Nativity Scene

Nativity Set, November 12, 2016

Balboa Park, San Diego California 

I was glad to stumble on this scene,

when the light was so beautiful. 

Death Valley, November 2016

Nopah Range Wilderness

Old Spanish Trail Highway

Nopah Range Wilderness

Mojave Desert, California 

Goddess Temple

Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet

Mojave Desert, Indian Springs Nevada

171 Acres Available (We Are Occupiers)

In the photo, both signs said "171 Acres Available" until someone wrote "NATIVE AMERICA" over the sign on the right. The rock painted blood-like was a few yards to the east. These acts tell a truer story about what Columbus Day represents than the story I was taught in grade school. The most important part of the lesson being that colonization isn't an event that ended in the past but a process that is still in motion: We are participating in the full blown occupation of indigenous people's homeland in the present. 

Every year, I'm appalled that Columbus Day is still on the calendar. It's embarrassing that we would honor any European for "discovering" America. Aside from the fact that giving this credit to Columbus is historically inaccurate, it's cognitive dissonance that allowed our teachers to say "Columbus discovered America in 1492" in one breath and then to teach us about "Native Americans" in another. It should have been obvious that a man can't discover a place where people already live. This same cognitive dissonance pervades our American identity, way of thinking and lifestyle in every single way.

Colonization is not some distant sin committed by our forebears that we've been absolved of taking responsibility for by virtue of the passage of time. We who are alive now are settler occupiers too. While we enjoy the privilege created by our American ancestors, we are living on occupied lands. The poor and downtrodden among us are living on occupied lands. The descendants of African slaves are living on occupied lands. Churches are built on occupied lands. Our homes, on occupied land. Our hospitals, schools, shops, dams, cemeteries, mines, pipelines, highways, Wall Street and everything in between- all function on occupied lands. Your land is not really your land, even if you "own" it. That ownership is legitimate in compliance with the occupation only but in reality, the ownership is false and you are just a present day settler.  

It's helpful to shift our thinking about the truth of our place in America, the popular phrase "Decolonize Your Mind" is succinctly accurate. (Read: Decolonizing Our Hears and Minds by Tlalli Yaotl) I don't claim to know how to end our occupation and I don't believe that we can ever go back to the way it was before colonization started. The meager least we can do is stop lying to ourselves about simple things. Change "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples Day" or "Colonization Awareness Day" or something of the like, to serve as a reminder of how we came to be here. AND to stop the mistake of misunderstanding our roles and responsibilities in the present as settlers benefitting from this occupation.  

My intent here is not a call to guilt but a call to shatter false myths and a call to atonement. It's not my fault that I was born of European descent in the United States of America, but I'm still an occupier. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents are/were occupiers. It may be hard to face but unless your ancestors are indigenous to the Americas, you are an occupier too. Let's do better than our American ancestors and move forward in the spirit of reparation- reparation for the soil, water and air, and to the indigenous lives who still belong to this land. 

DONATE TODAY! Below are a few links where we can contribute to our indigenous sisters and brothers. Or, reach out to nonprofit organizations built on the land where you yourself live.


http://standingrock.org

http://www.tocaonline.org/%24upport-toca.html

http://www.friendshiphousesf.org/support

http://www.apache-stronghold.com

http://www.amerindian.org/donations.html

Cairn, Route 66

Cairn off the side of Route 66 in the middle of the Mojave Desert. 

I found this stack of rocks beautiful. They caught me off guard. For no reason in particular, I pulled my car over near this spot and set off walking away from the road towards the open desert. I meandered for a while, I don't know for how long. There was lots of life and spirit to see in a place that many people dismiss as "barren." It's always that way in the Mojave Desert. People reject it as a wasteland but no matter how dead a spot looks from a distance, once you get up close the word "barren" is meant for some other place, far away. When I turned to go back, the stack was suddenly there as if out of nowhere in a place that already felt haunted. The atmosphere at dusk was palpable, aglow, the landscape hummed as it threw off the heat it absorbed earlier from the hot desert sun.

Romantic experiences with the land aside, I do acknowledge that the the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics discourages moving anything in the natural landscape, including rocks. Stacking is generally frowned upon. They're addressing national and state parks etc. but the principals apply to any place that's wilder than our towns and cities. We humans already move so much. We destroy so much on purpose and by accident.  When we go away from our manmade places... I understand that we should just let the places be. We don't deserve to leave our mark on every single place. 

Heart Of The Mojave, Amboy Road California

Hexagon formation on the floor of Bristol Dry Lake. The playa consists of different areas made of salt, mud, gypsum and sand.