I created this piece as a conservation centered on the coontie plant (zamia integrifolia). The coontie plant is a prehistoric plant indigenous to Florida. This palm has been around since the time of dinosaurs, it is also the breeding ground for the blue atala butterfly, with which it has a symbiotic relationship. This plant has sustained Indigenous People to the region and later settler and migrant people alike…Indigenous people, Seminole Nations and other tribes shared the knowledge of how to process this otherwise poisonous plant into a starchy flour to consume, known as Arrowroot Flour. Indigenous species of this plant are now under protection due to over harvesting and ecological disruption.

This piece calls to action giving land back, not to Nations or people but to itself…I was once told that culture and people perish when we see the plants and animals perish. The current state of the coontie plant is a reminder that the survival of the next generation depends on their ability to become stewards of the land and not consumers of the land.