2Land 2Furious: We got land, baby!

_{Cross-posted from the Métis in Space blog.}

To contribute to the Métis in Space Land Trust, please send e-transfers to mislandtrust[at]gmail[dot]com.

Super exciting pre-season 6 announcement!

WE HAVE LAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNDDDD!!! 

In a truly mind- and dimension-warping turn of events, our projected 2-3 year timeline for securing some land for the Métis in Space: 2Land 2Furious Land Back project shrunk down to 3 months last year, with an anonymous sugar settler fronting the cash for a quarter section (approx 160 acres) of beautiful mixed ecology (prairie! wetland! forest! lake!) in Lac Ste. Anne county near the historic (and contemporary!) Metis community of manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne). We are DEEPLY PUMPED to have secured some land, and have set things up so that the state can’t take it away from us no matter how broke we get! Take THAT Scrip fraudsters and tax collectors!!

Much of Lac Ste. Anne county is hilariously unsuited to farming, with muskeg, dense forest, and flooding being commonplace throughout the area. This also means that the county (and even our small piece of it) is absolutely bursting with ecological diversity. The lake is blanketed with ducks, geese, loons, and swans; the forest is full of deer, elk, and moose sign; medicines and food like mint, cattails, wild roses, lowbush cranberry, and raspberries grow everywhere. We hope to work with Indigenous Knowledge Holders and scientists to create an even more healthy and welcoming environment for these relatives.

If you want to know more about what the process was like, and what pitfalls we encountered, check out this short piece in the Briarpatch Land Back issue here: https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/back-2-the-land-2land-2furious

(The Land Back issue is also just jam-packed with incredible writing from Land Back thinkers and practitioners, and we highly recommend you read the whole thing here: https://briarpatchmagazine.com/issues/view/september-october-2020

We already love everything about the land (and we’re excited to work towards finding its name and a name for the lake), and we can’t wait to make it ready to bring people out to do the kinds of cultural and relationship-building activities we have been dreaming about. The land has absolutely no infrastructure (or structures of any kind) – it doesn’t even have road access right now! So even though our biggest expense has been met, we continue to need funds to ensure that people can access and engage with the land. 

Our biggest priorities right now are getting a road put in so that we don’t have to wade through (sometimes sloughy, sometimes icy) bush from the road to the field, and installing a freshwater well so that people can spend some real time out there without having to haul in gallons of water. 

As we begin to fundraise for supplies to use on the land, we also need safe storage (after all, we are surrounded by settlers). To whit, we are hoping to procure a couple of sea-cans. Perhaps Trudeau will come through with that much-vaunted canoe storage he was talking about? As we expand activities on the land, we will have a better sense of the kinds of material supports we will need to provide, so our fundraising will be ongoing.

We also want to be clear that 100% of this money goes towards the land – we are not paying ourselves or anyone else to “manage” or “administer” this work. 

We’re moving away from GoFundMe as a platform, because they take a big percentage of donations. Instead, right now we’re asking folks who can to send us an e-transfer here: mislandtrust[at]gmail[dot]com

For now, you can still access the GFM here: https://ca.gofundme.com/f/vmha2p-back-2-the-land-2land-2furious 

Unfortunately, we can’t offer tax deductible receipts for donations. We have chosen not to pursue status as a charity, because we would be extremely politically limited by the legislation that governs what charities can and can’t do and say. We don’t want to endanger the land or have to censor our opinions or activities – or have the threat of punitive action being taken against us and the land for articulating Métis sovereignty and governance in the ways that make sense for us. 

A huge thank you to everyone who has already donated to the land or shared the fundraiser, it is massively appreciated and this work literally could not take place without your generosity. The fact that folks are continuing to support this work during these hyper-precarious Kenney government pandemic times is incredible, ay-ay mistahi! 

And of course, on our latest visit we needed to christen this new relationship with a robust round of KARAOKE ON THE LAND!

See you out there!