Who owns the land? #Kallak #Gallok #Elsipogtog #NiyamgiriHills #Kalahari #BeloMonte #PahaSapa, #PeSla are just some of those places where this question arises. Does the land belong to the states, companies, private owners or to the indigenous nations?
For me it’s simpel. I am the land.
I can’t exist without the land, every organic compound in me comes from the nature. Everything I need comes from the nature, from the earth, from the land; my clothes, houses, car, computer, cellphone, books and food is from nature. And when I die I’m going to return, manly to water element as fume and my ashes to the land.
From childhood my intention was to live on the land as fisher, hunter and harvesting the resources on the land. It stayed as an intention as the society, by democratic institutions an legislature imposed this life on me. Even if i would like I can’t live on bush-resources.
There are laws regulating the ownership of land and water and thereby regulating the right to fish and hunt. I can’t even grow potatoes if I don’t own some square foot of land. In the capitalism society the private property is more than law, it’s one of the pilars it’s standing on and seems to be sacred.
The indigenous nations claim the land by treaties or by Articles 26 in the UN declaraiation on rights of indigenous peoples. However the states who signed the declaration don’t seem to observe what they have ratified. As I read the declaration it’s based on a colonial-capitalist perspective on the ownership of land. What’s the point of having the right of the colonizers to own the land being colonized?
For me it’s not a problem as long as I float with the stream. I can still live on the land, I can walk the land, fish where there are small chances of getting caught, cutting birch and other material for woodwork and harvesting the land for berries and other plants. The reindeermeat I harvest with money, as I do in my everyday life, in this world of money.
So bee it.
All five elements live in me, interconnecting me with all living things, I am water, earth, fire, air and space. I do my best communicating with all visible beings and I try my best to create communication with the world hidden from humans.
Violating the land is violence on my body. So mining, logging, gas, and oil extraction is environmental violence that directly affects my overall health and wellbeing as I am the land.
I have no interest in ownership and I am here to tell you that I am the land as I walk the land. I own the land under my feat and I govern the space as far out as my arm reaches.
No more, no less.