UnSelling at the Recorders Office in Huchiun

For Immediate release: contact tiny 510-435-7500, Mute 

Mama Earth is NOT for Sale! 

Houseless/Poor, Black, Brown, Disabled ComeUnity in collaboration with 1st Nations Peoples of this land create a HERstoric document to decommodify a small part of Mama Earth in Huchiun (Oakland) and Record it 

What: Legally UnSelling Mama Earth Ceremony Part 2  

When: 1:30pm Thursday, Oct 23rd 

Where: Recorders Office 1106 Madison St 

I overstand and agree that We are stewards of the land- we, the landless, houseless, indigenous, poor peoples who launched Homefulness & our children & childrens children and generations beyond-  who thanks to Homefulness are now Homeful-  DO NOT OWN MAMA EARTH. None of us who live here own the land, and never will.  Excerpt from the Liberation Easement and Peoples Agreement of Homefulness

On October 23rd  with legal support from Sustainable Economies Law Center, POOR Magazine/Homefulness and Sogorea Te Land Trust will hold an all nations prayer ceremony to celebrate the creation of a new legal document within the settler colonial government of the US that solidifies the decommodification and holds the land of Homefulness in permanent protection from real estate speculation, eviction and gentrification.

“Me and my disabled mama were evicted 22 times, most of these evictions were for non-payment of rent. As a no-income, disabled, woman of color my mama had no money for rent. We ended up on the street for the rest of my youth.  279 people (on record ) became houseless after the end of the eviction moratorium in Oakland and thousands more across the country. People talk about “the homeless problem” all the time, but they never talk about the krapitalist problem of buying and selling mama earth. If Mama Earth was taken off the commodities market tomorrow, we could end homelessness.This is the articulation of that dream,” said tiny gray-garcia, co-founder of POOR Magazine and Homefulness.

Houseless/landless Black/Brown, indigenous, disabled peoples who have faced chronic homelessness, poverty, evctions, displacement,racism, criminalization border terrorism, gentrification and violent sweeps have built a solution to homelessness they call Homefulness. Before they began the creation of this solution, they asked for permission, protocol, spiritual guidance  from 1st Nations peoples of this stolen land. In the case of Oakland that is the Ohlone/Lisjan Nation. 

“200 years ago, before colonization there wasn’t even a concept of homelessness,” said Talking chief/spokesperson of the confederated villages of Lisjan/Ohlone and co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust and Family Elders Council member of Homefulness.

As poor and houseless people on stolen land they clearly understand the settler lie of ownership of Mama Earth and the ongoing speculative markets’ impact on their lives, families and communities, as first Nations/indigenous peoples from all four corners have lived, taught  and practiced since the beginning of their creation stories. 

“This is the most creative, unusual, and moving legal document I have seen,” said Sustainable Economies Law Center attorney Janelle Orsi. “The words of the Homefulness residents brought members of our legal team to tears.” 

POOR Magazine, which holds title to the Homefulness land, will be granting a “Liberation Easement” to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust. This is a form of conservation easement under California law. The easement preserves the land as a hub of poor people-led organizing, a site of Indigenous cultural revitalization, and permanent collective stewardship of the land, protecting it from returning to the speculative market. 

“For years, the leaders at POOR Magazine have been asking us how to legally ‘unsell’ land, to ensure that it is never again treated as a commodity for sale. Our legal system makes it hard to liberate land from the speculative market. The Liberation Easement is our effort to use the legal system’s tools to permanently ‘unsell’ the land,” said Janelle Orsi.

Veryl Pow, staff attorney at the Law Center adds, “The liberation easement extends the abolitionist practice of ‘non-reformist reforms’ from the carceral context to the liberation of land. We can strategically and selectively use so-called ‘property law’ mechanisms to construct a world where Pachamama is unowned in practice, and people can live together and begin to heal from the unending violence of colonialism and capitalism.”

Testimonies from houseless, now Homeful residents of Homefulness 

To watch the ceremony Live, follow @poormagazine on IG