Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future

Elders: In Depth

Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future
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Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future

Like every generation, we are a link between the ancient past and the ancient future.

Why you can trust us

By Ricardo Levins Morales

< 1 MIN READ

Nov 30, 2023

An illustrated grassy hillside includes the heading: Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future. Text on the image reads: I grew up a child of Ta铆no land in Maricao, Borik茅n, clambering up mountainsides and through dense forest tangle. The forest only tells the truth. The story it told me was of the tangled unity of death and life and birth and decay and rebirth. And most of all, about the frightening, unstoppable, brilliant determination of life to exist.
Words and illustration by Ricardo Levins Morales, this illustration is adabled from an animatd video produced by Linebreak Media on behalf of the 100% Campaign.

An illustration in the upper-right depicts people carrying signs bearing corporate logos, and handheld weapons. Text on the upper half of the page reads: I grew up under colonial occupation, which is a large-scale version of armed robbery, meant to keep poor people poor and the rich rich. Colonialism depletes without replenishing. It鈥檚 what has blown so many of us, like spores on the wind, to places far from our homes鈥攊n my case, to the occupied homelands of the Dakota people and their more recent neighbors, the Anishinaabeg, another displaced people. The words 鈥渟pore鈥� and 鈥渄iaspora鈥� share the same Greek root.
The lower left quadrant includes an illustration of a person of color holding a small light green house in both their arms. Text accompanying that image reads: I don鈥檛 have to tell you that we鈥檙e at a turning point in our intertwined histories. We all feel it. The Gulf Stream, the jet stream, the migrant stream, all changing and shifting at once. We, like every generation, are a link between the ancient past and the ancient future. How we step into that role matters a great deal to those who await in the future, where we鈥檙e headed. It matters that we learn to read the land, feel the wind, listen to the vibrations in the ground and the rhythms in each other鈥檚 hearts. None of us know how to get there, so we need to become the kind of people capable of figuring it out.

The illustration in the top half of the image depicts several people standing outdoors under a tree, playing drums, pouring water, reading, and chanting. Text accompanying this image reads: We humans have been gathering experience for hundreds of thousands of years. Let鈥檚 use it. We have to know our history and each other鈥檚.
Union leader Joe Hill once said, 鈥淒on鈥檛 mourn, organize.鈥� We need to organize, but we also need to mourn. Accumulated loss can weigh us down."
The bottom half of the image depicts a person of color seated on the ground, their head in their hands. Text accompanying the image continues Joe Hill's quote, reading: Grieving lightens the load. We get to grieve for our loved ones, for the polar bears losing their ice, for the unhoused we鈥檝e left behind, for our people鈥檚 pain. But to mourn for the whole entire world? That feels irresponsible. When your child is sick, you don鈥檛 mourn their loss. You fight like hell for their life. The same should be true for Mother Earth."

An illustration in the upper-right shows a monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Text to the left of the image reads: Hope is the life force that drives every chipmunk, sea turtle, or butterfly to venture out each day in search of a meal or a nesting place or a mate. It鈥檚 what allows us to see opportunities. I鈥檓 sorry to have to tell you, but the universe is a lot more invested in what you do than in how you feel. Because however you feel, the choice is the same. It鈥檚 about either giving up or stepping up.
There are some who are waiting for us. I can feel them. They stand in a circle beside a wide river summoning us, their ancestors, for a ceremony of gratitude. They are thanking us for all we did during the confusing, frightening, uncertain time of the turning. How we rose to the occasion. How we never gave up, so that one day they could stand here, beside a river, birds chirping and water rippling, and honor us. It鈥檚 what ancestors live for. Literally.
At the bottom-left of the image is an illustration of the planet, shaped like a raised fist, surrounded by humans with arms intertwined, embracing each other and the Earth. Text reads: I never knew this before. We don鈥檛 just need our ancestors; they need us. We are their anchor point in the future: Someone to dream about. To fight for. To walk toward. As we must walk toward those who wait for us.
Let鈥檚 go."
鈥� Ricardo Levins Morales is an artist and organizer based in Minneapolis who uses art as political medicine to support individual and collective healing from the ongoing harms of oppression. Instagram: @ricardolevinsmorales

Ricardo Levins Morales is an artist and organizer based in Minneapolis. He uses his art as a form of political medicine to support individual and collective healing from the injuries and ongoing reality of oppression. He was born into the anti-colonial movement in his native Puerto Rico and was drawn into activism in Chicago when his family moved there in 1967. Instagram: @ricardolevinsmorales

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Elders: In Depth

Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future

Elders: In Depth

Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future

Like every generation, we are a link between the ancient past and the ancient future.

Winter 2024

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