CORRINA GOULD on Settler Responsibility and Reciprocity [ENCORE] /355
“Rematriate the Land” hand-lettered sign hanging on a chain link fence featured in Free the West Berkeley Shellmound!, a Sacred Land Film Project, © 2021 Christopher MacLeod / Earth Island Institute.
This week we are taking a pause from our regularly scheduled releases to rebroadcast Corrina Gould’s potent and powerful episode that originally aired in November 2020.
We hope that this episode serves as a reminder of humanity and land rematriation in the face of deep colonial violence. The genocide in Palestine highlights the ways colonial forces of greed, extraction and brutal disregard for life and ties to the land are bearing their bloody teeth. We cannot return to “normal.” How can we catalyze action towards a future of reparation, responsibility, and reciprocity?
In this episode of For The Wild, guest Corrina Gould reminds us that the land can sustain us in a way that would provide for our wellbeing should we choose to really re-examine what it is we need to survive. But more than a conversation on the wealth of the land, we explore responsibility and reciprocity on stolen homelands by asking what it means to be in right relationship? How can we foster integrity in conservation and land restoration work amidst a world that continues to peddle scarcity, greed, and extraction? How can folks contribute to the re-storying of the land, even if through small acts?
“When we are talking about stolen lands from people, we are not talking about a past—we are talking about currently stolen lands.”
Photo of Corrina Gould
Corrina Gould is the spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone. She was born and raised in Oakland, CA, the territory of Huichin. She is an activist that has worked on preserving and protecting the ancient burial sites of her ancestors in the Bay Area for decades. She is the Co-founder and a Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change, a small Native run grassroots organization and co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women’s community organization working to return land to Indigenous stewardship in San Francisco’s East Bay.
This enriching conversation also explores Sogorea Te’ Land Trust as the first urban Indigenous women-led land trust in the country, what land reclamation looks like in urbanized areas, and how land taxes can both begin to foster relationships on stolen lands, while also meaningfully supporting tribes in places like California that remain unrecognized by the federal government. Our conversation closes with a vision for land restoration and reclamation that does not disrupt the healing, sanctity, and rhythm of life after so many years of colonial violence.
♫ The music featured in this episode is "Warriors" by Shayna Gladstone and "Canta," "Rain Song," and "Meteor Martyr" by Amo Amo.
Take Action
For more information on direct action you can take this week please visit https://www.shutitdown4palestine.org
OTHER Episodes with Wisdom FOR this moment
DORI MIDNIGHT on Spinning Webs of Support /310
Vijay Prashad on Capitalism's Erosion of Morality [ENCORE] /268
Dr. LARRY WARD on Healing the Colonial Mind /296
Episode References
Sogorea Te’s Shummi Land Tax
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Planting Justice
Johnella LaRose
Indian People Organizing for Change
Junípero Serra
Real Rent Duwamish
Manna-hatta Fund
Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation by Beth Rose Middleton
“Sacred Shellmounds of the Bay Area”
Reading Recommendations
Unsettling Ourselves: Reflections and Resources for Deconstructing Colonial Mentality
Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex
The Problem With Privilege by Andrea Smith
What Does it Mean to be a Weapon of War? Settler Colonialism and Black Labor by William Jamal Richardson
Un-Settling Settler Desires by Scott Morgenson
Decolonization is Not a Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (especially the section called “Moves to Innocence III: Colonial Equivocation”)
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For The Wild Podcast is an anthology of the Anthropocene; focused on land-based protection, co-liberation and intersectional storytelling rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth and consumerism.