“Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and we should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don't need a diploma to plant a tree." ----- Wangari Muta Maathai – Unbowed, pp. 137–138.
The land we live and work upon is the traditional territory of the First Peoples of the Americas, and we are here because this land was occupied.
In recognizing that this space occupies colonized territories, and to show respect for the rights of Indigenous people, it is our collective responsibility to critically interrogate our colonial histories and their present-day implications, and to honor, protect, and sustain this land that we now the United States and Canada.