I had the pleasure of joining a highly engaging and informative session organized by the Asia Philanthropy Circle (APC) featuring the work of Landesa, a 45-year old organization working in partnership with governments to give land rights and titles to women and local communities. We heard from Landesa’s Senior Ambassador, Chitra Hanstad, about how granting land rights not only enabled greater economic empowerment, but radically shifted one’s relationship to the land, one’s standing in society and one’s conception of self. To be not a servant to the land but to take ownership of it – and by doing so to become a steward of the land, to invest and care for it.
Also on the panel was Landesa Indonesia’s Country Director, Mardha Tillah; and the bestselling author of the Bridgerton series, Julia Quinn. Julia made the link between Landesa’s work and the social maneuverings in her romance novels which are set in Regency-era England during the “social season,” a period where elite families launched their children into high society to find marriageable partners. She shared how the 19 th C. English social system was built around the fact that women could not inherit land. Young women therefore had to land a marriageable mate in order to secure their livelihoods and social standing.
Ownership changes everything. The stories that the three women on the panel shared with us were powerful examples of how changing the rules/laws can shift mindsets and whole cultures – which is the deepest, most foundational level of systems change.
The session left a strong impression on me on multiple fronts. In addition to peaking my curiosity to learn more about Landesa’s work, I was reminded of the power of Storytelling – the power to move hearts and minds by articulating a story with clarity and conviction, rooted in ‘I’. The three women on the panel, as well as the APC member who opened the session, were such moving speakers because they connected big and important stories with the story of themselves.
The session also made me reflect on the idea of Ownership. I have mixed feelings around this idea, particularly as it relates to the natural world. Do we really ‘own’ the land that feeds us or the air that enables the breath of life? Of course not. But I see that in the system we have created and the rules that maintain order in that system, the idea of ownership and private property is essential. It is one of the foundational beliefs around which our modern economic system operates.
I would like to think that society is evolving towards a consciousness in which we are in right relationship with the Earth, its oceans and all beings. I would like to work towards a future in which we have moved beyond the child-like instinct to hold tight to what’s ‘mine’ to a more mature, adult-phase of Stewardship and Care. On the road to getting there, perhaps, ironically, we need to strengthen the concept of Ownership. Perhaps giving land rights to women and local/indigenous communities is part of the transition we need to make from Horizon 1 (the current system we operate under) to Horizon 3, the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. I don’t know, but I am eager to learn more.
