Liberate The Land 17

15 x 11.25 inches

Collage with Screenprint and Linoleum Block Elements on Cotton Rag Paper

2023

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The land does not belong to us, we belong to the land. This print honors the movement to FREE THE LAND!

Through this art, I celebrate Indigenous efforts to rematriate the land and return it to the stewardship of Indigenous people, such as the work led by Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women-led nonprofit rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The phrase “Free the Land” has its roots with the New Afrikan Independence Movement, which called for an independent Black nation on the North American continent. To “Free the Land” means to support Black land reparations.

Much of my education as a climate justice activist comes from Movement Generation, an organization that recognizes that people of African descent have a unique struggle in reimagining and reclaiming relationships with the land of this continent—doing so in ways that honor our ancestors from the African continent, our enslaved ancestors, and Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.

In order to solve the climate crisis, we must work towards land-based revolutions everywhere. We must work to liberate the land for all people. When we say “free the land,” we mean free it all. Liberate the gardens! Liberate the forests! Liberate the cities!