Asitu’lisk

A Place of Flourishing

Abstract

This summer, I spent one week living in the Wapane’kati forest in unceded Mi’kma’ki territory, now called “Asitu’lisk,” a Mi’kmaw word for “that which gives you balance.” This name was given to the land less than three years ago. Asitu’lisk is 200 acres of land under the full ownership and care of the Indigenous organization, Ulnooweg Education Centre. A unique example of non-metaphorical decolonization, the land was directly repatriated to Indigenous peoples from settler occupation. I spent my time there learning about the flourishing of Indigenous peoples through cultural revitalization initiatives and the flourishing of the Land through ecological revitalization efforts. In 2021, Asitu’lisk was returned to Indigenous peoples by the Dreschers, a settler family who owned the land since 1990 after purchasing it from another settler family. The Dreschers seemed to have a meaningful internal transformation on the path to the land relations present when I arrived. This reflection will share my experience of the Land following this transformation, and illustrate the community-based scientific practices that came out of centering Indigenous futurity.