Gullah/Geechee SEA & ME: Celebrating and Saving Coastal Legacy

Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ December 1, 2023 ♦ Leave a comment

The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition has always centered its work on ensuring that Gullah/Geechee land would be in Gullah/Geechee hands for generations to come. When we first started our work over two decades ago, I didn’t realize how true “De wata bring we and de wata gwine tek we bak.” would be. However, it is due to the water’s consistency that we have witnessed the erosion of our coastline and also the rising of new collaborations within the Gullah/Geechee Nation.

The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition and a myriad of supporters and collaborators stood up all year to battle to protect the Gullah/Geechee Nation‘s epicenter, historic St. Helena Island from destructionment as we had done to Save Bay Point. Although in the Bay Point case, the appeals ended, there will be two more Pine Island cases in the new year. We stand against the illogical individuals that do not see the connection between overbuilding on Sea Islands and the creation of golf courses with the environmental degradation that works in opposition to the sustainability of water quality, fisheries and environmental health not to mention the fact that those types of building patterns are NOT native Gullah/Geechee building patterns. It has been proven time and again that as the bridges arrived and massive influx building and gated areas came, out went the native peoples and the ones that did remain had more limited opportunities to safely continue to pass down their traditions without being accosted, fined, arrested, blocked and in some cases, killed. Everyone wants to couch the issues about Gullah/Geechee land and its connection to the continuation of cultural heritage in only the context of increases of taxes but there is way more too it than that.

The resilience of a community needs to include social determinants of health.  The social determinants of health can be grouped into 5 domains: Economic Stability, Education, Access and Quality Health Care, Neighborhood and Built Environment, and Social and Community Context ². The social determinants of health have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life. They also contribute to wide health disparities and inequities ². The latter continues to be the case when natives that are accustomed to living in open space with access to waterways, sacred burial areas, hunting grounds, harvesting grounds for food and herbs are blocked and gated out of these spaces. The way that native Gullah/Geechees that are traditionalists living on rural Sea Islands socialize has a great deal to do with these areas and the rituals and customs that are done in these areas. The continuation of the cultural customs aides on the mental and spiritual health of the community. The community context of St. Helena has had its basis in these things from the 1500s up to now. Many others on other Sea Islands have seen their ability to socialize in a peaceful and joyful way disrupted as other cultures came in didn’t allow for the same circle of connection to continue on family compounds and down by the riverside. This disrupted not only the economic stability of Gullah/Geechee fishing families but also the spiritual and mental stability of many that have to deal with the trauma of the loss of their cultural traditions. The cultural heritage continuation is more valuable than any amount of money that the western world uses as their measure for economics.

The Gullah/Geechee Sustainability Think Tank has done a number of examinations of the mechanisms that have been used to disrupt the ability for native Gullah/Geechees and other Black people in the south to maintain their land ownership and to keep their communities healthy and thriving. Therefore, we have focused on bringing some solutions to improving the quality of life for native Gullah/Geechees especially those on the Sea Islands. While the world was at a stand still, we started working on the “Greening Gullah/Geechee Communities” project with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which led to also working specifically with EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST) to remove these tanks and remediate any areas in which there may have been contamination. The US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) joined in the effort of community education and outreach for this project. We are all continuing the journey to created culturally relevant community pathways to encourage folks to get out and walk and enjoy the beauty of historic St. Helena Island while learning more about environmental sustainability, Gullah/Geechee history and culture and environmental justice. Some of the outcome of the current efforts can be found here:

https://www.army.mil/article/268480/charleston_district_teams_up_with_other_agencies_for_nonstructural_flood_risk_management_project

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/21bf2e8edcac43158b217b2cf649e2a4

The work of Greening Gullah/Geechee Communities is one component of the Gullah/Geechee Saving Environmental Actions (SEA) & Marine Environment (ME) Program led by the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. Gullah/Geechee SEA & ME is assisting in advancing the Gullah/Geechee Nation‘s Sustainability Plan and the Gullah/Geechee Nation‘s Ocean Action Plan which can be found here along with the plans of other members of the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification: https://www.oaalliance.org/member-examples

Many people that are not native islanders do not often get the connection between the ocean and our estuaries. However, without sustaining the health of our estuaries, we will not have a healthy ocean. Therefore, it has been a blessing to continue our work to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) by actually taking actions outlined in our Ocean Action Plan. This includes working to do community education and outreach to ensure that the Blake Plateau, which is the largest contiguous corral reef that has been found in the world, is protected. According to the South Carolina encyclopedia, “The Blake Plateau began to form as the North American plate disengaged from the African plate in the Late Triassic period, forming the Atlantic Ocean.” As much as it appears that there is physical separation with Africa, the cultural links with the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean where never lost in the Gullah/Geechee Nation. The plateau is only miles off of the Gullah/Geechee Nation‘s coast and is a critical resource that you can learn more about here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9b_4oduIc&ab_channel=GullahGeecheeNation

As we seek to protect the Blake Plateau which also contains the “Million Mounds,” we are working with 300 collaborating partners to also protect 1 million acres of salt marsh and to Marsh Forward together. The South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative (SASMI) is one of the major efforts that we are encouraging the United States government to support along with Greening Gullah/Geechee Communities: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0e8398c009ba4846b5ecc190030abafd The SASMI Plan can be found at www.MarshForward.org . Learn more here and get involved by joining in some of our community engagement and outreach events including those linked to our Gullah/Geechee CREATE project:

During Black in Marine Science Week, we received the outstanding news that the National Fish and Wildlife Federation (NFWF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funded the SASMI project along with a number of other coastal resilience efforts. NOAA is also funding the Gullah/Geechee Coastal Removal Engaging Artist Through Environment (CREATE) project which we are working on in collaboration with Gullah/Geechee Sustainability Think Tank member, South Carolina Sea Grant. We have already hosted three successful Gullah/Geechee CREATE activities on historic St. Helena Island and we have had approximately 75 volunteers remove close to 100 bags of debris from salt marsh areas at fishing access points on the island. The Gullah/Geechee and African American artists that participate in the cleanups will use the debris to create art which will be displayed at community education and outreach installations along the South Carolina Coast next year and the year after.

Due to the outstanding support from Justice Outside, the Ocean Conservancy, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Community Trust and many others, the Gullah/Geechee SEA & ME Program continues to flow and make waves. I am looking forward to keeping the healing waves that rose this year flowing back to the Gullah/Geechee Nation‘s coast. Having the Ocean Justice Advocacy Group, The Ocean Equity Collective and Black in Marine Science (BIMS) family join us in these efforts, will bring in more Black scientists to continue expanding our educational and community outreach work and will enhance the sustainability of not only the Gullah/Geechee SEA & ME Program, but also the Gullah/Geechee Nation‘s coast. I could have found no more of a powerful way to celebrate protecting our coastal legacy than to do so at BIMS Week with the BIMS Family. I am honored to now be a part of their Tidal Wave team.

Tenk GAWD da as de wata bring we and tek we bak ta we tradition, de Gullah/Geechee tree gwine stan by de riba an ain gwine be moved.

by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com)