LAND BACK ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Settler colonialism is not confined to the realm of history. It continues to apply deadly force on Indigenous populations and on the ecosystems that have been integral to Native cultures since time immemorial. The biosphere is being torn to shreds under the weight of extractive industrialization and globalization, and it's this biodiversity loss that motivates conservation, the movement against extinction. Ecodogs and their coworkers may thus be seen as counteracting the deadly force. I admire their valor and trust their intentions, but I can't overlook the ways that conservation is connected to colonialism because I believe successes are more attainable and sustainable when protection of human rights and rights of nature happens as a unified effort.
Like many of us, I see myself as a genetic outcome of colonialism -- in my case as a person from so-called Colombia of European, Indigenous American, African, and Levantine ancestry. Giving credit to Native Land Digital's mapping project for this visualization, I also identify as a settler living in the traditional tribal territories of the Duwamish, Snoqualmie, Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples.
Customary land acknowledgments fall a bit short for me, generally, so I made this comic to function as a Land Back acknowledgment.
