Humans have co-evolved with Earth’s flora and fauna, relying on the Land to meet our most basic needs for food, water, and shelter. Literally everything in our environment—houses, tents, office buildings, traffic lights, cell phones, plastics, treasures, trash, everything we call synthetic and organic—originates from the Land. In the North direction of our compass, we remember our reciprocal relationship with the planet, understanding that we must care for Land in order for it to care for us. North symbolizes a return to our Indigenous nature, where humans again become people of place. In many ways, the consumer-driven and individualistic nature of the modern world has divided people from their relationship with Land and each other. However, this is not true for everyone. Through incredible human resilience, even among communities that have faced genocide, many people have preserved their land-based cultures. The North represents remembering our sacred, inextricable relationship with the planet. In the North, we begin to repair our worldview as we course correct from the destructive fallacy of private ownership. The Land exists as its own entity.

Coming into Right Relationship with Land involves restoring human ethics and a call to listen to the leadership of cultures rooted in Indigenous worldviews. In the North of the Compass, we nourish the emergence of legal agreements that uphold the Rights of Nature, honor Indigenous perspectives, and support cooperative stewardship. This aspect of our collective work represents an expanding horizon that will continually reveal itself as we restore kinship with one another and the Land.