"Sacred Steadfast Seedlings" is a large scale block print was created as a response to some surprisingly uplifting videos coming out of the painfully broadcast genocide in Gaza. They showed Palestinian children caring deeply for the land and each other all while living in extreme conditions of a warzone and a refugee camp. What we witnessed was a soulful and deep hearted utmost unbreakable connection to the land. A commitment to creating and being at home by tending and caring for the land reciprocally gives us. It is an invitation to all of us to create small powerful acts of tending. Encouraging life through the land is a powerful form of resistance from the occupation death machine.
The destruction to the Palestinian land will end and when that day comes it will take a lot of healing and recovery. There are tools we can work with bioremediators have incredible potential to transmute toxins. It is not a quick fix; it requires tending, caring, and time. It will require people working with a scarred and hurt land over many cycles and seasons, and it is hope. There is a future for the children of the world. While it is specifically located among the rivers to the sea it is also interconnected with the world with the past and the future. We owe each other this. When doing the research for this image we dove into learning about the plant relatives that already desalinate, that can thrive under the harshest of desert conditions and have the potential to heal the land in Palestine.
This print is a collaboration between Thea Gahr and Saiyare Refaei originally designed for the spring 2024 Tacoma Wayzgoose. We felt that it was important to create a small edition of these prints to give the opportunity to extend the hope and call to participate in tending as an accomplice to this healing work. As we know the images we surround ourselves with can change how we think and move through the world.
Phytoremediation, or bioremediation, is a process that involves plant life to clean up contaminated environments such as heavy metals, pesticides, explosives, and oil. Of the many plants already doing this work in the region, they decided to feature these phytoremediators: Palestinian Moringa اليسسر (Moringa peregrina), fig تين (Ficus carica), Red Mulberry التوت الأحمر (Morus rubra), barley شعير and Athel (Tamarix aphylla). Sunflowers are also a known bioremediator and for that reason they merged a sunflower into the sun with many eyes as the seeds, in part to honor the dedicated press and martyred, as witness to all the horrors and healing of the last 77 years of this brutal settler occupation and accelerated genocide.
For full transparency, 25% of sales of this print will be donated to Thamra. A commitment to fostering food sovereignty and self-sufficiency in Gaza is Thamra's mission. By revitalizing agricultural traditions and empowering communities, Thamra aims to restore their homeland and ensure access to nutritious food for all. “This project is not only about planting seeds. It’s also about planting an idea: the idea of resilience and determination against all attempts to uproot and displace people from their land. Through this project, we are sending a message to the world that we are holding onto our land and we are never going to leave. We are going to plant this land and stay here.” - Leena Elmadhoun (cofounder of Thamra who is also a 22 year old photographer, psychology student and home gardener) In October of 2024, Thamra’s other cofounder, an engineer by the name of Yousef Abu Rabe, was targeted and martyred in an airstrike in the Al-Shema area. He was just 24 years old. Their team member Zakaria Abu Sultan was also martyred in the same airstrike.
There are many more opportunities to support Palestinian organizations and efforts. We have listed a couple more below:
Palestine Heirloom Seed Library: The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (PHSL) is an attempt to recover these ancient seeds and their stories and put them back into people’s hands. The PHSL is an interactive art and agriculture project that aims to provide a conversation for people to exchange seeds and knowledge, and to tell the stories of food and agriculture that may have been buried away and waiting to sprout like a seed. It is also a place where visitors may feel inspired by the seed as a subversive rebel, of and for the people, traveling across borders and checkpoints to defy the violence of the landscape while reclaiming life and presence.
Palestinian Humanitarian Response Center (PHRC): The organization focuses on trauma relief, emotional healing, and fostering resilience among children affected by war and displacement. The genocide is leaving deep emotional scars on the children, and through interactive games and therapeutic activities, the PHRC offers a safe space for them to release emotions, process trauma, and begin healing in Gaza and Cairo.
