Honour & Remedy | Reparations – Artistic Apothecary

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent Moon
Sun Phase: late Spring
Prayer: May you face the truth with an open heart.
Affirmation: I contribute to repair.

Rest As Reparations 2023 Zine Cover - 3 Afro folks with varying skin tones and painted faces. An Afro being rests while in a greenhouse. A pink candle is lit. — Rest As Reparations 2023 Zine Cover – 3 Afro folks with varying skin tones and painted faces. An Afro being rests while in a greenhouse. A pink candle is lit.

Becoming A Repaired Nation

We are embarking on a transformative journey of “becoming,” as described by the late bell hooks — evolving into a nation that bravely confronts the enduring scars of our past. This evolution involves recognizing that we are inheritors not only of the ideals but also the atrocities of our forebearers.

We celebrate the life and legacy of our greatest Afro Liberators: Harriet Tubman.

We are embodying collectively the wildest dreams of Liberators. To do so we navigate a path that actively addresses the hatred birthed from the creation of race and the pervasive effects of racism. To tend global wounds and to progress towards a spiritually awakened utopian society, we must be present, explicit and intentional in confronting racial issues. It is only through an ethnically conscious approach that we can truly repair and grow as a unified nation.

In 1960, Doctor Martin Luther King Junior gave a speech at the 50th anniversary of the National Urban League titled “The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness,” where he illuminated why Africans on occupied Turtle Island were experiencing a sweeping “tide of racial pride and self-consciousness.”

Currently, we find ourselves at a similar juncture to the one Doctor King addressed in his life. Marked by the growing movement for African slave reparations, wherein Afro people continue bringing to forefront the vast racial disparities in income, wealth, education, and political representation that our communities experience, since the beginning, along with vigorously pursuing restitution for the centuries of harm that have led to these pervasive gaps in resources.

This resurgence of the reparations movement is a reflection of the broader movement for African liberation, particularly over the last decade.

Three community members each hold a flower ballon for Equity, Liberation and Reparations

During his last campaign– cut short by his tragic murder–Doctor King gives a speech to a ‘Mississippi’ church about the vision of reparations, expressing “Now, when we come to ‘Washington’ in this campaign, we are coming to get our check!”

At Artistic Apothecary we work to bring a liberatory vision into reality by advocating for community based reparations for Africans. As European settlers who profess to care about racial justice, now is an excellent opportunity to put your money into action, and do your part to issue the repair long overdue to Africans. European Reparationists can participate in our reparations campaign by giving resources, joining our Truth & Reconciliation Committee and getting educated with our Liberatory Resources. All aimed at building and embodying a lifelong equity practice.

Many Liberators have died or were murdered before the implementation, actualization and normalization of repair happened. We are their wildest dream! We took up the torch and continue the great work towards Truth & Reconciliation.

What are you doing to engage with African stories?

Attend events sponsoring or lead by Afro folks. Learn about the African slave trade routes, Sundown and culture limiting laws where you live? how has government infrastructure based systemic racism shifted over the decades and centuries? Browsing write-ups and publications by Afro authors. Take repairative action and Share your findings with others.

To research and acknowledge this history, to tell the truth, is to begin down the harm warming path of direct repair.

The only way to a repaired, peaceful nation is through self education and reparations. The decisions we make now support or hinder our liberatory dream. Please take this opportunity to honour the life and legacy of our greatest Liberators by giving reparations in this moment!

Siempre Junto!