Category Archives: Gullah/Geechee Land Ownership & Rights
Black Philanthropy and Sowing into Gullah/Geechee Land and Legacy
Here in the Gullah/Geechee Nation from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, our ancestors transformed the Sea Islands and coastal lands into places of cultural continuity, spiritual grounding, economic independence and self-sufficiency. After centuries of enslavement, they purchased land, built praise houses and schools, established farms and fisheries, and created family compounds in which Gullah/Geechee traditions could thrive.
Today, the same land that sustained our ancestors is under tremendous pressure from escalating taxes, heirs’ property disputes and partition sales, destructionment, climate change impacts, cultural exploitation and displacement. When Gullah/Geechee land is lost, we lose more than acreage. We lose access to sacred burial grounds, fishing and farming traditions, family compounds, community gathering spaces, native foodways, linguistic landscapes and the living environment in which our culture has endured. This is why Black Philanthropy Month must move us beyond celebration and into action.
Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week 2026: Hunnuh Mus Tek Cyare de Root fa Heal de Tree
Throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation stretching from Jacksonville, North Carolina down to Jacksonville, Florida and inland to the St. Johns River, lies a rich cultural legacy that has endured for centuries. Every year during late July and early August, communities across the region come together to celebrate Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week.
Saving de Gullah/Geechee Witness Tree at Sol Legare
The center of the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s flag is embossed with a Gullah/Geechee family tree that consist of human bodies that are intertwined and rooted in the soil of the Sea Islands. The oak tree is a powerful symbol within Gullah/Geechee culture—mirroring the sacred tree rooted at the very center of the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s national flag. Protecting it represents a refusal to allow the physical markers of our heritage to be erased. “Save James Island” folks have made it clear: “You can’t replant history.” The historic live oak tree at Sol Legare cannot simply be replanted either. It is truly a witness to what our ancestors of Sol Legare went through and now it is a witness to the encroaching destructionment no longer in the distance across the creek from Mosquito Beach but right under its own branches. However, like native Gullah/Geechees, webe de tree planted by de rivers of wata. We shall not be moved!
Gullah/Geechee and SCELP Fighting Racial Discrimination Case to Protect Cultural Protection Overlay District
Queen Quet continued, “I have reviewed the complaint brought by the Plaintiffs in this case and recognize that they seek to destroy and invalidate the CPO so that their “destructionment” can move forward. The lawsuit is being made under the guise of claiming that the CPO is a race-based law. This is inaccurate and a misrepresentation. That accusation is legally unsound, historically inaccurate, and sociologically reductive. It collapses Gullah/Geechee culture into race and thereby erases the very heritage, land-use traditions, spiritual practices, language, kinship structures, ecological knowledge, and settlement patterns that the CPO was designed to protect. No one of any race or culture can violate the CPO law! We have the right to protect the environment and to continue to peacefully exist as native Gullah/Geechees and anyone that has come to St. Helena Island to live benefits from the healthy environment of our beloved island. We binya and ain gwine nowhey!”
Gullah/Geechee Musical Environmental Journeys
Whenever I have an opportunity to stand on the shoreline of the Gullah/Geechee Nation my spirit gets renewed. It is not only the warm Sea Island breeze laced in salt with its unique smell, it is also the rustle in the trees and the sway of the salt marsh that a dancer like me finds kinship with. I can hear an ancestral choir singing to a polyrhythmic beat that tends to be punctuated by the rhythms of crashing waves or the ripples in the river. Tenk GAWD fa de Sea Islands!
Gullah/Geechee Famlee Weekend een de Gullah/Geechee Epicenter een July!
Jayn we een de Gullah/Geechee epicenta fa “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Weekend 2026!” Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and de Gullah/Geechee Famlee culturally invites you to the heart of the Gullah/Geechee Nation for “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Weekend.” We will gather on the grounds of Penn Center on historic St. Helena Island for two days of powerful cultural reconnection, reflection, and celebration—all under the guiding theme: “Hunnuh mus tek cyare de root fa heal de tree!”
Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation Tekin Cyare of de Root
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation launched her 30th anniversary “Save the Sea Islands Tour” in February 2026. She has traversed numerous cities during the first two months of the tour and will continue the journey to additional states in April. She invites everyone to join her in person as she embodies the slogan that she was given in a vision thirty years ago: “Hunnuh mus tek cyare de root fa heal de tree.”
QUEEN QUET OF THE GULLAH/GEECHEE NATION CONTINUES 30TH ANNIVERSARY “SAVE THE SEA ISLANDS TOUR” WITH COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON EVENT
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, will make her next official stop on her 30th Anniversary “Save the Sea Islands Tour,” themed “Hunnuh Mus Tek Cyare de Root fa Heal de Tree.” This powerful cultural and environmental justice tour continues with a special collaborative gathering hosted by the College of Charleston’s Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 6 pm in the College of Charleston’s School of Sciences and Mathematics Building at 202 Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston, SC.
Gullah/Geechee CREATE Celebrates Culture, Creativity, and Coastal Stewardship on Historic St. Helena Island
The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, under the leadership of Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, proudly continues its cultural and environmental work through Gullah/Geechee CREATE, an innovative program in collaboration with South Carolina Sea Grant that merges art, environmental stewardship, and cultural education in the heart of the Gullah/Geechee Nation.
Celebrations of Creativity on Historic St. Helena Island in the Gullah/Geechee Nation
Don’t miss celebrations of creativity in the Gullah/Geechee Nation at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park on St. Helena Island in the Gullah/Geechee Nation during March 2026! E gwine be a time!