Healing Bodies: Micro-sites of Sovereignty as Places for Refuge, Regeneration, and World-building

Abstract

This community engaged thesis project centers the strength-based perspectives of Black and Native American communities engaging in regenerative land care practices within the Coast Salish Territories known today as Seattle, Washington. Representing the significant themes of Black Liberation, Indigenous Sovereignty, social and environmental justice; the communities that I engage with explore the vital need for healing, dreaming, and knowledge sharing that is derived from being in spaces activated by political resistance. These spaces demonstrate the power of Black and Native communities cultivating alternative ways of being and knowing as they work towards attaining our hopes and dreams of a decolonial and just future. Those futures reflect our shared yet distinct community desires, the re-contextualization of our histories and place-based approaches for our collective care.