This book…
…is a journey to re-member and restore righteous relationships to the earth and with each other
…is a narrative of resistance shaped by the four life-giving elements: water, earth, fire, and air
…is an offering of healing that is explicitly decolonial, pan-indigenous, multi-cultural, and kinship-making.
Praise for Healing the Land
Raj Patel - Author of Inflamed & Stuffed and Straved
“To a world bereaving itself of kin and kindness, Maceo Carrillo Martinet offers the twin gifts of planetary and social healing. After holding his hand through beautiful and ancient wisdoms, you close this book feeling restored and restorative, and ready to share this book with everyone you know.”
Ashish Kothari - Global Tapestry of Alternatives, and co-editor, Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary
“Humanity’s biggest crisis is the severing of our life-sustaining ties with the Earth and all its beings. We are dragging millions of species, including our own, towards a mass extinction. The world desperately needs healing. In this compelling book, replete with stories from across the world, Maceo Carrillo Martinet tells us how this is linked to our own cultural and spiritual healing, and to regaining a sense of community. His message is clear: reconnect with and within nature, and with each other, learning especially from communities who have lived like this for generations. This is the only hope to stave off what is otherwise certain, not-so-far-off, collapse of life on the planet.”
Gregory A. Cajete. Ph.D. - (Santa Clara Pueblo), Former Director of Native American Studies, University College, Professor Emeritus, Language, Literacy and Socio-cultural Studies, College of Education. The University of New Mexico
“Maceo Carrillo Martinet has written a unique and highly creative treatise on ecological restoration as it relates to Indigenous ethics of relationship, care and stewardship of natural places.
Using the metaphors of earth, wind, fire and water, Maceo elegantly weaves contemporary stories of Indigenous ecological activities in their homelands. Beginning with the center of his own home place of the Rio Grande Bosque riparian ecosystem of Central New Mexico and then radiating out to highlight the stories of ecological restoration efforts in Indigenous communities globally. In each of these stories he honors and illustrates a focus on the integral role of inter-relationship with one of the primal elements. In this way he illustrates the principles of Native Science and the foundational role Indigenous Peoples have played in striving to restore ecological balance in the midst of the chaos and destruction of modernity.
“Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are,” presents profound teachings from the stories of many Indigenous efforts worldwide to restore ecological balance in their place. It is a must-read for anyone interested in work that will have a lasting impact in the places we call home. Indeed, it shows us how to become “good ancestors” in relationship, respect and responsibility to the places which we call home and give us life!”
Jose Barreiro – Hatuey, Elder, Taino Nation, Smithsonian Scholar Emeritus
“Maceo Carrillo Martinet’s quest is to contemplate and understand Indigeneity in the slowly reawakening consciousness of human re-integration with the natural world. It’s a complex topic. The dual extremes of racism and romanticism obfuscate the depth of Indigenous cultural knowledge. Martinet peeks sharply through the brush: much to learn, much to apply.”
Jessica Hernandez – Author of Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science
“A luminous blueprint for repair. Rooted in Indigenous science and community practice, Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are shows how restoring water, earth, fire, and language can restore us, too—offering rigor, story, and hope in equal measure.”