land entrusted to me at this time, the people in the Twin Cities are stewards of each other. They make sure that targeted communities are fed, can get to work or go to school safely. They witness and call out the brutality that comes from a force who cannot respect the richness of the many cultures that make the Twin Cities such a vibrant community. This militia is threatened by what they do not have – a caring community who will stand in the face of violence and defend their neighbors.
I am a land steward who lives in Iowa, but I can see that in Minneapolis – St. Paul, there is the same sense of stewardship, of people caring for each other just as I care for the land. I stand in awe of these people and communities who fight this injustice and cruelty.