An invitation
Indigo has been both a fraught source of beauty and pain. As white women farmers and textile artists in New England, we humbly see a different relationship with this dye plant and those from whom it has been taken. We have grown approx. 250 Japanese Indigo Seedlings (Persicaria tinctoria), now available for free to farmers and gardeners of African descent. These seeds from Ricketts Indigo were started April 5 and are ready for planting in mid-June. This is a joint project by Liz Green of Three Sisters Garden Project & Laura Everett of Mending Church. We engage in this as part of our faith and racial justice commitments, as a small act of reparation. The return of these indigo plants does not undue generations of oppression and theft, but we hope, tills the soil for more conversations, justice, restoration, and beauty. We also welcome conversations with artists of African descent who might be interested in use of the locally cultivated indigo. Please fill out this form to indicate your interest.
For other farmers and gardeners not of African descent, we invite you to be in touch and we will create a waiting list. If there are additional indigo plants, we will make them available for purchase, with funds collected to support the restoration of Black farmlands through Acres of Ancestry. Alternatively, if you are a farmer able to grow indigo for local Black artists, please be in touch.
Indigo plant coordinated pick ups in Ipswich & Boston, MA between June 10-30. For pick up, please contact liz(at) threesistersgarden(dot)org or laura (at)reveverett (dot) com
Mending Church 