When I hear people talk about "white culture" I always cringe, irregardless of whether they mean to criticize or to defend said culture. Because whiteness is actually ANATHEMA to culture. I want to yell it from the rooftops: WHITENESS is NOT a CULTURE! It is the opposite: a bleaching, a whitening of culture. It is ANTIBIOTIC by definition. I sometimes use a word from my training as a nutritionist--"dysbiosis", which refers to a condition in our guts which is so out of balance, that digestion can barely occur. This is what whiteness really is: Not a culture, not a race. WHITENESS IS DYSBIOSIS.
As a practicing ancestor worker, as well as permaculturist and a nutritional therapist, it is so satisfying to hear you highlighting the reality of SOIL, of culture, and how cultures actually grow--this piece is basically summarizing the interweaving that is my life's work. And it helps further fuel my drive to help the inoculation, the proliferation, the blooming of culture, even in the middle of a dead sea of whiteness, even against all odds.
Kudos, and thanks to you, Tad. I will definitely be sharing this.
Years ago, I went on a pilgrimage with my mom, aunt and grandmother (before she died) to revisit my family's migration from Bosnia to Czech to escape as refugees into Austria and eventually now Canada. I interviewed people along the way about where they feel rooted and at home. It was heartening and disturbing to see how a homeless Romani girl was more at peace and at home in the streets and others who had land titles and whose families had settled generations ago but were estranged and dying to get away.
Growing an urban farm in East York (Toronto), we've been learning about the soil macrobiology, making our own compost, invasive and local worms...
And growing a village of men mentoring men, who each have distinct cultures to bring together... Tying together land some of us steward and tend also bringing our roots into the world.
And finding lately how songs, singing from our culture and making new songs to weave together a new fabric of culture is realizing this culture making in a vital and renewable way.
This couple who live in Vancouver and are rediscovering folk songs from the villages I grew up in, but making their own new culture here in Canada, inspired me to consider such a process of recreation...
Thanks for this. Culture fed by mess reminds me of the work of Sophie Strand. You might enjoy her work: https://sophiestrand.substack.com/
When I hear people talk about "white culture" I always cringe, irregardless of whether they mean to criticize or to defend said culture. Because whiteness is actually ANATHEMA to culture. I want to yell it from the rooftops: WHITENESS is NOT a CULTURE! It is the opposite: a bleaching, a whitening of culture. It is ANTIBIOTIC by definition. I sometimes use a word from my training as a nutritionist--"dysbiosis", which refers to a condition in our guts which is so out of balance, that digestion can barely occur. This is what whiteness really is: Not a culture, not a race. WHITENESS IS DYSBIOSIS.
As a practicing ancestor worker, as well as permaculturist and a nutritional therapist, it is so satisfying to hear you highlighting the reality of SOIL, of culture, and how cultures actually grow--this piece is basically summarizing the interweaving that is my life's work. And it helps further fuel my drive to help the inoculation, the proliferation, the blooming of culture, even in the middle of a dead sea of whiteness, even against all odds.
Kudos, and thanks to you, Tad. I will definitely be sharing this.
Amen sister. Amen.
Tad,
This is rich reading for me to digest.
Years ago, I went on a pilgrimage with my mom, aunt and grandmother (before she died) to revisit my family's migration from Bosnia to Czech to escape as refugees into Austria and eventually now Canada. I interviewed people along the way about where they feel rooted and at home. It was heartening and disturbing to see how a homeless Romani girl was more at peace and at home in the streets and others who had land titles and whose families had settled generations ago but were estranged and dying to get away.
Growing an urban farm in East York (Toronto), we've been learning about the soil macrobiology, making our own compost, invasive and local worms...
And growing a village of men mentoring men, who each have distinct cultures to bring together... Tying together land some of us steward and tend also bringing our roots into the world.
And finding lately how songs, singing from our culture and making new songs to weave together a new fabric of culture is realizing this culture making in a vital and renewable way.
This couple who live in Vancouver and are rediscovering folk songs from the villages I grew up in, but making their own new culture here in Canada, inspired me to consider such a process of recreation...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hFDoTe6Dmg&t=67s
beautiful