The Shinnecock Kelp Farmers: Embodying Multispecies Care

The ongoing process of settler colonialism, whose impact is relatively recent compared to the 13,000-year-old Shinnecock ancestral memory of the land, hinders the Indigenous peoples’ ability to steward and maintain a relationship with their aboriginal land. The Shinnecock Kelp Farmers (SKF) are a collective of six Shinnecock women who invoke their traditional roles as water protectors and life-bearers to clean the Shinnecock Bay and revitalize marine life through kelp cultivation. The project gracefully navigates a complex social geography of antagonists and potential allies in present-day Southampton, New York. The project is not a reaction to prevalent anti-Indigeneity and class inequities, which demonstrate deep-seated anthropocentrism, but is a continuation of the care and kinship that has always been present on Shinnecock land. During formal interviews, the SKF describe how they call marine species by name, sing to the kelp, and connect with more-than-human worlds. As Shinnecock women, the SKF embody innate multispecies perspectives, which attend to the meaningful agency of nonhuman life, and model the care necessary to improve collective environmental futures.