A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars

by Erin Sharkey

The toponyms of greatest concern either originated with voyagers and colonists from Europe and their descendants, or filtered through them from Indigenous tongues, sometimes much worse for wear. Most troubling to me is how people have embraced these namings as history, as “our” heritage, without asking if there might be other narratives, too. What of the indivisible ties between land and language in Indigenous traditions? What of names and other linguistic symbols left by those from Africa or Asia who’d come to this continent? What of names signaling hatred and disrespect?

Mom taught us about being independent, making things from scratch, speaking up, defending what we love, being proud of who we are, about not giving up. Dad taught us to revere all life, how to work hard, how to listen to nature, how to make up our own songs, how to be resourceful, that there are many paths to God. And Mama Nature taught us to be generous, loving, cooperative, multidimensional. That we are part of something so much bigger. We are no accident. We are never alone.

I’ve been finding the supports and community to nourish it … And it is starting to germinate … A new beginning … It’s coming … We are who we’ve been waiting for.

We will protect what we love. And she will protect us.

We are reclaiming our dignified kinship with land as Black people. We have inherited the seeds that are ready to grow. We have knowledge in our ancestral memory that is rehydrated through practice—being with the earth, breaking out of isolation, coming back together. Like our ancestors at Bwa Kayiman, we are synching our strategies, uniting our spiritual forces, and committing to interdimensional collaboration. Like the Maroons, we are asserting our sovereignty by partnering with nature.

We are practicing ways of living that rely less and less on extractive and harmful systems. We know how to nourish our communities without abusing the planet. We are saving and passing on seeds, co-building the soil, growing our food, producing our fuel, devising our medicines. We are healing and expanding our families and kinship networks. We are forming our own freedom schools, cooperatives, land trusts, sanctuaries, mutual aid networks, gift economies, and lending societies. We are organizing authentic communitie...