AC Discussion | The Labor of Care
Labor associated with care including domestic labor, education, elder care, and ecological labor reproduce or regenerate the conditions of life while remaining largely invisible in economies based on extraction. On Thursday, October 8th, panelists Sarah Rowe, Alajia McKizia, and Cait Caughey sat down with moderator Lillian Snortland for a virtual discussion about about the labor of care and its capacity to propose regenerative modes of artistic production, mutual aid, economic transformation.
Watch the full conversation, or read through the transcript below to find links to additional resources, and share your thoughts in the comments section.
About the Panelists:
Cait Caughey is a mama and farmer (Mullein Hill Farm) in the Loess Hills on Očeti Šakówiŋ and Báxoje territory where she grows herbs, native prairie plants, and vegetables. Cait loves collaboration, mutual-aid, and intentional land tending which led her to co-create HIATUS Healing Collective with Alajia McKizia. Growing accessible food and plant medicine is her life-long work. Cait also works for Lutheran Family Services supporting skilled and incredibly talented New American farmers who are part of Global Roots.
Alajia McKizia is a multidisciplinary artist working in visual art and performance. She has shown her work at Tugboat Gallery, Amplify Arts, MaMo, and in the Bemis Center's annual auction. She has also created work for public spaces. Alajia has performed at The Union for Contemporary Art with TBD Dance Collective, the Durham Museum with African Culture Connection, and Outrspaces where she presented her solo performance "Illuminate." She works as Education Coordinator at The Big Garden and co-founded HIATUS Healing Collective, an herbal mutual aid network, with Cait Caughey.
Sarah Rowe is a multimedia and performance artist in Omaha, NE and a member of Amplify’s 2020 Alternate Currents Working Group. Rowe's participatory work is a call to action, confronting issues of identity and exploitation of nature. Her work re-imagines traditional Native American symbology to fit the narrative of today’s cultural landscape. Drawing from skewed imagery in historic texts, in conjunction with images from Lakota winter counts, Rowe projects her vision and experience into the mix with an offbeat enchantment. Rowe's imagined landscapes are bold and vibrant, containing a shape-shifting bestiary of tales both familiar and strange. Recent exhibitions include a solo show, Nebraska Now, at MONA (Kearney, NE); Art Seen: A Juried Exhibition of Artists from Omaha to Lincoln, Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE); and Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE). Rowe holds a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, studying in St. Louis, MO, and Vienna, Austria. Rowe is of Lakota and Ponca descent.
About the Moderator:
Lilian Snortland, originally from Eugene, Oregon, is a self-taught writer of fiction, poetry, and essays. She has explored themes of fantasy, surrealism, and the imaginative feminine from a young age. At Carleton College, she studied storytelling and material culture of the past—Classical Studies, French literature and media, and art history, and continues to play with a multidisciplinary perspective in her analysis today. She currently works in the nonprofit arts sector to provide opportunities of capacity-building and cultural capital to those in need. Further writing can be found at https://chaimihai.wordpress.com/
Transcription
Moderator: Lillian Snortland
Panelist 1: Cait Caughey
Panelist 2: Alajia McKizia
Panelist 3: Sarah Rowe
Date of Discussion: October 8, 2020
List of Acronyms: [LS] = Lillian Snortland; [CC] = Cait Caughey; [AM] = Alajia McKizia; [SR] = Sarah Rowe
[LS] I think this topic, The Labor of Care, can be approached in so many different ways. It's a really nuanced but large topic. I think it's worth starting off by talking about the connective thread between all of the panelists here to set the stage for the rest of the conversation. What I am seeing is that all these panelists interact in our cultural landscape within what can be called ‘ecosystem services.’ I really love that term because I think it's a holistic perspective on the ecology of health, wellness, and spirituality. I was interested in facilitating this panel in particular, because I think that holistic point of view is something that has been historically undermined and disrespected and erased here in America. I'm hoping that we can work back from that a little bit and build something greater and care work is an aspect of that. It's the labor needed to reproduce and regenerate the conditions of life. So, I guess I'd like to open it up to panelists with the question, what does the labor of care mean to you and how do you feel it manifests in your work? How about we start with Cait?
[CC] Okay. The labor of care--so much to say here. As you were talking, I thought a big part of my identity is being a mom or a parent and connecting with that journey in my life and what it means to care for literal human young. I feel that there is a huge connection between my relationship with those autonomous beings and my relationship with all species. I come at farming, or land tending, from a relational perspective. Everything about that has been lost, particularly on the stolen land where we are right now. It has been lost as an act of genocide against people that belong to this land, but also [care work] is not valued; this labor we're talking about, it's not seen as something that is of any value really in the capitalist system. For me, it’s about remembering there are types of labor that are so valuable. I see most often fem folks, women, non-binary folks, doing types of labor that are [ignored or devalued in our economy].
[LS] Sarah, would you like to approach that question?
[SR] I think it's important for all of us, no matter what our path or our work is, to approach the way we connect in our daily lives...I'm sorry. I'm stepping back here. This is a heavy topic and care is huge. I'm also a single mother in the middle of a pandemic, so my brain is a bit foggy right now. There's that immediate need to care for my daughter, who's having a moment in this very moment upstairs above me, but as far as my work and my artistic practice, I believe it's important to connect with people in a really holistic way and create a safe space for a real exchange. I think, of course, that's missing in our capitalist society and I appreciate these conversations happening outside of that so we can forge a new way of being and approaching our work, no matter what it is. So for me, especially in a gallery setting, creating that safe space for dialogue, asking questions, and inviting participation is really important. It's not about me and my experience, it's about a shared experience.
[LS] Alajia, are you ready?
[AM] Honestly, when I was first asked to do this panel, it really kind of made me connect that the work I'm doing is the labor of care, which is very apparent now, but I feel like sometimes I can disconnect myself from the work I'm doing so it doesn't feel like labor, if that makes sense. It can kind of be like this ethereal thing that's just happening. I feel like the labor of care, to me, is something that's really innate because I have always been very family-oriented and always wanted to be a person that my family could depend on. Especially doing work with HIATUS [Healing Collective]--I know it's the labor of care, but when I first started doing it, it just felt so necessary to connect people to plant medicine and to what grows around them that I felt like it was more of a mutual exchange. I'm working in relation with the land to do this; it's not just me, it's my ancestral lineage that has brought me here to do it. So it's hard for me to see it as labor, but it is labor. I’ve just been thinking about that a lot.
[LS] I think that a couple of you, all three of you actually, were pointing to the fact that it feels like it's something innate, whether that's as a mother, or as a family member, or whatever role you serve in your community or family. I would love to ask about the idea of the labor of care being feminine because I think the labor of care can also encompass things like housework, education, elder care, medicine work that is depicted a lot in media. If you think of the medicine woman as the media depicts her, those two things go hand in hand, or even a witch. A witch is often someone who is providing a service but that gets twisted. I'm wondering if you find yourselves ever navigating those sorts of prejudices or biases because your work is placed in a feminine sphere?
[SR] You mentioned the word “witch.” That has been thrown at me for many years now. I would not identify myself as a witch, but even children will say,”Miss Sarah, are you a witch?,” because they don't know what else to call that really interesting connection that we have with the earth and with each other. Recognizing our connectedness to everything, I think that's a word that people fall back on. I don't take it as an insult at all, but I think it's interesting. It speaks to this universal connection that we have. We're part of this web and this ecology. I think that opens the door for some interesting discussion, especially with children, because that's really where the work starts, you know? We're not trying to break down these prejudices with adults. Kids are so open that they don't see it as a negative thing. Oftentimes, adults do see it as a negative thing and it just shuts down the conversation from the get-go, which is of course really counterproductive.
[CC] I really resonate with what you just said, Sarah and I think that's something I've experienced as well. Something I find really beautiful is that right now, or at least I'm hopeful that right now, we are deconstructing some of these gender stereotypes and gender binaries. I’ve spent a lot of time teaching kids--all three of us here have--and it's beautiful to watch the openness and the reciprocity that children have innately, intuitively with other living beings including plants, including soil, including soil organisms. I think that becomes gendered. It becomes shamed. We put shame on it, especially for kiddos that maybe identify as male. That creates these archetypes you're talking about. I would say, in my life, I'm starting to also experience other adults who are approaching caregiving, at least in relation to being a parent, in more expansive ways. That gives me a lot of hope to watch how the way we parent the young is evolving.
[AM] I think it's so interesting that you asked this question because I feel like, even personally in my life and my upbringing, I have a lot of women in my life and they're always so nurturing and taking care of everything. That's always what I felt like I saw. HIATUS is about to put out a new grief kit and that mostly fem people or non-binary folks are applying for and I'm wondering where our male or masculine presence is. How do I connect with them more? Grief is very real and present in this time, especially this year. I know that they need it too. We all need it as humans. I feel like there’s such an emotional disconnect in the way men are brought up. I’m interested in being a part of changing that.
[LS] Quite a lot about HIATUS Healing Collective has been mentioned on the side, but I would love for both Alajia and Cait to talk a little bit more about HIATUS and choosing that name. I feel like every word is important. For those who don't know, it stands for “Herbalizing Inner-city Ascendance Through Universal Supplies.” Every single one of those words is important. Why do you feel like the work you’re doing--herbalism and these care kits--is a potential solution for something that is missing or damaged because of trauma? I would love it if you could describe more about that?
[AM] I came up with the name. Last year, Cait and I did an herbal CSA. We had a six week CSA and we had 15 people sign up. This year, we were talking about doing something similar, but with what's happening presently with the pandemic and all of the racial injustices we're experiencing, we knew we needed to get this out. Going back to [the idea of] innateness, this is a need in our community and we are here. Our bodies are present to do this work. It just flowed naturally. First, we talked about what it is and what we're trying to do. We knew we wanted it to be no cost and we knew that we had a lot of supplies and resources to get this medicine out. Now, we are also talking about it being a protective force that is here and present.
In my mind, I correlate survival and thriving as one thing. Yes, we need to survive this white supremacist capitalist system, but at the same time, we need to thrive and have a high quality of life in connection with nature. When I came up with that name, I [used the term] “herbalizing” in a militant way because we're moving as this force of people to protect ourselves and to protect our land. I think it's important to look at it as a protective force. Also “herbalizing” felt important because this isn't a brand, you know what I mean? We want to have an exchange and share space with what is here on the earth. We don't own this land. I'm on stolen land and at the same time, all of these herbs grow abundantly and they've been here for thousands of years. I took a class by Berenice Dimas and she always talked about how plants are our ancestors because they have been here for centuries, so they're wise. Once you build that relationship with them, you realize that. So it [became about] connecting people to what's growing here, helping them survive, but also thrive, especially with our pandemic happening and inaccessibility to healthcare and all the things that are happening in our world. This is the form of original medicine and in the westernized world it’s [viewed as] supplemental, experimental medicine that doesn't have a lot of science backing it, but if you think about people in other countries that live in the mountains, they don't go to the hospital if something is happening. They don't have time to go to the doctor. My grandma told me she didn't go to the doctor until she was 15. So people survived on this before this whole colonized way of living. I think it's really important to be here with our native plants. They’re abundant and we [reciprocate] by not over extracting.
[CC] Alajia, you said it all. The one thing I felt I wanted to add was, Alajia and I, our process is really flowy. I feel like I've been in a lot of places, in different types of collaborative projects (we probably all have), where you have to adhere to these really strict guidelines for some type of process, or you have someone funding it and they control it, or you're renting so you don't own it. I think what is beautiful about this process is that it allows us to sit and be centered in that intuitive space with each other and similarly, that space with plants, ecosystems that we both interact with and spend time with. We're able to give thanks to them and be grateful and have a relationship versus an extractive experience. We're really trying to get out of that for-profit, “we are the experts, we are gonna give this to people [model].” We’re trying, as much as we can, to claw at or scrape away at that. I think, to me, that is what HIATUS is unearthing.
[LS] Something that really resonated with me was this idea of protection and how that has a connection to tradition. One of my questions that was geared toward Sarah, but both you and Alajia actually brought up these topics, is that some of Sarah's work has talked about tradition but it's reimagination and how that relates to self-identity of people and their protection. Sarah, tell me if I am wrong, but I believe that those are some themes that [in your work]. I would love it if you could talk about that.
[SR] Yeah, that's a great question and it can go in so many directions, which I love. I think it's really important when talking about traditions--they all began somewhere. Traditions are all part of a timeline and a connection with the people around you. We have to constantly reimagine traditions so that they fit where we are in the modern space to remain relevant. I think you can even pay homage to traditions that may seem set in stone in a way that's still respectful, but approach them in a new way. I think if you do it with the right intention, it creates a beautiful healing experience for people, even from different backgrounds and languages. My tribal languages are in a state of emergency and the way we talk about things and our connections to nature has a huge impact on how we interact and respect those things. Alajia mentioned our plant ancestors, which is really important. We talk about our plant relatives and our four-legged relatives and our winged relatives. These forces of nature and these other beings are alive and connected to us in more powerful ways than we often give them credit for. We take them for granted. I think this capitalist world would have us treat those things as commodities or things to have power over, when truly our highest calling as human beings is to be stewards of the land to to foster growth and evolution and to care for these relatives so that they can continue and our children have a healthy place to thrive. That's the only sustainable model. Language is huge. l think just changing the way we speak about animals and plants is really imperative to their survival.
[LS] There are like five different [follow up] questions that I could ask, but I would love to know how you see the future of the relationship between artists and their work with the earth [evolving]. As a farmer, or as someone working in mutual aid, what do you see the future of that relationship [with land] looking like? How can we start changing that today?
[SR] I think we're doing that right now. This collaboration is really what it's all about. It's not about, “you're a farmer, I'm an artist, you're a writer,” you know? We're all collectively bringing in our gifts and our unique vision and experience. Collaboration is huge. Then, it's not about competition, which is also an anti-capitalist way of thinking. It's really beautiful to be here with this diverse group of people because that's really how we create a new way.
[CC] I’ll just echo the [idea of] abundance Alajia mentioned--seeing our relationships, as Sarah was saying, in a framework of abundance versus scarcity. We are trained from the moment we're here in this colonizer project toward scarcity and competition and trained to act in ways, not only with our own species, but also with all other species. Everyone can participate in their own way--whatever they can connect with, whether it's building, or growing plants, or painting, or singing, dance, theater, we need all of it together. There's so much grief and despair, and that is important and really, really, really important work to do, but I also think that there are so many incredible things going on in the realm of what we're talking about.
[AM] I feel like this work is being done now through collaboration and what I've been feeling a lot in the present moment, in this year, is that it'll all reveal that it's supposed to be. I believe very strongly in ancestral lineage and connection. Working with land is helping me connect to the known and unknown parts of my lineage that I don't know because of [colonial capitalism]. It's really beautiful to trust in that process by being in touch with nature, but also collaborating with other people. Not everyone wants to be a farmer. Not everyone wants to be an artist. Respecting everybody's roles and spaces in the revolution is really going to help us move forward out of these colonial and capitalist and white supremacist ways. I did this conference over the weekend that was talking a lot about the power of dreams and daydreaming and envisioning the future. [I hope future generations see] things that I might not see in my lifetime.
[LS] I think that there is so much power working on the local level, which is where it feels like a lot of this work is posited. Something that worries me is how we permeate politics and legislation and the structures we are working within, as much as we don't want [to work within them]. We are currently working within those systems to slowly transform what's going on at the top. So, I'm wondering if you all have had experience with that? Do you feel like [working within the system is] the correct path? Is there another path? Imagining another path is absolutely valid too.
[CC] Are you all cool if i jump in? Alright. There are so many areas in that regard to think about, it feels so heavy and overwhelming, but I will speak about one particular area, which is in relation to farming, land tending, caring for land. I don't necessarily have answers, but I think what's super important is trying to push as far as we can beyond solutions that are capitalist solutions. Capitalism creates problems that we have to solve. It wants to create problems and waste so that profit can be made. Thinking about how we are going to change outside of that means, for example, reparations and giving land back. I do not feel that land trusts run by rich white donors, or programs for farmers that give land predominantly to white folks, are the answers. We know that the bulk of the land is already owned by white folks and that's the problem. I guess my answer about how to get that into policy and all of the layers and levels that go beyond starting local initiatives is to say, “this is yours; here it is,” and step back. No strings attached. I don't know how to make that happen, but I think it's really important.
I rent land. I'm a tenant farmer. I feel one thing I can do is have this conversation and speak openly about this as much as possible. There are so many BIPOC folks so ready to start farming, so skilled, so talented. The access is not there. It's a huge problem. I really don't think creating solutions within and inside our system are going to change it in a way that removes those barriers. It will continue along the trajectory of white supremacy, in my opinion. That probably doesn't answer your question because I don't have answers, but I do think the work, like Sarah said, is about creating a space where we can have a real safe connection, where we can have an experience together. I think the way to do the work is that. It's creating that safe container to have real conversations where people can connect and really see it and feel it inside [their] bodies. [What if] a landowner said, “I own hundreds of acres and it's not mine. The species that live here, I don't own them. I don't get to tell them how to live or what to do. They are as important as humans.” That's something I think about a lot.
[SR] Sadly, we don't live in a democratic nation. That has been proven time and time again. Politics is very touchy for Native people and a lot of Native people don't participate even simply in casting a vote because we're invisible. We make up 1% of the population. Even the land that we have legal rights to, we are arrested on and then thrown in jail. These are very real occurrences that happen time and time again when Native people stand up on their own lands. That is really troubling. I'm glad that people are starting to listen and to show up since Standing Rock. That was a huge turning point. I think Indigenous and Black solidarity is huge in turning things around and I hope to see more of that from these conversations. This country was built on [our] backs through genocide and slavery. We need to join hands and join forces. I really think that that's the answer. Regardless of what the laws are, they aren't being followed by our own leaders, [most of whom] weren't even fairly elected. That is really upsetting for me as we're watching the earth continue to be raped. I love seeing these conversations, like I said. This is part of the revolution. It's these grassroots movements and creative people and people thinking outside of capitalism that are gonna create the change. It's easy to get discouraged because it seems like what we're doing is so small. We're not billionaires and we're not heavily armed, but this is creating a forward movement. That's the magic of it. We have Mother Nature on our side. The act of prayer is huge as well--living with intention and doing the daily work, even if it seems really small, and continuing to have these conversations with people that want to be stewards and create community
[AM] I echo what both of them just said. This year specifically, and on a local level, it's been hard for me to envision a future with the same systems that we have, here in Omaha. I feel like our City Council members, our Senate, our Governor do not support people of color. They continue to oppress people of color every opportunity that they get. It's hard for me to believe in this current system. For me, this country, the colonial capitalist part of this country, has been built on white supremacy and I think it'll always be that way. I don't necessarily believe or have hope in the hands of white people to care for my high quality of life. I like what Sarah said about grassroots work that is being done. It might feel small because we don't have billions, but it is powerful. I hope those things continue to be amplified.
[LS] I think that we have some time for people in the virtual audience to ask questions. You can either unmute yourself if you have a question, or you can leave a question in the chat box and we'll ask it for you.
[Audience question] For context, I'm attaining a degree right now and I've been grappling with how colonized my education is and the fact that I if I try to research Indigenous people, or minorities of like any kind, it's difficult to find information about myself, my people, or people who are originally on the land. I'm curious, as you continue your work, what kind of practices are you adopting to maintain your knowledge so it's easily shared with others in the future?
[SR] I have to say, we're lucky in a way. Thank you for your question, by the way. It's sad that it's so difficult to find those voices in research but thankfully, through social media, I think that's changing. I follow a lot of museums, writers, galleries, curators, critics who are people of color and that creates a great library of knowledge. When I was in art school, I didn't even have a cell phone. Social media wasn't a thing. So I think that's a great tool for research to find things that maybe you can't find elsewhere. I don't know if Cait or Alajia, you have some other practical advice, but that's been a huge help for my research recently and staying connected. I hope we all end up following each other, if we aren't already.
[AM] Recently, I've been able to learn more about herbalism and plant medicine rooted in the traditions of African people and people of color and all different types. I have mostly done that through the power of social media and I think that all the muscle learning that I've learned from people of color has been from social media and honestly Cait. I feel like when I first started learning how to farm, it was around like a very large group of white people and that could feel really overwhelming. Cait was one of the first people to affirm that we've learned all this from people of color. They're the ones who've done this, originally. She's always been a person that has acknowledged that and I'm grateful to have someone in my life who has done that. I found this Black urban growers conference in a book called Farming While Black, written by Leah Penniman, which I found out about from Cait. That's how I've found things, just by good people in my life who've been like, “Hey, you're probably interested in this.” I think it's hard, specifically in Omaha, because on a local level things can sometimes feel very limiting or restrictive and like diversity can be scarce in some spaces. Social media has been able to open up proper representation in the things that interest me.
[CC] Absolutely. The one thing I’ll really quickly add is that I found a mentor, who called herself an eco-feminist, who introduced me to Vandana Shiva, Winona LaDuke, Rowen White--these people doing land work, land tending, and amazing work. Finding that person, who then was able to share these names with me, sort of spiraled from there. Reading one book [that referenced another book], going to the library to dig that one out, and being able to follow all these incredible mostly women, non-binary, folks on social media that that have incredible things to say about ecology and land. I owe it all to their voices. Queer Nature is one of my absolute favorite spaces on instagram to read about what we're talking about tonight.
[SR] I have to add one more thing. Like I said, I'm enrolled in the Ponca Tribe and this month is the 30th year of our reinstatement. My tribe has no reservation, so it's been tricky to find collective space or a space to create community. A lot of our resources have gone into building a website, which has a lot of the creation stories and different links you can follow to stay connected to things that are happening on the tribal lands here. If you go to the events, it's important to talk to Elders, of course and go and hear the music. It's tricky during Covid, but they've moved certain events online and you can stay connected in that way. [The website] is a wealth of information that connects you directly to the space that we're sharing here.
[LS] Someone added an additional part to this question, which is, “Do you feel that social media is dividing people or bringing more people together to bring about real positive change and how do we overcome some of the negatives of social media in order to keep people committed to the good?”
[AM] This year, I have been more connected through social media in a real tangible way instead of a material, self-centered way. I would say that it has made me more connected to a lot of the things that i'm interested in. I do think that, depending on what information [your search] or what your algorithm is, that it can be very dividing. It can sometimes make me feel like I'm like in a cloud. I think taking rest from that is important. I know sometimes it can feel like, if you get off social media, that you're uninformed, but we all need rest to rejuvenate from this system of capitalism. That's like something that I've been trying to practice much more in my life. I don't have to be alert and aware and on edge at all times. I can be present in the moment and respect myself enough to get off of it. Especially right now, as a Black person, it's hard. Anything that has to do with Black death on social media doesn’t come with trigger warnings. There's never that acknowledgement that seeing this could be harmful to a Black person. That's something that has made me feel divided on social media, or made more divided. I know that sometimes people [share that content because] it’s informational, but as a Black person, this has been the whole existence of this country. I don't really need to see Black people being murdered on my timeline because we all know it exists and it has existed for years. I think that's one thing that has been a little bit difficult this year. Taking breaks from it is good
[LS] That made me think, Alajia, of the fact that a lot of things shared on social media aren't shared out of empathy. They're shared to trigger a reaction or trigger basically, just to trigger and make someone mad, or make someone mad enough to move towards action that will, in the end, be good. It's not shared to have a moment of understanding with another person and I try my best to have my social media be more empathetic than not specifically because otherwise, it just feels incredibly toxic. If i can give my two cents of advice, that would be it. Curate [your feed] so that the intent is more empathetic or educational than shock.
Anyone else have any questions or thoughts?
[Audience question] I have a question, and I apologize in advance if this question comes across as being really disjointed, but I'm curious about these anti-capitalist methods of thinking and working. I'm curious about how we understand labor. I don't want to get caught up in semantics, but I understand labor as a form of something that is done for economic gain. How do we begin to recontextualize or reframe what labor is? We all have work to be done and I appreciate all the work that you all are doing because I really do believe it's for the greater good. There are so many positives that's coming out of this, but I think of what Alajia said very early on in the discussion about the labor of care and not considering it as labor. Sarah also mentioned the importance of language. Could you all elaborate on your understanding of labor and labor as it pertains to the work that you do or how we can understand labor in an anti-capitalist framework?
[SR] I see it as a sacrifice, almost like being in labor, going into labor, you know? It's a selfless act and it is painful, even outside of [childbirth], but we also need to care for ourselves. I don't think that that's been touched on, which is interesting and not surprising. Self-care is paramount to being able to care for a community. I think that that's often ignored, especially with women because our bodies are commodified and controlled. Think about all the forced hysterectomies that were done on Native women through the 1980’s and probably still through today. Now it's happening at these camps on the border. You look at the men in these cages and they're not being forced to get vasectomies. The misogyny and racism and how it's all tied together is really bizarre and sick. It's important to care for women because a lot of that burden does fall on us. I actually joined Cassie Thornton's Hologram. I don't know if any of you are familiar with her work, but it's peer-to-peer feminist care. That's been one way that I've been able to care for myself as a single mother during this pandemic. It's this program that she does a few times a year with a global network of people, from all different backgrounds, taking time to listen and ask questions. It's a really beautiful space outside of capitalism and everything that's falling apart where people are just being and there for each other in a really simple way. I think that's important too. It doesn't have to be some huge event. Just be in a space with a handful of people that are really listening to each other and forging through all of the BS that were being fed through social media and television or whatever. It's interesting to be a part of this Hologram at the same moment as this panel discussion. This is something that I would recommend anybody in this group look into. There's a book as well, if you don't want to participate, or if you're not able to participate in the hologram itself. It ties in beautifully into this conversation we've been having.
[CC] When I quit a job that I had, I read Marlee Grace's book, How to Not Always Be Working. She's a queer dancer artist person who writes a lot about this, so check that book out. The whole entire book is about unlocking what you feel is work (aka labor) in yourself. One thing I found from doing those exercises was that, for example, planting, tending, sitting with plants, harvesting them, processing them, all the things that we do in HIATUS, I don't see that as labor. I see that as flow. I see that as, I'm in it. I don't need to make money doing it, i'm not making money doing it. There are so many parts of how we contextualize labor and it's individual for every single person. I think it's important, at least I learned I need to unpack that for myself. I need to figure out what that is. I'm participating in this co-op, my farm and a couple other farms, where we’re doing a pay what you can [model]. You choose what you want from what we have. This is the harvest. You choose and you pay what you can. For me, getting outside of these like only transactional relationships and getting into relationships based on some type of shared mutual exchange or reciprocity, to me that shifts outside of these like more capitalist models that we're talking about where that's not the point. The point is, “let's the people that do the labor as terribly as possible so we can maximize the profits.” There's somewhere in there where we can all be hopefully more in flow. I know that can mean many things for many different people, but I feel like you feel it in your body.
[AM] It's such a deep question. Back to what I was saying earlier--this doesn't feel like labor to me because, in my life, I've always correlated the word labor with burden. Anytime I felt burdened by something that I was doing, then that was labor because it felt draining. I think especially during this work with HIATUS, that it just is something that I love. Like Cait was saying, I'm not expecting money from it, so it doesn't feel like i'm like doing labor because it's not transactional. In the same way, I've been making art recently. I'm not making this art just to sell. I'm making it because I feel passionate about it and I feel like, more than anything, this year has made me [more] aware that living in the present moment is a privilege. It's a birthright, but right now for a lot of people, it’s a privilege because a lot of people don't have access to their basic needs to even have the ability to be present in the moment to relax, to enjoy, to take rest, to have breaks, to decide what is labor in their life and what isn’t. I am extremely grateful and express a lot of gratitude for being able to be in that space, especially in a year where people are really struggling. I hope that can change to [become] the standard to honor our birthright. We all deserve to be present. We all deserve to have our basic needs met so that we can do more for our body and for the earth instead of this capitalism system that constantly takes from us. It is so extractive and it doesn't leave anything for us except for our corpse at the end of it. I think being a young person right now, and being really grateful and having all the privilege that I have, having access to food and shelter and opportunities that a lot of people don't have, I'm just trying to take advantage of living in my body.
[LS] There is one more question in the chat that I think is good to end with because it sort of brings us more local, more down to earth. One person asks, “How do you think a food system not centered in capitalism can exist in Omaha? Do you think it can support a large number of people and land?” While this question is, I think, probably geared toward Cait as the farmer, I also think that it's a question that could have some more spokes. Do you think herbalism work can be [de]centered in capitalism? Can it be can it be fully removed from capitalism forever if it's able to provide for a lot of people? Is there a balance in the net net amount of people who can benefit from a thing with capitalism? I think in that way anyone could answer the question.
[SR] Cait, you're a wealth of knowledge here. I want to hear what Cait has to say, but food sovereignty should be at the center of any conversation as far as forward movement. The Indigenous wisdom in that is huge and it benefits everyone, including the creatures that we share the earth with, not just humans. I've tried to use that conversation to create collaborations with groups I've worked with.The Ponca Center has moved to a huge new campus and it's like an industrial wasteland. There's all of this wasted land. It's concrete; it's rooftops; it's these islands and dividers. How do we turn small spaces like that, in an urban setting, into an oasis and a place to grow plant medicine and food? I've been having that conversation with all of the programs that I've worked with throughout the state. I think that is really our highest calling. How do we support that growth and show people how to build that in their front yards? You only [need] a tiny amount of space to do that. We all should be doing that and sharing that.
[CC] Absolutely. Sovereignty--I love that word. To me, sovereignty can't happen without ownership and as a white person it is not my place to say what the food system should look like or what a sovereign food system looks like as a person that lives on stolen land and needs to really be constantly doing the work my whole entire life to recognize my ancestry, my ancestors being colonizers. The ownership piece, in my opinion, is so important. When we have programs where farmers themselves don't own the land, they don't have sovereignty of space to self-determine, or communally or collectively determine their futures. That's a problem. Unfortunately, that's a problem that even non-profits right now are not addressing or changing. They are part of the capitalist system. I really think that giving land back, reparations, all of these things have to come first first and foremost. I don't see that happening. I have been in relationship with so many folks who are so ready to grow food, produce food, produce cultural foods, save seed from their cultural crops, and they don't have the access to land to do that. Anything that pushes that forward [is important].
There are so many agendas. It's really hard to navigate when you're on land that could be taken from you in a moment, or you do something wrong and the landowner won’t rent to you again next year. When you're in relationship with [land] and you're trying to root down and build something, those transactional type relationships that don't value the long term committed relationship of the person who's tending that land [are destabilizing].
[AM] I'm just echoing what both of them said. Also, I feel like so much in my life, especially right now, is focused on decolonizing my mindset. That matters with our food system too. We live in a capitalistic society where lack is [perceived] as a threat. Really, we have enough, more than enough like land and resources to be able to self-sustain a food system. It's all about the accessibility to those things because they’re in the hands of a lot of white folks and a lot of white folks who don't tend to the land in the way that it needs to be. We [need to] live in a system that is directly working with nature in all parts of nature. Right now, with this virus, animals are our protectors. They have carried viruses for us for centuries. They've helped protect us from those things but since we destroy all of their ecosystems for apartments, for whatever reason, we don't have that type of protection anymore and we're so vulnerable. I think [we have to work to] decolonize all ways of living and all of our interactions with food [and the thinking] that there's not enough. I have just one pepper plant in my house and it gave me more than enough peppers, more than I ever needed, and I didn't have to add any chemicals or modify it in any way. Whatever you put into the earth, it will amplify. I think that's the answer--connecting to the earth, giving access to people, and decolonizing our mindsets.
[LS] We are coming to the end of our time. We're a little past, but I want to offer one last opportunity for anyone to ask a question in the chat or unmute themselves. I don't hear anything so I think we're going to bring this panel to a close. Thank you so much for coming and thank you so much to the panelists for bringing your gifts to the table. I hope um everyone connects on social media. I think we're all eager to learn more. I know I do. Thank you. I really have enjoyed this and we'll say goodbye!
*This transcript has been edited for clarity.