How might we remember and prefigure our way, rooted 
in liberation and sovereignty?
If we practice, then we are already, in some ways, there.

The animating way of being for all of our doing is Liberation and Sovereignty (LANDS). At least that is what we strive to embody as we remember and (re)member our roots and prefigure our way forward. We understand liberation as living in continuous, whole, healthy relationship with source, body, emotion, and wisdom in all its forms. We understand sovereignty as the reclamation of self-determination in both independent and interdependent relationships. These two nouns—liberation and sovereignty—are nouns only in that they are collections of verbs. They are continuous practices and must be lived in mutual accountability. One’s liberation and sovereignty cannot come at the expense of another’s.  

We had been calling this area of our practice “deep equity” (centering race) since 2015. We chose deep equity, along with Sheryl Petty, our colleague at the time, because what we were seeing and experiencing as the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion never fit for us—like trying to make a journey of 1,000 miles through all kinds of weather and terrain in shoes two sizes too small, and knees long since rubbed raw. The blistering and chafing were becoming unbearable; our work in many places often felt hobbled and painful in ways that weren’t leading to the powerful growth we know is possible. At the edge of numbness beginning to set in, we recognized that we had been complacent in the Native erasure pervasive in most DEI narratives, frameworks, and practices. Furthermore, we were reifying efforts that were not shifting the status quo, but rather were just expanding who could have access to goods and services in the capital-driven, settler colonialist project built on genocide, land theft, people theft, and enslavement that is the foundation of U.S systems, including the nonprofit industrial complex. 

What we were and are called to be and do is a return to the fullness of our humanity in healthy, robust relationship with our wisdom in all of its forms—wisdom dwelling in and arriving from our relationships and practices with each other, with source, with our bodies, with our emotions, with land and the more-than-human world.  What we are about is LANDS. For us, this has meant being in our own learning, ceremony, creativity, and re-membering of ways of being, making meaning, healing, and building solidarity within and among Turtle Island (North American) Black,  Indigenous, Afro-indigenous, and African Indigenous peoples. 

Practicing

Deepening and expanding into our own LANDS practice has been happening in many ways, in addition to reading, deepening our cultural practices, listening to the wind and our ancestors, and spending time with elders we have been:

• Shifting how we gather as a team, in Prefiguring Futures Lab programming, and beyond: evolving land acknowledgments into rituals and ceremonies that greet, ask permission, invite in, name intentions, build connection, and allow grief, joy, and nourishment. When we are rooted in place within our sacred mother, we are aligned with our sacred purpose. 
• Honing our LANDS practices with like-hearted multi-racial and multi-ethnic groups in the Prefiguring Futures Lab, recognizing that cultural and ceremonial practices across racial, linguistic, and cultural differences take reverence and care.
• Participating in more spaces that are rooted in Indigenous practice to restore our own relationship to Indigeneity.
• Refining what we bring (and how we listen) in some coaching and consulting relationships. This can be named or unnamed and can feel like a toe tip or an ocean swim depending on the client partner, where they are in their growth, and what is happening in their context. Our aim, always: meet people where they are; don’t leave them there.
• Creating spaces for healing, imagining, and solidarity-building among Turtle Island (North American) Black,  Indigenous, Afro-indigenous, and African Indigenous peoples. These invite-only gatherings, defined by ceremony and practice across cultural commonalities, have been places for us to learn, make mistakes, figure out what healing and repair look like and require, and imagine glorious futures…together.

What We Are Learning

• Just being able to imagine a different future can be an enormous shift and gift.
• Some of what we have learned in the marrow of our bones over generations to survive as persecuted and marginalized people is what we have to let go of.
• We cannot be precious about our protocols; traditions evolve as conditions evolve.
• We must be able to make mistakes with accountability and without shame.
• We must be able to sit in hard truths while holding multiple simultaneous truths.
• The boundaries between organizational timelines and commitments, and how sacred gathering, healing, and building unfold, must be tended with intention and care.
• As with everything, honest, open, and timely communication is key.
• Care full. Not careful.

“[The gathering] was a sacred container where we stepped into the future we all long for…safe yet challenging, serious yet playful, loving without coddling, and so profoundly nourishing.” —2025, Lab Alum