Dear beloved communities,
Many of you have met me in different times and contexts in my life. I’m blessed to have such beautiful open-hearted communities, friends, and connections in my life. One of my long-term communities and space is changing. There is a lot of pain in my Camp Caz community right now. The land in which our camp has been on since the 1940’s has been sold.
The last year during the heat of the pandemic has caused many changes in everyone’s life and losing Caz in this way feels huge. This was my first community and place that I learned to be in a relationship with nature. Many of you know I’m a big nature faerie and my relationship with this particular land was the start of that deep love. This is a place I’ve learned so much about myself, my pain, my path, the power of community, vulnerability, and love.
I write this post today to all my communities not just my Caz community to share the deep happiness I feel. The group that has bought this sacred land is Shelterwood Collective. They are a Queer, Black, and Native-owned collective.
Mission statement:
To restore right relationships between and within people and nature, and thereby create reverberating circles of ecosystem restoration and community healing that return land sovereignty to Black and Indigenous communities. In so doing, to enrich the waterways, fill the food baskets, quicken the forests, rematriate laughter, paint the future, rewild our hearts, and heal our people. Shelterwood is a self-replicating model of the patterns needed to tend land and community through these times of societal and environmental upheaval. So that one day we will all be free.
I cry with tears of joy that this sacred place to me and many will be stewarded by this group. That this land will be in relationship with Native and Black leadership. It is not comparable at all but for those who mourn for what Caz has been. I think of the original stewards of this land the Kashia Pomo Tribe. Of the unbelievable hurt that Whiteness and Colonization brought to these peoples and the lands that were their home. Just as Caz has been a home to me and many. What more would I want for this beautiful sacred place than for it to return home and be managed by this group with a vision to steward the land in this way.
I could not be happier for the land. I hope some of my Caz community can see and feel the beauty of this. And this group will still allow us to rent the space and be there in the future. This is not the end and I’m wholeheartedly filled with joy even in this big change.
I’m grateful to so many from Caz that has touched my life deeply. To all of the counselors, directors, campers, and friends who have touched my heart. I love you all and am grateful for experiencing this land with you.
With love,
Dandi
