A Love Letter to the Land (by Rhonda Chung)

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Two weeks ago, I completed all the courses required for my doctoral degree, one of which was about decolonial pedagogies. I was asked to consider my relationship with the land. And for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with an answer.

I began by working out the six unique histories of my ancestors and their relationship to the lands of Abya Yala (South America), where my parents were born, and Turtle Island (North America), where I was born, and I kept asking myself: what do I really know about these lands, and the other lands that some of my ancestors are indigenous to?

I don’t understand land that my feet have not been on, so I listen to the stories.

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