Connecting community to the land: Earth Day on 52nd Street centers Lenape practices and stories

The West Philly community gathered Saturday under the protection of a tree older than any of those in attendance, and Krista Nelson played her original song “Malcolm X Park” on her Native Turtle Island flute. Attendees closed their eyes, and could feel the nature that constantly surrounds people, even in the city.

To Nelson, a sixth-generation Lenape grandmother and Lenape language keeper, a land acknowledgment is more than just ticking a box or noting the origins of the Lenape land Philadelphians stand and live on. It’s about understanding the deep history of the Indigenous people and that they are still here with us today.

» READ MORE: On Native ground: As ‘land acknowledgments’ proliferate, Indigenous peoples want actions, not words

“The Lenape people saw everything, every being, as kin,” she said. “The trees are kin, the ground is kin, the space that we’re in is a relative. The stones beneath our feet are kin.”

This message is what organizers from Get Fresh Daily, Friends of Malcolm X Park, The Enterprise Center, and Painted Bride Art Center wanted to share with the community of West Philadelphia this Earth Day — green spaces are sacred places of rejuvenation.

Saturday’s programming, which was kicked off by Nelson’s land acknowledgment, was focused on highlighting Indigenous communities and giving them space to tell their stories.

After Nelson called to the five elements — earth, air, fire, water, and space — she began a more interactive portion of the land acknowledgment. Children were offered maracas and bells to play music, and were asked to call out their favorite animals and creatures.

“I like possums,” one of Nelson’s grandchildren called out.

“And rainbow fish,” another child added, providing comic relief.

The interactive and detailed land acknowledgments went on for 30 minutes, discussing Wissahickon Park tours that tend to erase Lenape history, a lack of state or federal recognition for Lenape people in Pennsylvania, and efforts to keep the language alive.

“This is a language that’s so rare to hear, and even rarer to speak” Nelson said. “[Lenape] people are actually still here. They’re here in me.”

Event organizer Jiana Murdic, founder and director of Get Fresh Daily, found it to be important to include programming that focused on honoring the region’s Indigenous ancestors and leaders, as well as appreciating the green spaces on 52nd Street.

“I think it’s so important for us to celebrate and honor the land that’s accessible to us,” Murdic said. “I feel like that’s how it connects to Indigenous practices … we should be in connection with the land for all that it provides.”

Murdic said that in areas of the city like the 52nd Street corridor, holding events that connect community members to the land is rejuvenating for a lot of folks.

“I love the whole connection of, ‘You tend to the earth, the earth tends to you.’ The more you pour into it, the more it gives back,” she said. “For folks that live in marginalized communities, [it’s] so essential for us to be able to claim the space whenever and wherever we can because it isn’t something that’s readily accessible to us.”

Events continued into the afternoon with a processional performance hosted by Painted Bride, an art center at 5212 Market St. Performers with Lenape Sippu: Call Her By Her Name, a window display, soundscape, and performance, began at Freedom Greens + Gardens and moved through the streets to the Painted Bride.

Lenape Sippu (pronounced len-ah-pay see-poo) is one of the Lenape names for the Delaware River, the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi. The name it has today was given to the river by European colonizers and was named after English settler Thomas West, 12th Baron De La Warr.

Performers with Lenape Sippu include Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Tchin, Positive Movement Drumline, Chloe Marie, Boubacar Djiga, Sena Atsugah, Samara Byrd, Annie Peterson, Janae Broadnax, Mayte Olmedilla, and Ya Fav Trashman. The window installation at Painted Bride was created by Propelled Animals Heidi Wiren Kebe, Emma White Thunder, bARBER, and Esther and features interviews with Nanticoke Lenape historian Karelle Hall, Tchin, and Raquel Monroe.

“This project grew out of decolonizing work [and] thinking about centering Indigenous and Black histories in our city,” said Esther Baker-Tarpaga, who choreographed the performance.

“The performance is a healing ritual with the land.”

Dancers dressed in bright colors with large plastic bottles and fish nets attached to their bodies, their costumes calling attention to plastic usage and its impact on our environment. According to Ocean Cleanup figures, the Delaware River basin is home to more than 7.7 million people. It is also North America’s leading source of macroplastics pollution in the Atlantic Ocean.

“We’re offering joy and beauty with this performance.”

“It’s so important for us to … [listen] from an Indigenous perspective. [It’s important to] educate yourself on what Indigenous activists are doing [with the] Water is Life Movement and the LANDBACK Movement,” Baker-Tarpaga said.

In the early afternoon, Tchin, a Blackfeet and Narragansett storyteller and educator, stood at the head of the garden to play a song on his flute and say a prayer.

“It’s really important that people realize and remember that this is our land, Indigenous peoples’ land. It is not the colonizer’s. We were here before they were,” he told The Inquirer.

“So it’s wonderful to acknowledge that we Indigenous people are here, we’re still here, and that we honor our Mother Earth.”

Tchin’s opening prayer had similar themes to Nelson’s land acknowledgment, including that the Earth and all of its beings are integral to learning survival, and that the planet provides the balance needed in order to exist.

And then he set the colorful performance group and participating community members loose onto a bustling 52nd Street.

Maybe it was the bubbles in the air and the beat of the drum, or maybe it was when the group merged with Philly Elmo and his drum line at 52nd and Spruce Streets, but the energy of the corridor was electric — braiding salons opened their doors, drivers stopped to take videos, and folks waiting for the bus joined in to dance with the group.

“We’re offering joy and beauty with this performance,” Baker-Tarpaga told The Inquirer days before the event.

“Music and dance is bringing people together.”