Cultural Monitoring,
Land Stewardship & Training
Land stewardship is a major pillar of the work of No Loose Braids. Our culture cannot be separated from the land, yet colonization has violently severed that connection for our people. By reconnecting to the land, we revitalize our culture and bring health back to our communities and to mother earth. Settler colonialism has also impacted the land in the ways that it cultivates a view of the land as a resource to be controlled and extracted from. This disconnect and overconsumption has led to the biggest environmental crises the world has ever seen including a rapidly changing climate and invasive species that are replacing our foods and medicines across the landscape.
Our initiatives prioritize proactive climate action and ecological balance through an Indigenous lens. We work with colonial conservation organizations and academic institutions to teach the importance of being in a reciprocal relationship with the land, and that the land needs more reciprocity to restore the harm that they have caused to the land.
No Loose Braids began contracting with Land Trust and other conservation agencies in 2021. We provide consulting services to land trusts and educate them on how to move in reciprocity with the land they steward. We do this through collaborative cultural monitoring, co-stewardship plans, and co-management plans. We facilitate educational workshops for land trusts related to indigenizing processes for land trust work and respectfully engaging with indigenous communities and community members.
Our work strives to increase the number of Indigenous land stewards through a paid internship program. We need more Indigenous land stewards to help strengthen ecosystem resilience, restore and retain cultural continuity and sovereignty across Nipmuc Territory.
