5 Black and indigenous Land-Back Orgs TO Support Right now and Always

Today is Giving Tuesday. But make donating to these organizations a part of your routine all year round.

Today is Giving Tuesday. The list of worthy organizations to donate to could fill an entire book, but today we are taking our cue (and this list) from our trusted friends at Reclaim Collaborative. They are the brains (and hearts) behind the Reclaim Black Friday initiative, in which they asked brands to skip the door busting sales in favor of redistributing a percentage of total sales to Indigenous and Black organizations. The campaign focused on land-based organizations in an effort to acknowledge the original stewards of this land and return it to those who have historically cultivated regenerative and healing relationships with the Earth. We thought today was the perfect opportunity to share more information about the organizations they partnered with, and encourage our readers to make their own donations today—when many of them are offering matches.

Here are 5 Indigenous and Black Land-Back organizations to support now and always.

DIGDEEP Water

“More than 40% of Navajo families don’t have clean, running water, right here in the United States. DIGDEEP is working across the Navajo Nation, where families living below the poverty line are forced to buy expensive bottled water or haul dirty water from ponds and livestock throughs up to 50 miles away.

We’re developing new water sources, outfitting delivery trucks, and installing hot and cold running water in homes - making people happier, healthier and more equal. Because no American should struggle to live without clean, running water.”

Follow them at: @digdeepwater

Amah Mutsun Land Trust

“The Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT), an initiative of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, is the vehicle by which the Amah Mutsun access, protect, and steward lands that are integral to our identity and culture. The AMLT returns our tribe to our ancestral lands and restores our role as environmental stewards.

Due to our difficult history and generations of physical, mental, and political abuses, our land stewardship practices were disrupted, and much of our culture was lost. AMLT serves not only in the re-learning of our history and restoration of indigenous management practices, it also serves as a vehicle for healing. By restoring our traditional ecological knowledge and revitalizing our relationship to Mother Earth, we also restore balance and harmony to the lands of our ancestors.”

Follow them at: @amahmutsunlandtrust

Black Farmer Fund

“The mission of Black Farmer Fund is to create a thriving, resilient, and equitable food system by investing in black food systems entrepreneurs and communities in New York. The Black Farmer Fund will also serve as a bridge for black communities to participate in creating a food system that benefits those within and outside of black communities.

We are defining wealth beyond financial and intellectual capital to include social capital and ancestral wisdom, to mitigate against climate change, exercise governance, strengthen solidarity, and preserve cultural and ancestral ways of being.”

Follow them at: @blackfarmerfund

Soul Fire Farm

“Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. We raise and distribute life-giving food as a means to end food apartheid. With deep reverence for the land and wisdom of our ancestors, we work to reclaim our collective right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system. We bring diverse communities together on this healing land to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health, and environmental justice. We are training the next generation of activist-farmers and strengthening the movements for food sovereignty and community self-determination.

Our food sovereignty programs reach over 10,000 people each year, including farmer training for Black and Brown growers, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food justice workshops for urban youth, home gardens for city-dwellers living under food apartheid, doorstep harvest delivery for food insecure households, and systems and policy education for public decision-makers.”

Follow them at: @SoulFireFarm

The Black Hives Matter Project

“Beekeeping for me is the answer to my life’s calling — to work in harmony with the rhythms of nature while supporting the physical and spiritual wellbeing of my family and communities. The Black Hives Matter Project was born out of an opportunity to purchase the apiary (bee farm) where I work in Nevada City, California — bringing a loved and long-standing honey business under Black ownership in the least diverse county in California, while providing food, medicine, employment and educational opportunities to my community.

It would be a dream come true for my family to step into this role — but it’s not just about us. The history of African Americans and beekeeping is long and deep, and has been one of the victims of the systematic erasure of the contributions of Black farmers from the records of history. I believe that there is immense power in the reconnection of this African diasporic insect and the African diasporic peoples in the Americas. I’m grateful for the opportunity to reclaim this relationship and share it with all of my communities.”

Follow them at: @blackhivesmatterproject