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Guests on this land: a tu bishvat zine

The cover of "Guests on this land

The cover of "Guests on this land."

I’m happy to announce that Meli Sameh (of Weird Jewish Digest fame) and I are sharing a new zine today for Tu Bishvat. Hawnuh Lee of Closed Loop Cooking did the illustrations.

“Guests on This Land: a pacific northwest tu bishvat” connects Tu Bishvat traditions to Indigenous knowledge of the lands we live on. We examine four foods to use in your Tu Bishvat seder, as well as sharing supplemental essays on Jewish history in the Pacific Northwest and Jewish senses of ‘hereness’.

An interior page from the zine "Guests on this land" discussing the use of salal berries as a symbol of yetzirah during Tu Bishvat. At the top of the page are translations and transliterations of 'yetzirah' and 'salal berries' in Hebrew, English, and Chinuk Wawa. In the center of the page is a color illustration of several salal berries and leaves on a branch. At the bottom of the page are two paragraphs of text about the salal plant and its symbolism.

An interior page from "Guests on this land."

We’re making the zine available for free, but hope that readers will donate to tribal food sovereignty projects in their area. We’re also suggesting three Pacific Northwest-specific donation opportunities: the Chinook Indian Nation, Real Rent Duwamish, and Seeding Justice's water funds.