SEED Mountain Beyond Mountains: Restoration Liberation
SEED Mountain Beyond Mountains: Restoration Liberation is the seventh blog in a series of articles from the 14th edition of the SeedBroadcast agri-culture Journal. Due to the rapidly changing and challenging times of COVID19 we have postponed the printing of this issue until later in the year but hope that you can access this poignant and timely edition on line and past issues here.
Thank you Lee Lee and moria
June 26 2020
I have been thinking about what to say about this article in relationship with the outbreak of COVID19 and the ensuing protests. Frankly, I'm in Maine and so very distant from the direct experience of the worst of the impacts. Beyond a smattering of small-town protests, we are playing host to a wave of entitled folks who are escaping quarantine in cities, just as the wealthy in Europe escaped the plague by heading out to frolic in the countryside. There is a lot of stress in our small towns that these urban dwellers may be bringing the virus with them. The concern is well placed as Maine experiences a high amount of respiratory illness, being downwind from many industrial zones. The inequity we see here is economic more than racial, and the fear of the potential impacts dominates local concerns over the actual impacts suffered by urban populations. Certainly, the pandemic and ensuing protests have laid bare the inequity we have as a society. I hope the light continues to shine in a way that increases our capacity to build a more socially just system. Before the protests began, the pandemic also shed light on the cracks in the industrial food system. I'm proud of the rural resilience demonstrated by our farms through their ability to provide during this time of scarcity and have been thinking about how this local food security can inspire areas that have localized food networks that have been unraveled or altogether decimated. I was deeply moved to hear of the rush on seeds and found it to be the impetus for a widespread interest in seed saving in our community. It has spurred on a collaboration between multiple conservation and rural organizations to team up and promote seed saving to a degree that had not been present here before, which is very exciting. We will be developing open source educational material that should be able to assist other communities to practice saving seeds. Distributing seed saving instructions with produce from the local food pantry & posting educational signs in the new public garden is where we are starting.
Like many, I have also spent a lot of energy homeschooling my eleven year old son during this time. It can be hard to explore racial issues in an area with very little racial diversity. Taking the Slow Food approach of activism on a platform of celebration, I decided to celebrate Juneteenth with a trio of his friends as a way to touch on the historical context of the protests that we were seeing on the nightly news. We grilled jerk chicken, corn and yams, set off big fireworks, and around a bonfire I asked if they knew what we were celebrating. They did not. I explained how on June 19th, 1865, word came to Galveston Texas that all slaves were freed...a full two years after the emancipation proclamation. I expressed that it was important to celebrate freedom - everyone's freedom, not just our own. They agreed with big smiles and happily proceeded to roast marshmallows for smores. It seems a small gesture, especially in thinking of my youth in Denver where I was introduced to the holiday through Grace Stiles, founder of the Stiles African American Heritage Center in Five Points. These gatherings were huge and festive...a true celebration. But I feel that it is important to bridge gaps of understanding, no matter how small the group. The trio of tween boys come from conservative families. On the surface, there may apparently be political rifts. But as we dig a bit deeper, we often find overlapping core values. Instead of dwelling on differences, I feel it is essential to focus on how we may be aligned so that we may buil
Lee Lee, June 26 2020.
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| Papillon' by Atis Rezistanz sculptor, Getho Jean Baptiste |
SEED Mountain Beyond Mountains: Restoration Liberation
Lee Lee + moira williams
There is an extraordinary practice of preservation maintained in the face of extreme economic challenges along the Grand Rue, in central Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. After the massive earthquake in 2010, from which these communities have yet to fully recover, the UN delineated ‘Redzones’ around the city as areas too poor or dangerous for foreigners to work. As a result, the neighborhoods that have needed the most assistance have been largely ignored by non-governmental relief and aid organizations. As artists, we are not required to follow these guidelines. London based photographer and curator, Leah Gordon, established the Ghetto Biennial in 2009. A decade later, she completed the 6th edition themed Revolution, after nine months of aggressive street protests against government corruption that started in February of 2019. The evolution of our SEED work there not only compliments the theme, but demonstrates that it is indeed possible, if not vital, to incite restoration liberation around seeds in what has been described as a ‘post-apocalyptic’ scenario.
Grand-mères du Grand Rue
Starting off by working with grandmothers in 2013, we prepared traditional Creole meals together in the minimal ‘kitchens’ made up of a portable, charcoal powered stove, a couple pots, a few utensils and a bucket that materialized out of single room dwellings and set up in a corner of the tangle of footpaths that weave through the neighborhood. Sitting still for hours while preparing meals allowed for the discovery of dynamic ways people moved about the neighborhood, revealing purpose and intention that is not always evident when moving around a place ourselves. Traditional recipes were recorded as we prepared a series of pop up dinners shared by the visiting artists and members of the Atis Rezistans collective. Through the process, we learned which ingredients were essential to Creole cuisine, ultimately leading to an ongoing effort of working with plants, seed saving and food security.
Tchaka
As an initiation for the Gardens of the Grand Rue project in 2015, we prepared Tchaka to honor the patron of agriculture, Azaka. This particular recipe was used as a framework for a narrative written to explore the complexities of the relationships between Haiti and US food policy. Deconstructing the ingredients used in this porridge made up of pork stewed with the three sisters of corn beans and squash, the tale examined the decimation of the Creole Pig by the USDA which led to mass deforestation for charcoal production, the burning of genetically modified corn seed donated by Monsanto after the 2010 earthquake and the emerging threat of hybrid seeds, which imperil an already fragile local food system. Together with members of the TiMoun (Youth) Resistanz, we started planting seeds to see what could potentially grow in these densely populated areas. For example, Joumou (the local pumpkin) has a wonderful way of trailing across jagged rooftops that are pieced together with scavenged corrugated iron. Aside from vegetables that are happy when trellised, we found that trees thrive best in the cramped conditions, and that other ground crops need more space to effectively grow, much less preserve seeds. We were introduced to SAKALA, an organization that cultivates a large-scale, urban permaculture garden growing atop a former industrial pad in Cite Soleil. In an attempt to establish food sovereignty, preserve cultural traditions and improve food security, there is an acute interest in growing out seeds to preserve the strong Haitian heritage centered on agriculture. We are still learning how to effectively accomplish this in the dense urban areas, but recognize SAKALA as an important component to increasing the capacity of urban Haitians to preserve heirlooms in these increasingly dense urban areas. This community garden has the breadth to actually preserve seeds and we are looking forward to establishing a functioning seed library in this infamous Redzone. After being awarded first place for foreign projects for the biennial that year, we focused on SEED themed work in 2017 as we produced a series of workshops, performance and installations rooted in the crosscurrents of collaborative works which augmented existing practices of plant preservation.
Revolution
For the Revolution themed 2019 biennial, we started exploring historic connections between the former French colonies of Acadia and Haiti, looking at the entangled mobilities laid in place during these early days of colonialism and how these associations persist today. We are looking at the relationships between plant-human and non-human relationships held sacred by indigenous communities, and how these relationships guide the healing of the land in both places. In consideration of the role plants played through the Haitian revolution we are sharing how plant-based practices in both geographies may inform each other as we navigate our way through food sovereignty, sacred/medicinal relationships and rewilding efforts. We are interested in counter-practices that push against industrial agriculture and hybrid seeds.
Starting off by working with grandmothers in 2013, we prepared traditional Creole meals together in the minimal ‘kitchens’ made up of a portable, charcoal powered stove, a couple pots, a few utensils and a bucket that materialized out of single room dwellings and set up in a corner of the tangle of footpaths that weave through the neighborhood. Sitting still for hours while preparing meals allowed for the discovery of dynamic ways people moved about the neighborhood, revealing purpose and intention that is not always evident when moving around a place ourselves. Traditional recipes were recorded as we prepared a series of pop up dinners shared by the visiting artists and members of the Atis Rezistans collective. Through the process, we learned which ingredients were essential to Creole cuisine, ultimately leading to an ongoing effort of working with plants, seed saving and food security.
Tchaka
As an initiation for the Gardens of the Grand Rue project in 2015, we prepared Tchaka to honor the patron of agriculture, Azaka. This particular recipe was used as a framework for a narrative written to explore the complexities of the relationships between Haiti and US food policy. Deconstructing the ingredients used in this porridge made up of pork stewed with the three sisters of corn beans and squash, the tale examined the decimation of the Creole Pig by the USDA which led to mass deforestation for charcoal production, the burning of genetically modified corn seed donated by Monsanto after the 2010 earthquake and the emerging threat of hybrid seeds, which imperil an already fragile local food system. Together with members of the TiMoun (Youth) Resistanz, we started planting seeds to see what could potentially grow in these densely populated areas. For example, Joumou (the local pumpkin) has a wonderful way of trailing across jagged rooftops that are pieced together with scavenged corrugated iron. Aside from vegetables that are happy when trellised, we found that trees thrive best in the cramped conditions, and that other ground crops need more space to effectively grow, much less preserve seeds. We were introduced to SAKALA, an organization that cultivates a large-scale, urban permaculture garden growing atop a former industrial pad in Cite Soleil. In an attempt to establish food sovereignty, preserve cultural traditions and improve food security, there is an acute interest in growing out seeds to preserve the strong Haitian heritage centered on agriculture. We are still learning how to effectively accomplish this in the dense urban areas, but recognize SAKALA as an important component to increasing the capacity of urban Haitians to preserve heirlooms in these increasingly dense urban areas. This community garden has the breadth to actually preserve seeds and we are looking forward to establishing a functioning seed library in this infamous Redzone. After being awarded first place for foreign projects for the biennial that year, we focused on SEED themed work in 2017 as we produced a series of workshops, performance and installations rooted in the crosscurrents of collaborative works which augmented existing practices of plant preservation.
Revolution
For the Revolution themed 2019 biennial, we started exploring historic connections between the former French colonies of Acadia and Haiti, looking at the entangled mobilities laid in place during these early days of colonialism and how these associations persist today. We are looking at the relationships between plant-human and non-human relationships held sacred by indigenous communities, and how these relationships guide the healing of the land in both places. In consideration of the role plants played through the Haitian revolution we are sharing how plant-based practices in both geographies may inform each other as we navigate our way through food sovereignty, sacred/medicinal relationships and rewilding efforts. We are interested in counter-practices that push against industrial agriculture and hybrid seeds.
White Pines from Dawnland
The tall, straight trunks of Maine’s white pine trees were marked and severed from the landscape by French settlers to build ships that carried lumber to Haiti. Hawthorn trees were equally struck from the land, stripped of their thorns then used as nails in the same ships to Haiti (Hawthorne is resistant to rot unlike pine). Both Pine and Hawthorne trees carry sacred/medicinal relationships with Wabanaki tribes in the Northeast. Both trees were used to construct plantations that in turn, served as frameworks against which the Haitian revolution took place. Tracing the ghosts of White Pine and Hawthorn trees, we are looking at the functional differences between in-tact plantation grounds versus fragmented land passed down equally through generations of families after the revolution. Although former plantations were founded on frameworks of oppression, they were structured as polycultures that maintain diversity of plant life essential to the preservation of heirloom crops today.
Mountains Beyond Mountains
The indigenous Taino met the first free Africans who had escaped slavery into the dramatic mountainous landscape of Ayiti (Haiti), during the 1800’s. Ayiti means ‘mountains beyond mountains’ an expression from and of the land. Both cultures recognized one another’s interconnected, sacred relationships with the land. As a result, the Taino shared their knowledge of the land and the medicinal qualities found in Haiti’s endemic plants with the Africans. Plant, food and soil knowledge continues to be cultivated, interwoven with multiple cultural nuances, as interventions of restoration and liberation throughout the tightest corners of urban Port-Au-Prince. These same plants are tended as micro-gardens in pots and doorways around the Grand Rue neighborhoods. Choosing to augment these existing efforts, we support ongoing workshops with our collaborators that weave together recorded conversations, migratory bird song recordings, observational drawings, knowledge sharing and movement.
Control
Moringa trees have provided Haitians essential nutrients during the ongoing petrol revolts. Moringa was brought to Haiti from Africa as seeds sewn into the hems of garments worn by Africans during their forced migration across the Atlantic. The trees thrive in areas where little else can grow, yet they do not become invasive. When people take to the streets, the city is literally shut down and it is as if the protestors must commit to a hunger strike as they try to hold their government accountable. The nutrient dense leaves from Moringa trees we’ve planted over the past five years have offered an important dietary supplement during the revolts, when there is limited access to food aside from dry spaghetti. If you control food, you control people. Haitians are particularly sensitive to this as their food security has been undermined by international policy, which is why they burned huge piles of genetically modified corn seed ‘donated’ by Monsanto after the 2010 earthquake. We continue to plant Moringa trees, and save their seeds to start establishing a nutrient dense Grand Rue.
Restoration
In response to concerns that urban youth are being severed from the land, traditional plant, soil, health and cultural knowledge, we weave aspects of re-wilding into our SEED work to promote a whole-body ecologic revolution. We do this with seed saving workshops that unfold alongside art, citizen science and sound/movement sessions. We continue to share meals as the foundation of these creative gatherings, and demonstrate how to save seeds from the vegetable heavy meals. Paying close attention to the seasons, we prepare what is ripe and save the seeds. Establishing small nurseries, we invite TiMoun to germinate the seeds, tend their early growth and sell or trade the seedlings to broaden participation in the cultivation of urban micro-gardens. Informed by the progress of SEED work in Maine, we are establishing a preservation ring of ‘living seed libraries’ by calling on Haitian schools and environmental organizations to collaborate, exchange and inform creative acts that integrate arts into the conservation process.
Control
Moringa trees have provided Haitians essential nutrients during the ongoing petrol revolts. Moringa was brought to Haiti from Africa as seeds sewn into the hems of garments worn by Africans during their forced migration across the Atlantic. The trees thrive in areas where little else can grow, yet they do not become invasive. When people take to the streets, the city is literally shut down and it is as if the protestors must commit to a hunger strike as they try to hold their government accountable. The nutrient dense leaves from Moringa trees we’ve planted over the past five years have offered an important dietary supplement during the revolts, when there is limited access to food aside from dry spaghetti. If you control food, you control people. Haitians are particularly sensitive to this as their food security has been undermined by international policy, which is why they burned huge piles of genetically modified corn seed ‘donated’ by Monsanto after the 2010 earthquake. We continue to plant Moringa trees, and save their seeds to start establishing a nutrient dense Grand Rue.
Restoration
In response to concerns that urban youth are being severed from the land, traditional plant, soil, health and cultural knowledge, we weave aspects of re-wilding into our SEED work to promote a whole-body ecologic revolution. We do this with seed saving workshops that unfold alongside art, citizen science and sound/movement sessions. We continue to share meals as the foundation of these creative gatherings, and demonstrate how to save seeds from the vegetable heavy meals. Paying close attention to the seasons, we prepare what is ripe and save the seeds. Establishing small nurseries, we invite TiMoun to germinate the seeds, tend their early growth and sell or trade the seedlings to broaden participation in the cultivation of urban micro-gardens. Informed by the progress of SEED work in Maine, we are establishing a preservation ring of ‘living seed libraries’ by calling on Haitian schools and environmental organizations to collaborate, exchange and inform creative acts that integrate arts into the conservation process.
Connecting the two geographies, we provide open source images and recordings of migratory warbler songs, and invite youth to study these migratory species. Encouraging students to mimic birdsong and create observational drawings that exist in the creative commons, we invite consideration of how Haiti maintains connections to the northeast both in bird migrations as well as the migration of laborers, who arrive in Maine and stay during the summer to tend agricultural fields. Using the SEED Barn in Blue Hill as a platform for creative engagement, we are developing programming around the peninsula through 2020 to explore our ongoing connection with Haiti in a way that echoes the larger north/south relationships. As summer visitors arrive in Maine to escape the heat of urban centers, a series of creative engagements will contextualize these historic relationships for North Easterners. Around the shared table, we will discover how localization at home supports food security abroad. At former shipbuilding locations, we will integrate movement to explore relationships with the land and sea. In consideration of migrations, we will invite our community to reflect on how we can better conserve beloved migratory birds by looking at ways to support land stewardship in places that host these birds in winter. Throughout each activity, we will disperse seeds that support native food-ways and pollinators as we educate on indigenous methods of tending the wild landscape. In the process we will creatively explore ways of integrating eco-cultural restoration in order to promote healing of the land and support human and non-human species with whom we share it.
Lee Lee is a visual artist who constructs community frameworks for participatory restoration projects and creative seed dissemination. She explores the impact of mobilities-centered culture and works towards localization to promote food security in both Maine and Haiti. Founder of the SEED Barn in Blue Hill, Maine, her award-winning gardens are a foundation of the network of living seed libraries that are used to promote native food-ways and heirloom preservation. She maintains a painting practice that currently focuses on representations of the wildlife supported by the plants she cultivates.
SEED :: Haiti
SEED :: Haiti
moira williams’ often co-creative practice weaves together performance, bio-art, food, sound, sculpture and walking as a lived experience, while simultaneously connecting and creating opportunities for artists through curatorial projects. moira’s work aims to follow the logic of our symbiotic being in the world we share with bacteria, wild yeast, soil, water, animals, plants and one another. Works are meant to be lived, added to, shifted and moved over time and space - and may flow through moments to years. www.moira670.com
Haitian run organizations to support!
SAKALA
Lambi Fund
Haiti-centered organizations doing great work!
Lambi Fund
Haiti-centered organizations doing great work!