Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Char Miller
Reader 2
Heather Williams
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
Before the traumatic history of slavery, Black people had a sacred relationship with the land. Now Black farmers are beginning to heal the association of farming with slavery through finding healing in the land. From experiencing cathartic release in the sensation of pulling out weeds, to healing in the reciprocity of caring for one’s own health while caring for the land, to empowerment and community in knowing how to feed oneself in food deserts, Black people are experiencing healing on farms today. Through the development of four essays: Who Cared, Healing Land, Healing Reparations, and Homeland, I engage with this topic. My own experience as a mixed-race Black woman involved in farming is central to my passion for this work and for my concluding reflection that mixed-race identity could serve as a conceptual framework for imagining land justice that acknowledges interwoven racial histories alongside colonization.
Recommended Citation
Bullock Floyd, Makeda, "Soil and Soul: Fostering Cultural Healing Through Reconnection to the Land" (2022). Pomona Senior Theses. 254.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/254
