“I am grateful for Indigenous and diasporic initiatives that de-center European frames of mind, bringing me closer to the land and my peoples. Becoming land-sensitive has been one constant assemblage, where the plants teach me about resilience when rebounding from thirst or disease, the importance of dormancy before a period of flourishing, and the pride of unfurling a new leaf—being 500 million years old, plants are formidable teachers.
By having a child, I’ve become responsible for future settler habitation on this territory. Although we are not from these lands, we don’t have to be, to want to take care of them. Gathering plant knowledge from various traditions and ecosystems has allowed me and my son to explore the many peoples and plants that we embody, daydreaming about what it means to be connected to a land that naturally produces this kinda heat. These Landguaging lessons are not simply intellectual exercises, they are intentional acts of land-sensitization that are intended to outlive me, and provide a path for him and his future generations to write and enact a love letter to the land.”
The entire entry can be read here: https://bild-lida.ca/blog/uncategorized/academia-in-the-time-of-cholera-raising-generation-symbiocene-by-rhonda-chung/
Audio version: https://soundcloud.com/bild_lida/bild-june-2024wav
BILD is a critical sociolinguistic blog started by members of McGill University's Department of Integrated Studies in Education with the goal of discussing our language experiences in the multilingual setting of Montreal.