Youth in Relation to Returned Land
Co-PIs Eve Tuck, K. Wayne Yang (University of California San Diego), Corrina Gould (Sogorea Te’ Land Trust)
Co-Investigator Michael McKenzie (McGill University), Régine Debrosse (McGill University)
Years active
3 years (January 2022 - December 2024)
Abstract
This project seeks to understand how BIPOC youth are engaging with and relating to returned land within the city of Oakland, California. In this project we partner with Indigenous women-led community organization Sogorea Te Land Trust to learn how BIPOC youth, their families, and Ohlone people residing outside of the Bay Area are conceptualizing their connection to returned Indigenous lands. Additionally, this project wants to know more about the nuts and bolts of this process of land back in order to inform theories of change for other land rematriation movements. This is a multi-year study, beginning in January 2021 and closing in December 2023, and will include a youth land education program in collaboration with Sogorea Te`. The land education curriculum will focus on these four areas: land and water based learning, participatory visual research, learning about the history of Indigenous people in California and Ohlone language activities, in addition to the history of community organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area. The program will run in 5 waves alongside the study, and the research team will be conducting interviews and focus groups with: the mayor and other city officials, land education collectives, Sogorea Te` staff, Ohlone people outside of the Bay Area, and interested youth in the program and their family members.
Methods
Mixed methods including interviews and focus groups, participatory visual research, and surveys
Indigenous methodologies including Indigenous storywork visiting practises
Participatory visual research will include: photovoice, mapping (concept and place)
Ethical Framework
Indigenous feminist research practice which recognizes the importance of stories and the significance of place
Colleagues and collaborators with experiences and practice of Indigenous feminist research and BIPOC organizing and community building
Theories of Change
Land rematriation, land return, land back, BIPOC youth connection to land
Kinds of Evidence
Literature review
Field notes
Focus groups and interviews
Surveys
Knowledge Mobilization
Policy recommendations put forward
Conferences
Podcasting, ie. The Henceforward
Publications
Keywords
Land education, BIPOC youth, land return, land rematriation
Disciplines
Indigenous Studies, Qualitative Studies
Project funded by
William T. Grant Foundation