KQED: Four Stewards at Work Healing Their Land and Communities

The percentage of Black-owned farms in the U.S. has dropped from a peak of 14% in the 1920s to just 2% today. In California, less than 1% of land is owned by Indigenous people. As part of KQED’s Youth Takeover week, Marin Academy junior Finn Does brings together a panel of local Indigenous, Black, and queer farmers who all purchased farmland during the pandemic to help their communities connect and thrive in relationship to the earth. Forum talks about the BIPOC land stewardship movement and nurturing ancestral roots.

Guests:

• Pandora Thomas, Afro-Indigenous land steward and founder, EARTHseed Farm in Sebastopol, CA. Thomas played a leading role in founding the Black Permaculture Network, a platform where Afro-Indigenous people share practices.

• Nikola Alexandre, co-founder and stewardship lead, Shelterwood Collective in Sonoma County, CA

• Maya Harjo, farmer, Heron Shadow, a farm for Indigenous refuge and learning in Sonoma, CA, operated by the Cultural Conservancy, a Native-led SF organization; board member, Shelterwood Collective

• Myles Lennon, environmental anthropologist; dean’s assistant professor of environment & society and anthropology, Brown University; board secretary, Shelterwood Collective