My ancestors are from the water
I feel them in my fingers
When I walk and wander
Along the cold coast
I smell my mother’s hair
As musky and maternal
As the ocean air
Now I know why
I feel at ease
When I take deep breaths
While I sit by the sea
And hear the ocean say,
“Don’t go away
don’t fret, don’t fear.
You’re supposed to be here.”
Poem by Zoë Gamell Brown
Zoë Gamell Brown is a Guyanese American integrative artist and researcher based in Eugene, Oregon on Kalapuya Ilihi. Gamell Brown is a doctoral student in the University of Oregon Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies department, the founder of Fernland Studios, and a strategic storytelling consultant. Her doctoral research explores settler colonialism, critical environmental justice, and identity in the Guyanese diaspora. The themes in her work revolve around black feminist ecologies, survivance and resistance, gender and sexuality, multiracial identity and environmental justice.