Glasgow Seed Library

Planted in this Land: Rojava

Sat 12 October 2024

Wheelchair accessible

Relaxed event

A gradient from pink to green to blue, which overlays an engraving of a crowd with raised fists in a rural landscape.

Artwork adapted from ‘Sketches in the Island of Lewis, the Scene of the Crofter Agitation’. The Illustrated London News, 28 January 1888

Want to learn about past and present struggles for land, food, farming, foraging, roaming and belonging? Join an ongoing land justice study group with Glasgow Seed Library.

Share stories from Scotland, Palestine, the Caribbean, Chiapas, Rojava, Sápmi, Turtle Island, Hawai'i, Brazil, and more. Discuss terms like settler colonialism, land reparation, decolonisation, rematriation, and land justice.

Access to land and resources is unequal and unjust, impacting growers all over the world as well as here in Glasgow, in our seed library community. Reading book extracts, poems and manifestos, the group aims to map historic and current connections between diverse experiences of land stewardship, colonisation and resistance.

The study group is open to all who would like to (un)learn colonial and capitalist relationships to land. No prior knowledge is needed. You can view a longlist of proposed texts and make suggestions.

Planted in this Land is organised by Glasgow Seed Library in explicit solidarity with all who resist the occupation, exploitation and destruction of their land. From Palestine to Congo, Haiti to Chiapas, seed sovereignty is not possible without land justice, here or anywhere.

There will be hot drinks available, and you are welcome to bring a snack to share. Numbers will be limited to ensure comfortable capacity. Please send an email to glasgowseedlibrary@cca-glasgow.com to join the group and receive the reading materials.

Rojava

This month in our in-person group, we will focus on land struggle in Rojava, and a special guest will join our conversation. Dani Ellis is an electrical engineer from England. She spent 5 years between 2018 and 2023 in North East Syria working as an engineer and photographer, during which she helped set up and run the Rojava Information Center and was part of the Make Rojava Green Again campaign. She now lives and works in Scotland.

References

The feature image is adapted from an engraving in The Illustrated London News, 28 January 1888, depicting the Aignish riot of January 1888, when landless crofters on Lewis confronted their oppressive landowners.

The phrase ‘Planted in this Land’ is borrowed from the words of a Palestinian girl in a short clip widely circulated on social media in December 2023, during Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza.

Accessibility Information

Milk is a small ground floor community space which has no lip on the door. Unfortunately, the toilet is unsuitable for wheelchair access. The room comfortably hosts 18 people on a long table. Please email glasgowseedlibrary@cca-glasgow.com if you have any access requests.