Hello Everyone,
As always, we hope that this message finds you well. A few weeks ago, Missoula hosted IndigiPalooza, a weekend festival celebrating the resilience and resistance of indigenous communities over the past 250 years. A major focus of the festival was the importance of our relationship with the land and reciprocity. Honoring plants, animals and trees not as lesser than beings but as relatives that are as equally as important as a mother, father, brother, sister or child.
The weekend culminated with a morning spent in the Montana Native Plant garden at Ft. Missoula with esteemed author, ecologist and native plant expert Robin Wall Kimmerer. Robin began the “Plant, Baby Plant” revolution in response to “Drill, Baby Drill” or “Build, Baby Build”. She encourages people to form resistance by reconnecting with the soil, and importantly native plant species. Robin invited one of our group members, Cath Scribner, to speak at the event about The Grove and our ongoing lawsuit against the City of Missoula. Please find Cath’s speech here, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zu4-aqRiPSqz4Ke9lTE1Imcn8ZxDLSbZ/view?pli=1
We have received support from not only Robin Wall Kimmerer but from people far and wide who understand the importance of preserving urban green spaces, native plants and keystone species.
Our humble, grassroots group continues to gain strength and membership through connecting with our community and land. We thank you all for being a part of this.
In order to offset legal costs, we have created a Venmo account, that you can contribute to if you’d like to and are able to help financially. Please scan the QR code in the image on this post if you’d would like to donate, or find our Venmo at @mslarooted, last 4 digits of phone number 9389. For those of you that are old school and in Missoula, you can also make contributions to our bank account at First Interstate Bank. The account name is Rooted in Environmental Justice, the last 4 digits of the account are 4090.
To end, we’d like to share this beautiful Mary Oliver poem with you.
WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”