The Sogorea Te Land Trust
An urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people
As we continue our work of Rematriation, we invite our community and supporters to read our stories and updates from the land, and our growing programs and projects. Check out the Ya Nuunukne Spring 2023 Newsletter of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust here!
Ya Nuunukne Spring 2023 Newsletter Designed & Edited by Viola LeBeau…
The Cultural Easement returning Rinihmu Pulte’irekne is official!
On December 13 members of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, The Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation, the City of Oakland and hundreds of supporters gathered to sign and celebrate this historic cultural easement returning the land formerly known as Sequoia Point to Indigenous care.
The evenings festivities took place at Chabot Space and Science Center and included included a sharing of the story of the land, the official signing of the easement paperwork, Indigenous foods by Kickapoo Chef Crystal Wahpepah, Music by Audio Pharmacy, traditional Pomo dances offered by and Round Valley and Big Valley Dance groups.
The land has be named Rinihmu Pulte’irekne by Chochenyo language keeper Deja and spans a about 4 acres in a city park in the Oakland Hills. The easement grants access and land use rights to the tribe through the land trust. Sogorea Te and the City have been collaborating to create new tools to engage innovative approaches to easements for Indigenous land return. The long term vision of this project is to recreate a thriving, beautiful, ceremonial gathering …
As we continue our work of Rematriation, we invite our community and supporters to read our stories and updates from the land, and our growing programs and projects. Check out the Ya Nuunukne Fall 2022 Newsletter of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust here!
Ya Nuunukne Fall 2022 Newsletter Designed & Edited by Viola LeBeau…
Invitation to Participatory Rematriation
Indigenous cultural items, sacred objects, artifacts, and ancestors are held in galleries, museums, private collections and even decorate non-Indigenous family homes and businesses.
The plunder of settler-colonialism is still being passed around in wills, deeds, and trusts. Thousands of acres of Indigenous land, every wealth legacy built on extracted resources, our ancestors’ burials, our peoples traditional knowledge, our families baskets and pottery, our grandmother’s regalia. Relatives on both sides of these thefts are still here.
As understanding and knowledge of participation in histories and structures of colonial inequality grows, these legacies are being shifted and transformed. Generations of Indigenous self determination and struggle are bringing some of these relatives home.
RETURNS is a creative engagement sharing stolen pieces of the history of this land that have been returned to the care of Indigenous people. It is open for viewing and participation. You are invited to return things taken.
Amazing week as the news of the cultural easement returning Sequoia Point to Indigenous care! Check out some of the news here:
Resharing this amazing emergent conversation “Queer Projects on Indigenous Land” and related resources for Pride month!
How do we create liberatory spaces on stolen Indigenous land?
Where do queering and decolonizing and unsettling land intersect and support each other and miss or collide?
How are queer led land projects and intentional spaces navigating collective approaches to healing historic harms, land access, landback, and rematriation?
These are some of the questions a loose network of queer spaces, and intentional land project organizers are beginning to ask ourselves. You are invited to our emerging conversation.
Hosted by Sogorea Te’ Land Trust as part of our ongoing online political education, art and community learning engagements.
Participants:
Inés Ixierda & Vick Montaño
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Deseree Fontenot & Hasmik Geghamyan
Mugworts Queer Cabin
Sacha Marini
Fancyland
Layel Camargo
Shelterwood Collective
Jasmine & Loma Unsettling the Klamath River
