Land Protection in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples:
A Speaker Series for the California Land Trust Community
Land Trusts manage and influence millions of acres of land and river miles, places that are facing increasing threats from the devastating impacts of human-induced climate change and environmental degradation.
Meanwhile, the Indigenous Peoples of California have always played an active and important role in caring for these lands, and many Indigenous belief systems are founded on principles of people’s inter-reliance with nature – a way of engaging with the world that is more aligned with a thriving future than many of the mental models that drive mainstream society. And yet, Indigenous voices are ofter marginalized in processes to determine the future of the world’s natural places.
Despite interest and goodwill from both sides, time and again, partnerships and collaborations between Land Trusts and Indigenous Peoples falter or fail because of the ongoing impacts of colonization, the systems that shape conservation, different worldviews, and the imbalance of power and access between Indigenous Peoples and Land Trusts.
The California Council of Land Trusts offers this Speaker Series in recognition that land trusts have a unique opportunity to catalyze more enduring and effective solutions to both the environmental challenges facing us and the systemic exclusion of Indigenous Peoples.
Land Protection in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples Speaker Series
This 4-part series aims to support land trusts and land organizations that are seeking to partner with Indigenous Peoples on preserves and Land Protection.
During each of the four 2-hour virtual sessions, we will hear from speaker(s) on salient topics, explore these topics in relation to land protection and systems change, reflect on the application to each organizations work. We will ask participants to spend some time between sessions exploring how to apply the learnings to their work.
Participants in the speaker series will be able to assess their organization's readiness and identify opportunities to carry the work forward. Additionally, they will explore opportunities and needs with others in their region of the state. Funding for this Speaker Series is provided through a grant to the California Council of Land Trusts awarded by the California Department of Conservation through the Climate Smart Land Management Grant Program.
Participation
This Speaker Series is open to staff and trustees of the California land trust community. Because we will be pairing speakers with interactive working sessions and between-work, we highly recommend more than one person participate from each organization. We find that people find agency and get more from participation if they have a colleague they can reflect and ideate with between sessions.
Participants are expected to participate in all 4 of the sessions.
This Speaker Series aims to support land trusts to partner with Indigenous Peoples. As such, it supports organizations to shift and expand and evolve in ways that stay true to its mission. Recognizing that individuals are participating as part of a larger organizational effort, we ask each participant to have a letter of support from their executive director, or appropriate equivalent, that endorses the individual's participation and shares why their participation is important to the organization. Register first, then we will follow-up by email about providing the letter of support.
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Register for the Speaker Series Here
Speaker Series Schedule
Sessions will be held in May, June, August and September.
The details on our first session is below. The additional topics and dates will be finalized based on input we get from you, CCLT members!
Session #1:
May 30, 2025
Damon B. Akins & William J. Bauer Jr. about the California Context for Land Protection in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples
Read their excellent book: We Are the Land: A History of Native California
The Rematriation Spectrum
Rematriation is work to restore sacred and tangible relationships between Indigenous Peoples and ancestral land, included but not limited to transferring title to Indigenous Peoples. Sometimes the term #landback is used, however, the term “rematriation” acknowledges the inherent problems with the private property regime and elevates principles of mutual care and multi-generational relationships to land as well as the technical question of who holds tenure rights.
Whether supporting access for ceremony, collaborating on cultural burning, or supporting Indigenous Peoples to secure legal rights to their ancestral territories, there are myriad ways land trusts can support rematriation in ways that achieve enduring land protection. The Collaborative for Right Relations created THIS GUIDANCE for land trusts about engaging Indigenous Peoples in land protection and preserves. We encourage you to use this document alongside the Speaker Series to support you in thinking practically about your path forward. It's a working document, so we also encourage you to give us feedback and help evolve our whole field.