Elders: In Depth
- Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future
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Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future
Like every generation, we are a link between the ancient past and the ancient future.
< 1 MIN READ
Nov 30, 2023
![An illustrated grassy hillside includes the heading: Terra Affirma: Our Ancestral Future. Text on the image reads: I grew up a child of Taíno land in Maricao, Borikén, clambering up mountainsides and through dense forest tangle. The forest only tells the truth. The story it told me was of the tangled unity of death and life and birth and decay and rebirth. And most of all, about the frightening, unstoppable, brilliant determination of life to exist.
Words and illustration by Ricardo Levins Morales, this illustration is adabled from an animatd video produced by Linebreak Media on behalf of the 100% Campaign.](https://i0.wp.com/www.yesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Terra-Affirma1.jpg?resize=795%2C1024&quality=90&ssl=1)
![An illustration in the upper-right depicts people carrying signs bearing corporate logos, and handheld weapons. Text on the upper half of the page reads: I grew up under colonial occupation, which is a large-scale version of armed robbery, meant to keep poor people poor and the rich rich. Colonialism depletes without replenishing. It’s what has blown so many of us, like spores on the wind, to places far from our homes—in my case, to the occupied homelands of the Dakota people and their more recent neighbors, the Anishinaabeg, another displaced people. The words “spore” and “diaspora” share the same Greek root.
The lower left quadrant includes an illustration of a person of color holding a small light green house in both their arms. Text accompanying that image reads: I don’t have to tell you that we’re at a turning point in our intertwined histories. We all feel it. The Gulf Stream, the jet stream, the migrant stream, all changing and shifting at once. We, like every generation, are a link between the ancient past and the ancient future. How we step into that role matters a great deal to those who await in the future, where we’re headed. It matters that we learn to read the land, feel the wind, listen to the vibrations in the ground and the rhythms in each other’s hearts. None of us know how to get there, so we need to become the kind of people capable of figuring it out.](https://www.yesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Terra-Affirma2-795x1024.jpg)
![The illustration in the top half of the image depicts several people standing outdoors under a tree, playing drums, pouring water, reading, and chanting. Text accompanying this image reads: We humans have been gathering experience for hundreds of thousands of years. Let’s use it. We have to know our history and each other’s.
Union leader Joe Hill once said, “Don’t mourn, organize.” We need to organize, but we also need to mourn. Accumulated loss can weigh us down."
The bottom half of the image depicts a person of color seated on the ground, their head in their hands. Text accompanying the image continues Joe Hill's quote, reading: Grieving lightens the load. We get to grieve for our loved ones, for the polar bears losing their ice, for the unhoused we’ve left behind, for our people’s pain. But to mourn for the whole entire world? That feels irresponsible. When your child is sick, you don’t mourn their loss. You fight like hell for their life. The same should be true for Mother Earth."](https://www.yesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Terra-Affirma3-795x1024.jpg)
![An illustration in the upper-right shows a monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Text to the left of the image reads: Hope is the life force that drives every chipmunk, sea turtle, or butterfly to venture out each day in search of a meal or a nesting place or a mate. It’s what allows us to see opportunities. I’m sorry to have to tell you, but the universe is a lot more invested in what you do than in how you feel. Because however you feel, the choice is the same. It’s about either giving up or stepping up.
There are some who are waiting for us. I can feel them. They stand in a circle beside a wide river summoning us, their ancestors, for a ceremony of gratitude. They are thanking us for all we did during the confusing, frightening, uncertain time of the turning. How we rose to the occasion. How we never gave up, so that one day they could stand here, beside a river, birds chirping and water rippling, and honor us. It’s what ancestors live for. Literally.
At the bottom-left of the image is an illustration of the planet, shaped like a raised fist, surrounded by humans with arms intertwined, embracing each other and the Earth. Text reads: I never knew this before. We don’t just need our ancestors; they need us. We are their anchor point in the future: Someone to dream about. To fight for. To walk toward. As we must walk toward those who wait for us.
Let’s go."
— Ricardo Levins Morales is an artist and organizer based in Minneapolis who uses art as political medicine to support individual and collective healing from the ongoing harms of oppression. Instagram: @ricardolevinsmorales](https://www.yesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Terra-Affirma4-795x1024.jpg)
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Ricardo Levins Morales
is an artist and organizer based in Minneapolis. He uses his art as a form of political medicine to support individual and collective healing from the injuries and ongoing reality of oppression. He was born into the anti-colonial movement in his native Puerto Rico and was drawn into activism in Chicago when his family moved there in 1967. Instagram: @ricardolevinsmorales
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