A Call for land!

Artwork by Heather Flor Cron

We are collaborating with Wabanaki and other people of color-led organizations across Wabanaki Territory (specifically ‘Maine’) to create permanent and affordable land tenure. With land, people can meet their basic needs of housing and food security. With land, people can go beyond basic needs, growing flourishing communities in full sovereignty, safety, and power.

We invite you to join us in creating liberation with the land. We welcome you into the challenging, beautiful, and crucial work of repairing, healing and reimagining relationships with the land and each other. 

What we are growing: 

• We are growing a landbase where land is held cooperatively in community, and where housing is owned by the people who live there. 
• We are building a solidarity network of land-based, intergenerational, multiracial, and cross-class farms, community centers, and land projects. 
• We are returning land to Wabanaki care, and securing permanent land tenure with and for Black and Brown communities. 
• We are shifting land from private ownership into community holdership, where its use and care is determined by communities excluded from consistent land access without barriers.

Matching land with land seekers 

We work to match land with Black and Brown people and people of color-led organizations seeking long-term land connection. In making these matches, we prioritize:

• Land return to Wabanaki communities
• Housing for collective liberation organizers, activists, advocates, and artists 
• Land for farmers & gardeners seeking to build more just and resilient food systems 
• Land and buildings for organizations and projects working toward collective liberation through education, arts, mutual aid, and community organizing

What we believe: 

Land is a relative and the source of all life, but capitalism and colonialism treat the earth as a commodity, a thing to be privatized, conquered, and exploited for profit. This system of relating to land must change if we want a viable present for our communities and a just future for coming generations. Land in Common offers an alternative way of relating to land, where land is held in common stewardship, and where people live with the land in mutual care and interdependence. 

We are a collective coming together in solidarity to care for land and each other

Land in Common is a grassroots community land trust. We are a multiracial community of organizers, mutual aid workers, artists, and activists deepening our relationships with the land. This Call for Land was created in direct response to community needs, and is led by our Leadership Council, a group of Black and Brown organizers from many communities across central and southern Wabanaki Territory (‘Maine’).

Thank you for your solidarity, and for joining us in the movement for land justice!

How you can help grow a land base for the land justice movement:

Make a gift of land or housing

Are you interested in gifting your land or housing in support of land justice? We’d love to hear from you! We welcome transfers of land and buildings from individuals, as well as nonprofits and businesses. Please fill out this form to tell us more about your land and your vision. Land in Common is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and all donations of land or housing are tax-deductible.

Make a financial donation to support the work

Land redistribution takes a lot of time and energy, and we are seeking funds to help sustain our work. Grassroots donations make this movement flourish! Your donation will support organizers on the ground making land matches and facilitating land transfers.

Help us share this call far and wide!

Do you know of others – individuals, nonprofits, or businesses – who might be interested in redistributing their land? You can support land justice by sharing this call through your networks!