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