In some Indigenous cultures, what is now known to some as “North America” is known as Turtle Island.
There is something powerful about having the understanding of land beyond geographic area, the idea of land in connection with all beings.
I love that we all know the shape of Palestine. The beautiful shape from the river to the sea.
Not the shape that might be,
but the shape that should and will be.
And by having the shape of Palestine that will be, in our minds, we are manifesting that Palestine as well.
It reminds me of the way we as Koreans learn about the shape of Korea. It looks like this. And there’s even a shorthand on how to draw it quickly in geography class in Korea. The shape that I’ve always learned is a unified, one Korea.
And this is why the ideas of Landback and Indigenous sovereignty are critical to the idea of liberation. Unlike imperialist colonial ideas of the land, which are seen as something to conquer and property to own, land as Indigenous folks know, is not only physical but also spiritual and ancestral.
And it’s not there for taking. It’s there for giving.
Land can never actually be taken through genocide. It can never be taken from its people. It certainly can be occupied and colonized, as we’ve witnessed around the world. But that land never actually ever belongs to the oppressor. They think they own it, but they don’t and they never will.
Because land will always only connect to the people who are not taking it.
In our fight for all oppressed people to be free and for the toppling of all Empires, we must always go back to the land. Listen, heed, witness, learn.
In liberation, freeing the people means also freeing the land.
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