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Who “owns” land?
What does it mean to “belong” to land when we’ve been displaced from ancestral or familial land?
How do we confront and transform race and class-based disparity in land access?
What does it look like for folks of settler descent to transform colonial relationships to land, revive the commons, and support Indigenous Land Back movements… whether we do or don’t personally “own" land?
What individual and collective actions can non-Indigenous herbalists, pagans, and other earth-centered practitioners take to heal our relationships to this land, Indigenous communities, and other marginalized peoples?
We’ll begin this class with the starting premise that capitalism and settler colonialism have left us in a toxic, extractive relationship with land and more-than-human beings. As herbalists, we may have a particular longing to heal these wounds — but for those of settler/European ancestry, the politics of doing so can be contentious and confusing.
We’ll frame our conversation with a view to the impact and meaning of these issues within a population that has a particularly tangled relationship to land in North America: the Gaelic and English diaspora. As an entry point, we’ll explore Lughnasadh—a seasonal celebration in precolonial Gaelic societies, a traditional harvest celebration, and a time of renegotiating and revisioning practical and spiritual relationships with land.
If you’re excited to dive into topics like non-capitalist land relations, the radical history of cooperative land use in Ireland and Britain, and re-invigorating the commons to build a decolonized future, come join this conversation!
Mica McDonald (they/he) is a graduate from the clinical herbalism program at VCIH and a co-founder of Railyard Apothecary in Burlington, VT. Mica been active in numerous social justice and environmental movements over the last 20+ years. They are currently researching, writing, and finishing up their masters degree on topics at the intersection of decolonial politics, social theory, and anthropology of spirituality.