Ecological
Well-Being
The health of the planet, and the ability for future generations to thrive on the land guide how the land is stewarded.
Drawing upon the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) principle that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future, Community Stewardship of Land considers the impact of how we interact with the land on our environment. and future generations. When making decisions about how the land is stewarded, climate justice is a key concern, as is ensuring that the land is accessible for future generations.
Community Vision
Hilltop Urban Gardens
Hilltop Urban Gardens is a community-based urban agriculture, justice and equity organization in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, WA. HUG seeks to inspire the community to live with abundance while understanding and interrupting the root causes of economic poverty, wealth accumulation and systems of oppression. HUG believes growing their own food independence is an important strategy in this process. HUG recently became property owners so they could grow food, promote food sovereignty and provide affordable housing.
Carmetrus Parker
Co-Director, Hilltop Urban Gardens
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Hilltop has been a place that for generations housed Black folks and other folks of color, but it used to be a predominantly a Black neighborhood. Gentrification on the other side of Division Street has pushed a migration of white folks into Hilltop, so [our project] is like sticking the flag and saying ‘this land will continue to be by Black folks, for Black folks,’ so I feel like it’s a reminder of what was, and a vision of what can be and that starts with access to healthy food grown right in the neighborhood, where there’s [otherwise] not a food source directly in the community that provides any type of quality food.
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Growing up, I didn’t see Black folks doing [farming] so I think that it’s really important for the community to see it, touch it, be a part of it, have a voice in what HUG does because we’re so centered in the Hilltop neighborhood.
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HUG has also reconnected to our ancestors by seeing food as medicine, as well as learning and cross sharing with Indigenous communities....We’ve always had medicine at the farm and we’re increasing the medicine we’re growing…We really do have the potential and opportunity to possess everything that we need, including medicine.
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It has to be about us, it can’t be about the individual...There has to be a compromise and a greater goal, and support for one another so that those individuals’ specific visions can also be recognized.
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It’s important to have allies that have access to different resources...It can be easy to follow the trail of the funder and lose sight and vision of your actual work, so [it’s important to have allies] who help you stay centered and maintain a strict priority to the work that you’re doing and not allowing funders or funding decisions to dilute that or stray from it.”