By Adam Beiningen, Erica Lee, Olivia Oehmcke

Uprooted and Rising

in Minneapolis

Uprooted and Rising (UnR) is a network of campus and community-based groups, or “pods”, that organize campaigns for food sovereignty on local and national levels. This movement is led by people who have been historically marginalized in our food system and they aim to create a shift towards food sovereignty. UnR groups focus on digital organizing, public action, and creative storytelling to make changes. The current campaigns the groups are focusing on right now include a call to end university contracts with three large food service management companies, a movement to block genetically engineered salmon from being released into the ocean, and more.

Priscilla Trinh is the lead organizer of the UnR’s Minnesota pod. She wants engage students to advocate for larger causes by beginning on a more tangible level. That’s being done by organizing students to restore the Native American Medicine Garden on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus.

The Minneapolis Chapter of UnR is calling attention to the 1,233 acres of land that the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities sits on that was taken from Indigenous tribes. UnR refers to the University of Minnesota as a ‘land grabber’. The term refers to institutions that invest in land grabs. When land is taken control of and used for its resources, this can involve using force to displace communities and is often fraudulent. The current focus of the Minneapolis Chapter is returning a 5-acre plot of land near the St. Paul campus to Indigenous leadership. One part of this plot that they are bringing awareness to is a garden, called The Native American Medicine Garden.

Garden at the U of M

This video shows the 1,233 acres of land that the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities sits on. The campus spans from Minneapolis to St. Paul, where the Native American Medicine Garden is located.

Garden Clean up

Uprooted and Rising is hosting caretaking days at the Native American Medicine Garden. Members are encouraged to bring friends with them to help care for the garden. The goal is to restore the natural biome to the oak savanna in the garden and spread this healing across the rest of the five-acre plot. 

The revival of the Native American Medicine Garden represents breaking the cycle of colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. The garden is a haven of hope and it holds a lot of potential as a space for food security and food sovereignty.

Advocacy

The Native American Medicine Garden was founded in 2003 by Barbara and Francis Bettelyoun. It was founded with the intention of being an Indigenous cultural and educational space meant for food sovereignty and healing. The Native American Medicine Garden is on stolen Oceti Šakówiŋ land, located between University research plots at the corner of Larpenteur Ave and Cleveland Ave. UnR says that the garden represents decolonization, as it is living kin outside of western academic structures. It is also an important project to the group because it is an active alternative to the environmental destruction that comes along with current industrial food systems.

National Zines

Members of local chapters across the country, including the Minneapolis chapter, contribute to Uprooted and Rising’s national zine. The theme of some of their recent zines is ‘the future is food sovereignty.’ Members of the groups use their creativity and imagination to inspire change with their art. The zines feature all different styles of visual art, written poems, imaginary stories, and more. The images above are from a zine that Uprooted and Rising offers as a download on their website, the images will print on one page that is meant to be folded to form a zine.

Arts for outreach

Instagram works that Rachel made when she was a member of UnR.

Rachel de Sobrino was a member of UnR from Summer 2020 to Fall 2021. Sobrino is a third-year Geography major at the University of Minnesota. She was interested in environmental justice even before she knew about the group. “I wanted to be involved, so I volunteered to help a little more in the group,” said Sobrino. Even though she had no knowledge or experience in designing, she took the role of social media communications. Sobrino started by designing posters with PowerPoint. Then, she taught herself how to use Adobe tools. She said that she took on the role because there were a lot of graphics going on around the summer of 2020 – after the George Floyd incident – and she thought they were cool.

“I also thought that the sort of social media communication stuff could have a big impact in an important part of getting people in our demographical engaged,” she said. 

Sobrino also shared the difficulties she had while designing the posters, “You don’t want to just like write an essay and post 10 squares of an essay to Instagram. So trying to figure out how to post things that weren’t interesting enough in just words.” Beyond the design skills, she learned that people do have energy and they want to do things to make a difference. Sobrino says that it is hard to know what to do and how to solve the problems, so if you can get people to do an easy, quick thing, that’s going to have an impact.

If you were interested in the UnR story…

Check out UnR’s Instagram and mark your calendar for future events!