The Land Speaks First 

Our family's roots reach into eastern territories. Government systems do not formally recognize our identity here — and we have not forgotten what was taken to make that so.

We are Métis. Not visitors. Not guests. We are part of the original people of this land, and this land is part of us. It always has been.

To live upon this earth, to gather from it, is to be beholden to it. Completely.

Guided by the wisdom of the Creator and the knowledge of our ancestors, we practice Sensus Naturae — listening deeply to the earth beneath our feet, the turning of the seasons, and the winds that tell us when the land is ready to share. We offer our profound respect to the original protectors of these spaces: the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and the Métis Nation.

We share a vital duty to protect the lifeblood of this province — not out of obligation, but out of love. Out of memory. Out of responsibility to those who tended this land before us, and those who will gather from it long after we are gone.

We stand in active solidarity with Water Not Coal, demanding a legislated ban on open-pit mining to keep toxic selenium out of our ecosystems. We support the Alberta Wilderness Association and CPAWS Southern Alberta in defending the Eastern Slopes, preserving our headwaters, and protecting our forests.

Water is life. Without clean water and untamed land, the ancient reciprocal relationship of foraging and gathering cannot survive.

We do not just inhabit this land — we are woven into it, and it into us. What we do here, how we tread, what we leave behind — it will echo for generations. We believe it is incumbent upon us all to walk lightly, to learn our wild roots and berries, and to do our part to care for ourselves and for this earth.

— Sara Kate & Lanny