Steve Torma speaking about Compassion Camp

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Amakiasu Turpin-Howze, Tyson Sampson, and Lee Warren

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As awareness of long-standing racial injustice takes front stage in the United States, many people in residential intentional communities are asking questions about the imbalance of people of color in the communities movement. Out of a similar inquiry, a group of five people at Earthaven created the Racial Equity Task Group (RETG).

The intention of the RETG is to move forward on Goal 8 of Earthaven’s mission: “To work towards partnership culture, towards racial and gender equity, and against oppression in all its forms.”The first order of business for the committee is to create a strategic plan, which will inform the equity work at Earthaven over the next five years.

In an effort not to perpetuate more harm to Black and Indigenous peoples in this process, RETG has initiated a listening and learning project. The project will center the voices of Black people who are familiar with daily life at Earthaven. Participants will come together—without white folks—to share their experiences.

The RETG acknowledges the emotional labor involved in such a project. Participants will be paid for their contribution. The pay rate was based on the results of a survey to gauge willingness and to determine the kind of compensation for this precious work.

The project will launch over the next month. RETG is currently discussing how best to share the results of the conversation. The insights gleaned through the project will inform and shape the committee’s identification of the issues that are most urgent for the white people of this community to address.

For more information about Earthaven’s long-term vision for creating a partnership culture, please read the Statement of Transparency. It includes a breakdown of Goal 8 of Earthaven’s mission.

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Dear Earthaven Family,

Awareness is at the core of community. Usually we write to you with inspiration to deepen connections to each other and the natural world. As a predominantly white community, we write to you today with a different awareness:

• Of our privilege, of the structures of institutionalized racism and anti-blackness
• Of the ways the intentional community and environmental movements support internalized racism
• Of the limits and barriers to access to nature and land ownership for Black people, Indigenous people, and other People of Color

Along with many of you, we’ve spent these past weeks feeling and processing the pain and rage felt across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. We recognize that until people of color are safe in all communities, no people are safe in any community. Our voices are not the most important ones, but our vocal solidarity is essential.

To the Black members of our global community: We see you, we support you, and we stand by you.

For the past few years, we at Earthaven have been thinking deeply about our responsibilities in working towards being a more just and equitable community. We are committed to making Earthaven a safe place for Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color to visit, study, and live. We will keep striving to be an anti-racist community. Click here to learn about Earthaven’s commitment to partnership culture, to racial and gender equity, and against oppression in all its forms.

To the white people in our global community, we invite you to hold yourselves accountable alongside us. Confronting racism is so much more than any one donation, email, or social media post — it’s urgent, life-long work. To continue to educate ourselves about systemic and structural racism and engage in effective action, we encourage you to explore the list of resources below. 

We also want to share that Earthaven’s doors are open to visitors for tours and events again. Our first public tour is this Saturday, June 13. If you need some inspiration — a demonstration of what’s possible amid all the chaos and insanity of the world — or simply some human and nature connection, please make a date to come by for a visit or deep learning experience.

Last, but not least, we invite you to practice true self-care and well-being, particularly in stressful times. True self-care reduces harm and is a revolutionary act. When we care for ourselves, it’s care for the community. In support of personal and collective well-being, in our resource list below, we’re highlighting Black and POC herbalists and naturalists sharing their passions and gifts with the world. Let’s remember to engage and partner with the natural world and all our plant allies.

This moment feels particularly different from those in times past. May this mean that we are headed to real, long-lasting positive change. As Maya Angelou put it, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” May it be so!

Take care of yourself and each other.

Resources to Heal our Communities

––––––––––––––––––––  LEARN  ––––––––––––––––––––

A Black Women’s History of the United States 

by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

How to be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi

Racial Equity Institute’s Groundwater Workshop 

A corrective history of the United States to better understand systemic and structural racism

The 1619 Project,  the Pulitzer Prize winning series by Nikole Hannah-Jones

A history of slavery in North America

Scene on Radio podcast “Seeing White”

About the origins of the dehumanizing construct of race

Trevor Noah of The Daily Show

Regarding George Floyd, the Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery, and Amy Cooper

13th

A thought-provoking documentary in which scholars, activists, and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom

––––––––––––––––––––  DONATE  ––––––––––––––––––––

Outdoor Afro, Latino Outdoors, BLISS Meadows,

Wild Earth, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust

Organizations that endeavor to reclaim the connection of Black and Brown Americans to nature, farms, and food systems, and to ensure the safety and comfort of communities of color in the outdoors

The Bail Project

A critical tool to prevent incarceration and combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

Fighting for Racial Justice

Rootwork Herbals – The People’s Medicine Project: Reclamation

Contribute to the movement of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color reclaiming their access to Herbal Medicine

TO FIND AND SUPPORT BLACK HERBALISTS, these wonderful folks can help:
@alysonsimplygrows @herbanhealing @indyofficinalis @empresskarenmrose @thehillbillyafrican@countrygentlemancooks  Olatokunboh Obasi

––––––––––––––––––––  FRIEND + FOLLOW  ––––––––––––––––––––

Red Table Talk

Tackling current social and cultural issues with an intergenerational perspective.

#AskaBlackBirder  @dcblacknaturalist  #BlackWomenWhoBird  #BirdingWhileBlack

Nature connection resources from organizations led by Black naturalists

–––––––– SUPPORT BLACK, INDIGENOUS + POC ENTREPRENEURS  ––––––––

Cherokee Moon Mixology

Rebuilding and appreciating culture through traditional food ways

Anima Mundi Apothecary

Committed to bridging ancient remedies to the modern world

* Receive 15% off this week (10% of proceeds will be given to NAACP and other causes owned and operated by the Black community.) APPLY CODE: BLACKLIVESMATTER

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