"Land, Respect, and Belonging: A Teaching on Sacred Responsibility" with Dr. Daniel Foor of Ancestral Medicine

Guiding Question for the session: What are our responsibilities to the land where we live? How do our relationships to the lands we visit or call home impact our sense of belonging and our physical, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing?

There are four main ways that we end up where we are, which form the foundation of our Human Ancestral Story:

1. We are where we've been for a long time (which is not inherently the same as being indigenous to the area); where the bones, ashes, and histories of your people have played themselves out over a long period of time, which creates its own unique experience with and connection to the land, there.
   
   
2. We arrived through the enactment of harm on others (which is generally the case through settler-colonialism); this doesn't necessarily mean that your ancestors themselves inherently acted as aggressors directly. But rather, that they were likely a minor part of a much larger movement enacting a violent boundary violation.
   
   
3. We arrived through, or after, experiencing a harm enacted upon us (which is typical of refugees, the enslaved, the displaced, those fleeing famine or structural inequality and violence, etc); sometimes the framing gets collapsed into "Settlers vs Colonialists", where the reason we come is to enact violence. But this is not actually nuanced enough, because the way in which we arrive to a place can be the cause of violence enacted on us in other places instead.
   
   
4. The active choice we make ourselves to migrate or immigrate to a new place; this ultimately comes from an inherent place of privilege and choice, and through consensual navigation between person and government or other powers.

Our Ancestral Story is most commonly a mixture of many of these things throughout history; our bodies are frequently an intersection of multiple stories that lay down lineage from both the enactment of harm by and the active reception of harm enacted upon our ancestors in many ways.

Sometimes those who came from a harm inflicted become those who inflict the harm on others later. And it's incredibly easy to avoid our Ancestral stories if they're uncomfortable; to choose not to face it, even though we need to. But we are also still individuals ... We're not defined by our Ancestral Stories.

There are ways we are individually drawn to the land, and may interface with it, due to our own temperament and our needs, our own destinies, and what we need to be our best self or to thrive, etc. And sometimes that means moving, even though our Ancestral Stories are located somewhere else.

People have different needs, and different Ancestral Trajectories. And what land we're on has a lot of implications for us ... What trees you dream of when you dream of trees will be different. Our relationships with things will different; our soul potential is a constantly unfolding conversation in relationship with the land we inhabit. And that's an invitation to understand how your practice is actively being shaped by where you're at.

It's not only about our ancestral conditions. However: It's always important to consider who is already there when you arrive- regardless of when you arrived; the dead (remaining living representatives or not) and the living both who still speak through that place. But also the ones who are not and will never be Human as well: The plants and animals, bugs, and so on; the Spirits who are the land you have arrived on.

The Human and Other-than-Human and Divine beings are all the ecology of the land. And we are stepping into that ecology when we are visiting, or passing through a place- but especially when we are intending to unfold and build a life there for a prolonged period of time. But these communities are mostly not Human; yes they include Humans, but they are mostly not Human.

Thinking our particular physical body or Ancestral Group is better than another is bad. It's supremacy mindset to say "my group is better"; saying that Humans are above other-than-humans is the same garbage and arrogance. We have to recognize that.

We also have to recognize there's no actual stance outside of "the system". That's the colonialist stance: That you can sit outside the system, and be exempt from it (especially from the consequences). But there is no true "outsider" space to occupy.

That being said: Belonging is typically earned- which people don't want to hear. To be culturally skillful, and to have group-level belonging, however, there is a significant portion of that which hinges on learning how to skillfully engage with that group. And that is earning your belonging within that group.

How do you do that? You have to relate, and to participate. And how we relate with the system matters; are we going to bring more wisdom, and kindness, and care to it? Or are we going to bring more amnesia, and mindless crashing around?

So you want belonging there ... Belonging comes through participation ... So let's greet the Other-than-Human things. It's a great starting point in any space; if we don't know who "the others" are, then our mindfulness of etiquette is often diminished in a place.

No one has a map, though; there's no "one correct way" to participate. There's no set way it really needs to look to be "right". However, our participation should be intentionally personalized- especially as settler-colonialists. And making it personal matters to building that relationship.

It's not only about our personal connection, but also about our Ancestral Group and accepting that there are modes of participation that are pre-determined for us based on group identity and belonging. And so as the descendants of settler-colonialists, there is a clear moral imperative to participate. There is no other morally responsible way to "belong". That doesn't mean your whole life needs to be defined by that, however. But there is an active need for tithing to prevent sinking back into the amnesia of the past.

If we lean in and build relationship with a specific place over time, even if we're not "ancestrally of that place"? If we still show up with humility and peace and reciprocation and participation, time and time again, unprompted ... The elder powers of that land may speak to us in a very real and tangible way. One that changes what's happening on an outer level, and changes how things unfold there; it's the participation and the relationship building that leads to it. This is the outcome of showing up and participating again and again.

At first the sense of "The Others" is often "Who are you? Why are you doing this, why are you here". But over time as you show up, there is a sense that the attitude changes to "Ok well you're here and I guess we don't get to pick who shows up for us. So we might as well work with you". And towards the end, there is frequently a true sense of real nurturing and contact.

There's an incomplete piece surrounding how we interact with, revere, relate mindfully to, and even think about the other-than-human around us in the land. We're not really seeing them yet. We haven't actually met them in our perception. And it doesn't have to be like that. And until we have language for it, it's rarely conscious. It's a forgotten aspect of reality. So for those of us who have, we should model it as a basic set of values- even when it isn't the standard social norm

What would greater Belonging look like for you?

Is there anything you could do to move into better attunement with the land to achieve this?