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Re-Earthing from the Sea: Oyster-tecture and Abolition
Topics: Black Geographies
, Cultural and Political Ecology
, Coastal and Marine
Keywords: Black ecology, abolition ecology, aquaculture, Gullah Geechee Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract Day: Sunday Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) Room: Virtual 39
Authors:
Nik Heynen, University of Georgia
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Abstract
This talk will center the politics of "re-earthing" Sapelo Island, a term used by the late Cornelia Walker Bailey to convey abolitionist place-making. Home to the largest/most intact remaining Gullah/Geechee community left in the United States, we have worked to establish an agricultural revival of heritage crops as a strategy to save Black land from development, create employment and make Saltwater Geechee culture more visible on the landscape. Amidst simultaneous threats from development and sea level rise, we have started to recognize the long history of aquaculture, and especially oyster shell utilization on Sapelo, going back more than 4,000 years through Indigenous residents' innovative uses of oyster shell. We are working to not only mobilize abolitionist politics to stave of cultural genocide on Sapelo Island, but to bring abolitionist politics to other conversations about "oyster-tecture" happening along the east coast of the United States.
Re-Earthing from the Sea: Oyster-tecture and Abolition