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Project Acorn Tree of Oppression

Materials:
- You will need 3-5 flipchart papers taped together to explain the Tree
- You will need 4 flipchart papers for each Liberation House
- You will need 4 flipchart papers for each Liberation Plan
- Markers and tape

Intro (15 min)
- Thank my ancestors and theirs, thank the land and stewards of this land, thank all those who have done this work before
and who has informed this training (Harsha Walia, Andrea Smith, Reem)
- Ask for permission from ancestors and the land to continue
- Thank Project Acorn and participants
- Emphasize that were not experts on this, that we teach each other, please give us feedback, etc
- Explain Activity:
o Draw the Tree
o Draw people reacting to Tree
o Sort people into Liberation Houses
o Have people fill in Liberation Plans
o Discussion!


The Taking Tree (30 min)

Emphasize the following during the tree:

Oppression is historical.

Oppression Levels
- individual
- cultural
- systemic/institutional (without this level, it is not oppression, it is either someone being an asshole, bullying, or
discrimination)

[Draw a tree with roots, a trunk, branches, an outline of leaves, and a seed right where the trunk meets the branches]
- Seed = Empire (fed on dreams of blood and gold and greed) HISTORICAL BASIS
- Roots = Oppressions (eg. disablism/ableism, cissexism, sexism, heterosexism, anti-blackness, classism, racism, etc.)
o Explain Oppression Logic
Oppression = Supremacy (1 particular way a trait of a person is expressed/manifested is considered
superior to other people who have a different expression/manifestation of that trait) + Action
examples:
Sexism = men are better than women, so women should be treated as property
Disablism/Ableism (Eugenics Model) = people who can use two arms and two legs to work are the
best people, so anyone else who can't must be killed off, changed so they are "normal", or made sure
they're never born
- Trunk = Institutions/Systems (eg. government, police, military, prisons, healthcare, education, media, social welfare,
ECONOMY/BUSINESS, etc)

[Draw fruit on the tree]
- People who are on the superior end of the roots/oppressions of the tree = eat the fruit and don't get sick = Privileged, The
Good Life, The American Dream, Deserving
- People who are on the inferior end of the roots/oppressions of the tree = eat the fruit and gets sick = Marginalized, High
Risk, At Risk, Suicidality, Substance Abuse, Poverty, Unemployment, Starvation, Violence, Crime, Bullying, Abuse,
Undeserving
o Oppression Strategies
physical violence
isolation
internalization/indoctrination

- Intersecting oppressions = Some folks can be privileged by some roots/oppressions, while also being oppressed

[draw the ground that cuts off the roots from the trunk]
- using roots as a metaphor for oppressions = oppressions are hard to see, we only see the institutions and the effects
(fruit)
- privilege is hard to see = intersecting oppressions and that oppressions are "underground" and those who are privileged
don't literally feel the sickness/poison of the oppressive fruit, so it's harder for very privileged folks to believe in the
oppressed

[draw fangs on some of the roots]
- taking tree = a tree that isn't just sustained by the elements, it needs to vampirically take the essence of other trees

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[draw other trees with different fruit and the vampire root biting into the other tree's roots]
- when the taking tree eats another tree so that its fruits wither and die [erase the other tree's fruit] and appears on its own
tree [draw the other tree's fruit on the taking tree] = colonization (and most times also capitalism, aka "neo-colonialism",
aka same old colonization with fancier technology)
- but what happens to the people of the tree that's been colonized?
- Also explain colonialism is another oppressive logic

[draw a sign in front of the taking tree that says "Tree of Your Dreams: Welcome!"]
- they migrate to the tree because they see their fruits on the tree but does the fruit sustain them like it did on their original
tree?
- answer: no, because this fruit is tainted by the oppression of the roots of the taking tree
- when people privileged by the taking tree can eat the fruits of other trees and the original cultivators of those fruits can't =
cultural appropriation

[draw a person with an axe, a person holding a small plant, a person with a speech bubble, a person with a band-aid, a person with
an evil grin and/or vampire teeth, a person who is sad, a person who is happy]

how people react to the tree:
- people can react in groups CULTURALLY or react on an INDIVIDUAL level
- people with vampire grins = oppressors = people who know about the tree and intentionally feed it and maintain it and
protect it
- person unhappy = oppressed = people who are marginalized by the tree and don't know anything about it and just try to
survive every day
- people happy = privileged = people who are privileged by the tree and don't know anything about it or get the
marginalized people and love the tree and would protect it
- oppressors hide among the privileged, and sometimes even among the oppressed-- the fact that the roots are
underground help to maintain the tree = there are a lot more people who don't know about the tree than there are who
know about the tree
- SORTING EXERCISE FOR THE LIBERATION HOUSES: now that everyone knows about the tree, where would you fall
in confronting the tree?
o If an evil tree was rampaging through Project Acorn, would you (a) attack it, (b) try to help the wounded, (c) try
to talk to it, google it, figure out its patterns, (d) wonder how to make your own.
people with axes = warriors / lumberjacks = they know about the tree and want to cut it down/destroy
it
people with band-aids = healers/fixers = they know about the tree and want to take care of the
oppressed and try to fix the tree by analyzing or changing the fruit
people with speech bubbles = storytellers = they know about the taking tree and try to tell everybody
about it and what everyone else is doing
people with plants = gardeners = they know about the taking tree want to grow a new tree that isn't
tainted by oppression
o Ask folks the strengths and weaknesses of each group theyre in and write them down on charts, as well as
what those tactics look like
warriors clash with privileged folk because privileged folk see warriors are trying to destroy their
institutions and fruits of "their" labour, instead of trying to save them from the taint of oppression
gardeners' efforts are always undermined because when they grow a new tree the taking tree will eat
it and its fruit, colonizing or capitalizing on these new (subcultural) trees (eg. punk rock, hip hop,
hippies, New Age, etc.)
healers/fixers work on the outcomes but don't look at the root causes
storytellers point things out but nothing gets done
o folks need to work together


Liberation Plans Working Together (45 min)

Because oppression is systemic, liberation must be systemic, as well as cultural and individual.

Liberation must be both short-term focused (tactics and fixing) and long-term focused (strategies and dealing with root causes).

Healing Justice
When Gardeners and Healers work with Storytellers to address root problems and strategies of internalizing, isolating
violence through emotional justice and inter-community care

Transformative Justice
When Healers and Storytellers work with Warriors and Oppressed folk to learn about their oppressions, heal, and hold
themselves accountable to their actions

Skillshares
When Gardeners build new visions and Storytellers share it with Healers, Warriors and other folks so it can be put to
practice
When Storytellers help Healers, Warriors, and Gardeners share with each other what theyve all learned works
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Alliances, Allyship, and Centring the Marginalized
When everyone listens, empowers, and give leadership to Oppressed folks who are most effected by an issue instead of
telling them how they should do it or trying to lead for them

ACTIVITY:
Separate each section into INSTITUTIONAL, CULTURAL, and INDIVIDUAL. Write down examples for Institutional and
Cultural and get folks to wander around and give ideas for Individual.
Then come together to discuss each.

HINTS:

Liberation Strategies
- to oppose a strategy of oppressive violence, there is the liberation strategy of healing justice (includes emotional
justice, community care and self-care together = interdependence & care or intercommunity care, and undoing
internalized oppression through empowerment and knowledge)
- to oppose a strategy of oppressive isolation, there is the liberation strategy of building alliances (between equal groups)
and allyship (between privileged groups and oppressed groups), as well as transformative justice accountability that
focuses on working with offenders by folks who were not directly harmed instead of excluding folks who have harmed but
are already marginalized
- to oppose a strategy of internalization/indoctrination, there is the liberation strategy of empowerment by centering the
voices and leadership of those most impacted, which puts decolonization and indigenous sovereignty at the forefront
(e.g. if you're working on migrant justice, you should be following the leadership and opinions of migrants; if you're
working on disability justice, you should be following the leadership and opinions of folks (labeled) with disabilities) and
skillshares (where we learn from each other about our own selves and cultures outside of the taint of oppression and
intenalized inferiority/superiority)

Liberation Individually
- educate yourself
- care for and empower yourself
- focus on your healing and recovery
- practice consent (as a family member, friend, lover, ally, in everything)
- be mindful of spaces to see whose voices are centred and whether your voice should be taking leadership if you're not
the most impacted by an issue
- be mindful of how you hold people accountable and work use other ways as much as possible instead of
exclusion/isolation, violence, punishment
- be mindful of the language you use and prevent repeating terminology from oppressive systems
- create safety plans with individuals and ask folks how best to support them in oppressive situations and/or how best they
can support you in oppressive situations

Liberation Culturally
- promote consent culture
- educate others and be open to being educated by others
- promote community accountability through transformative justice
- promote healing collectives and group healing
- create intercommunity care plans
- promote and take part in skillshares
- reach out to communities you're a part of and help on their healing, transformation, and justice
- reach out to communities you're not a part of and start to build consensual relationships that could lead to alliances and
allyship

Liberation Institutionally
- reveal or make people aware of oppressive institutional mechanisms (tactics include: awareness campaigns, social
media campaigns, workshops, etc)
- undermine or stop oppressive institutional mechanisms (tactics include: protests, petitions, academically created studies
with recommendations, lobbying, direct action, etc.)
- build relationships with movements and groups so that it could lead to alliances and allyship to promote, support, or take
part in their tactics (eg. indigenous solidarity and sovereignty)
- work within institutions to cultivate more skillshares, less hierarchy, more intercommunity care and healing, more
consent culture, and more transformative accountability
- promote, work with, and support projects and movements with a vision of alternative economics and political structures