Land, Growth, and Community

Many of us live lives that are disconnected from the land and our environment.

The process of learning about the traditional stewards of the land you’re on, and honoring the environment can have impacts that go beyond land acknowledgments and help us deepen our relationships with place and community.

India joins Erica for a discussion about acknowledging and honoring the land, what Erica has learned about gardening, and how she’s evolving in her work and relationships.

Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:

• What Erica and India have learned since researching whose land they’re on

• How growing and tending plants has evolved Erica’s relationship to the land and her ancestors

• How Erica’s professional training has impacted her personal relationships and the way she shows up for her children

Acknowledgement and Honoring the Land

On the Pause on the Play® podcast, Erica Courdae (she/her) points out that she opened the show with an acknowledgment of the stolen land from where she records the show and the traditional stewards of that land, the Susquehannock, Piscataway, and Nentego people.

India also includes a land acknowledgment on the Flaunt Your Fire® podcast, and says that both she and Erica have been on a journey of exploring whose land they are on.

Erica says she didn’t think about it for a long time and that in the past she was more aware of the north-south divide represented in Maryland and having the “low rumble that’s always there for a lot of Black people, in particular, of recognizing the things that scream danger or lack of safety.”

As she was going through the home-buying process, she became more conscious of the fact of living on stolen land, and buying and selling ill-gotten gains, and how some people choose not to own property because of that.

“I think we’re all trying to figure it out as best as we can, because there is some liminal space happening here. We’re still existing in the world that we’re in. And think…[that if] this property was ill-gotten, maybe at least me honoring it and me being someone that got here because someone was stolen and brought here, and brought me to this stolen territory–maybe there’s a certain amount of reclamation that can possibly be just a little bit closer to happening.”

India Jackson (she/her) says that for her, what started as wanting to be able to acknowledge whose land she is on, led her “down a long rabbit hole of even discovering that we’re both on land that originally was the land of my brothers’ ancestors. That rabbit hold took me even further to discovering that they had to literally fight to even be able to get their rights and to be classified as natives.”

Erica says learning whose land you’re on is also part of acknowledging interdependence.
“Acknowledging that we don’t do this alone has really taken me down a path of a certain amount of reverence and consciousness about…how are we caring for the land, are we respecting those that were caretakers of it for generations?”

For Erica, part of honoring that is in how she uses her outdoor space and her garden to produce food for herself and her family, and nourish the ecosystem around her.

“It’s a very different level of consciousness than just, I’m gonna throw some seeds out and see if I can get some flowers to grow, but really understanding that this is about nourishing this land, this is a part of nourishing ourselves.”

India says that the conversation started with learning whose land she was on, and has expanded into so many different directions, including ecology and environmental sustainability, that are “also a part of that consciousness, that awareness in how we may approach the way we’re thinking about DEI.”

Growth and Flourishing in the Garden

As Erica has explored honoring and sustaining the land through gardening and food production, she has also felt a reclamation of her lineage and reverence for her ancestors.

“My maternal grandmother…she just always knew how to grow things, and she was just good at it, and it was an innate thing.”

For a long time, Erica thought that did not pass on to her and that she had a black thumb, but a few years ago, “I just kind of felt called to it and I decided to try it, and lo and behold, I was actually able to keep those plants alive and they were thriving.”

She adds that she’s learned a lot about what she does and doesn’t like to grow, and that she’s leaned on resources like Hilton Carter, The New Plant Parent, and The Plant Rescuer for information.

And, she says, “I just remember taking in some content and recognizing that so often there is this lie that some people are good at growing things and some people are not. And the reality is, that has nothing to do with it.” 

She has learned about the impact of what kind of light you have, the environment you’re in, your climate, what other plants you’re growing, what kind of maintenance the plants need, etc. on if and how they’ll grow for her. But it’s also about getting your hands dirty.

“It’s been really freeing to learn some of the technical ways to do it, but also the fact that this really is about emotions and getting in it and having your hands in it and just being connected to it.”

And keeping her plants happy and thriving is not only a source of pride, but it remains a connection to her grandmother.

“It took me a long time to figure out what information worked for me, what methods supported the way that I wanted to interact with growing and flourishing, and how it is that I could also be of service to these living, breathing organisms. Plants are not just decoration, they grow. They are things that have roots and they reach for the sun. They take in oxygen. They’re very much like us in a lot of ways, and I wanna respect that.”

India says that while she kills plants, “the moment you start linking it back to gardening, and regenerative gardening and how that’s amazing for our greenhouse gases and for our soil, and plant life and animals and how you can share what you grow, and the community refrigerator, I’m like, I gotta figure out these skills now.”

Erica says it’s a very different process to grow something that nourishes you or nourishes your community than just going to the store and buying produce. “And I am fully here for that type of connectedness and acknowledgment of the interdependence that can be present there.”

Growth and Allyship

India notes that Erica’s learning about land and soil has evolved a lot of how she spends her free time and the practices that support her finding peace, and asks if there are other things that Erica has learned that have helped her evolve to where she is now.

“There’s so many things that you and I spend time learning about that has nothing to do with our work sometimes, but then you’re like, oh, shit, but it does.”

Erica says that going through a coaching program and being actively in the coaching space has shifted her interpersonal relationships, and helped her perceive others’ actions through a more objective and empathetic lens. She says it’s also shifted the way she parents.

One of the key lessons she’s taken from it has been that often how people treat her, “likely had nothing to do with me. Not because I don’t matter in the situation, but we too often can tell ourselves that things are about us. Things are happening to us…[But] there are times when you just so happen to be a part of it. You just so happen to be impacted by it…And that has been helpful because then it doesn’t support any victim mentality. It doesn’t support any, what’s wrong with me, mentality.”

India says that one of the biggest takeaways she’s had from witnessing Erica’s growth is how she is an ally for her children. 

“You’re not just raising your children, you are an ally for them. Because oftentimes there are things coming up in their lives that directly link back to DEI-related things.”

Erica says, “I want people to more widely understand that being an ally for someone is less about the difference of race or gender or socioeconomic status, or insert identifier here and more about understanding that if someone lives, leads, earns, loves whatever it is differently than you, even just in the nuances, that being able to hold space for that reality just as much as you do for your own is a very strong and necessary act of being an ally.”

Erica says that right now, she feels like there are a lot of possibilities. 

“That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect or ideal or great. It’s the fact that I am at a point that myself, those around me, those I support, those I love, those I care for–there’s a lot of possibility that is accessible, and that in itself is more than enough to be excited for.”

Ready to dive deeper?

When we’re thinking about topics that aren’t widely discussed, it can be challenging to know where to search for information, or even the right questions to ask. And that’s where the power of community comes in.

In The Pause on the Play® Community, we ask questions, and share our journeys, resources, and knowledge. There is so much power and opportunity for growth in being in community with people who share your values and allow you to reconsider your normal.

Learn more at pauseontheplay.com/community