Over the past few months, our Highlander School community in Atlanta has been in a place of evolution, rethinking our relationship with the natural world and the land upon which we live. We find ourselves asking, “Who am I, who are we in relationship to this earth?” This current thinking and our ongoing work, is fueled by our careful attention to children’s connection with this earth, and is further propelled by the urgent call to help defend the Weelaunee forest, also known as South River forest in Atlanta.

The land we are on is the ancestral home of the Muscogee people, and upon their forced removal, it was cared for by enslaved Africans. To heal from this atrocity, we must acknowledge the history this land holds and the physical and cultural genocide that took place and its legacy. We cannot do this work without centering the futurity, voices, and knowledge of African and Indigenous Americans and the voice of earth herself.