This spring, there are cattle grazing the land we donated to Agrarian Trust for the Central Virginia Agrarian Commons (CVAC). The cattle will be followed by Indigenous corn and squash from Guatemala and Mexico. In 2025, CVAC hopes to break ground on a bed & breakfast and provide housing for longer-term farmers. (Agrarian Trust has an ongoing fundraiser for this!)
My husband Dan and I donated 73 acres in 2022, thinking it was an act of justice, and hoping the land would end up in the hands of folks descended from people enslaved here, in Amelia, Virginia. That may happen. Already, though, we have discovered a completely surprising reward. We have begun to believe the land, itself, feels a relief from the past atrocities it has witnessed. Further, we have had this deep spiritual sense that the land appreciates us.
Dear landowners, please consider that your land, too, may carry a burden of America’s history of injustices. Donating land to a racial or environmental justice organization may bring you rewards you would never have guessed or imagined. You might work it out so that you retain a lifetime right to live on the donated land. In that case, you would be a firsthand witness to its thriving and service to a larger community.
—Callie Walker
In case you missed it, Callie, Duron Chavis, and Renard Turner also graced us in a video to share their vision for the land and their community.
