In this episode, climate justice activist, podcaster, hiker, and first-generation Chicana Samara Almonte explores ways of reconnecting with nature and her own heritage.
She takes us along with her as she is re-indigenizing a wild place in Coast Salish ancestral territory through ceremony, prayer, and cooking indigenous cuisine.
About the Filmmakers
Brave Space Media is a multi-racial, women-led, radically collaborative creative team dedicated to stories of healing that uplift traditionally underrepresented voices. Brave Space’s founder Erin Joy Nash is a visual storyteller working to incite change and foster connection through filmmaking and photography. Her work focuses on elevating voices of womxn and BIPOC around issues of intersectional feminism, antiracism, environmental justice, and compassionate living. Collaborative partner and co-director Sanjana Sekhar is an Indian-American filmmaker, climate action communicator, and outdoor wanderer. Her work seeks to amplify character-driven stories that heal our human relationships to ourselves, each other, and our planet, with a specific interest in socio-ecological justice, ancestral knowledge, and systems of re-nourishment. Together, the team prioritizes imagining, learning, and co-creating a decolonizing approach to filmmaking.
Land Acknowledgement and Land Back Location Fee
This film was created on the ancestral lands of the Quileute, Coast Salish, and S’Klallam nations. Raíces Verdes: Samara’s storytelling platform is dedicated to archiving and sharing the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and people of color across diasporic experiences who are reconnecting with their “green roots”. “Green roots” are defined as our ancestral connection to the earth that embodies our relationships with all living and spiritual beings. Through multimedia storytelling rooted in self-determination, Raíces Verdes envisions marginalized people finding healing by reconnecting with the environment through our unique ancestral frameworks to create a more sovereign future for all Black and Indigenous people across the world. You can support Samara’s storytelling here.
Resources
Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Lands Movement: As the Salish Sea region (Seattle, WA and beyond) has grown in population, the Snoqualmie Tribe’s Ancestral Lands have been heavily impacted by recreation. This impact is especially apparent at the popular trails in the Snoqualmie corridor area, where increased visitation has resulted in a degradation of the land.The Ancestral Lands Movement seeks to spread awareness of the Snoqualmie people who have lived in the southern Salish Sea region since time immemorial and share the significance of these lands and provide information on how people can help the Tribe in respecting, restoring, and protecting these lands.
How You Can Help:
Here are simple steps everyone can take while recreating on Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Lands to practice respect and help the Tribe in protecting and restoring these lands for generations to come:
- Treat the lands with the respect they deserve, by picking up your own trash, and that of others that you see, properly disposing of pet waste, and staying on designated trails.
- Commit to experience the lands in a way that is centered in mindfulness, rather than conquest. Learn more about the Snoqualmie Tribe and its history and deep connection to these lands, and support the work the Tribe does today to continue stewarding these lands.
- Acknowledge that you are recreating on Snoqualmie ancestral lands through both written acknowledgement and through practice. Here are a few resources to help with this: A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment & Beyond Land Acknowledgments
- Help the Tribe spread its message by encouraging others to learn more and practice land acknowledgement both on and off the trails.
Learn more about the Quileute Tribe, on whose lands Samara recreated for this project.
Ireta P’urhépecha: For those that are of the P’urhepecha diaspora and want to find community, this is a collective Samara belongs to. Although the focus is on P’urhepecha culture they do a lot of intertribal work and always welcome funding support from allies and accomplices outside of the P’urhepecha diaspora.
Donate to or volunteer for Native Land Digital, the go-to digital map aimed at mapping Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see history and the present day. We hope to strengthen the spiritual bonds that people have with the land, its people, and its meaning.
