Gratitude First · A Land and Lineage Acknowledgement
We gather on ancient land.
We carry ancient practice.
Before we gather, before we dance, before we do anything at all. We offer gratitude. For the land beneath our feet. For the water that carries us. For the ancestors, seen and unseen, who made it possible for us to be here.
THE LAND
We Gather on Ancestral Homelands
Before we name the land, we greet it. We greet the water that moves beneath our feet, the plants that push through the soil, the birds that cross the sky above us. We greet the earth herself and everything she holds. Gratitude first. Always gratitude first.
The Phoenix Valley sits on the ancestral homelands of the Huhugam, who were the original caretakers of this land, ancestors of the Akimel O'odham, the Onk Akimel O'odham, the Tohono O'odham, and the Ak-Chin. This land is also home to the Pee Posh, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Gila River Indian Community, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. We acknowledge their sovereignty, their presence, and their continued stewardship of this land.
Raw & Rooted holds ceremony on these native lands and we believe it is important to recognize and to name that.
OUR FIRST MOTHER
Earth is Our Ancestor
Beyond the valley, beyond the borders we have drawn— we acknowledge the earth herself. She is our first mother. Our first ancestor. The ground beneath our feet. She is alive, she is ancient, and she is the reason any of us are here at all.
The trees breathe out what we breathe in. The water carries what we cannot carry alone. Every plant, every animal, & the soil itself, are our relatives. Our teachers. Our ancestors.
When we dance, we are not dancing on the earth. We are dancing with her. We are practicing reciprocity. We are saying: I feel you, I see you, I am with you. We are giving back what the earth has always given us. Presence. Aliveness. The willingness to be moved.
She is our first dance partner. She has always been waiting for us to return.
THE LINEAGE & PRACTICE
We Did Not Invent This
Raw & Rooted did not invent ceremony. We did not discover free form movement or the power of rhythm to move what words cannot reach. What we do in our gatherings has been practiced since the beginning of human time— by Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island, by our ancestors in Mexico and across Latin America, by communities across Africa, across Asia, across every continent that has ever held a drumbeat and a body willing to move.
The oldest ceremonies on this earth arose from relationship. People listened so deeply to the land that the land began to speak back. Who watched the seasons long enough to understand that everything moves in cycles. Who knew that what you take, you must give back. Who understood that a gift is not truly a gift unless it is passed forward.
We are not a new practice, we are a continuation of something ancient and alive.
What we have done is create a unique frequency. A frequnecy that is distinctly ours, born from our lineages, our gifts, our wounds, our devotion. A container that is ever evolving, that grows with us, that holds what we have learned and what we are still learning.
We do not claim ownership of this medicine. We claim our particular expression of it, offered with humility and with deep reverence for everyone who carried it before us.
We carry the understanding of reciprocity into every ceremony. We are not here to extract an experience. We are here to be in relationship with ourselves, with each other, with the earth beneath our feet.
We are students of this earth. We are students of our ancestors. We are doing our best to honor what was given to us by giving it forward.
TAKE ACTION
A land acknowledgement is a beginning, not an endpoint. Words without action are not enough. We invite you in whatever capacity you have to show up for the Native peoples whose land you live, work, gather, and dance on.
Start by learning whose land you are on.The Native Land Digital map at native-land.ca is a beautiful place to start. Search your address. Learn the names. Say them out loud.
Once you know whos ancestral lands you reside on, ask yourself: “how can I support the people whose land this is?” That answer will look different for everyone. It might be a donation, a volunteer hour, a purchase from a Native-owned business, an amplified voice, a conversation you have never had before. Whatever it is, do it with your whole heart and with the understanding that reciprocity is not a transaction. It is a practice. It is a way of being in relationship with the world around you.
We are students of this earth.
We are students of our ancestors.
We honor what was given to us by giving it forward.