Land acknowledgements are dicey – they leave so much out. Even so, this act of recognition is a small but important step in holding ourselves accountable to Indigenous communities.

Before settling in so-called Portland, Farmer shiny was born to the plants and animals of unceded Tongva land, raised in the mountains of the Chochenyo Ohlone and then the desert flats of the Cahuilla. Later, sharpened and refined by the coastal waves of the Awaswas, shiny began to hear her personal calling to anti-oppression work. 

Scrapberry Farm is on unceded, stolen Chinook land. It is by the grace of those ancestors that we farm their land and to them we extend our gratitude.

People who are indigenous to this place are alive and well. Don’t talk about them like historical artifacts at the natural history museum. 

Do you feel some type of way about the land you are occupying? Good. You probably should. Investigate the original inhabitants and stewards of the lands you are on; then give to their causes, to their sovereignty, and to their liberation.

Tell the settler government to recognize the Chinook Nation.