How can one show up as a good relative to other humans and the land?

The concept of entitlement is deeply woven into the dominant collective culture of how most people think about property and personal rights. In the system of private property, land ownership is formalized by title documents, which name individuals or entities who are “title-holders”, and thus “own” the land. Individual entitlement can be thought of in terms of how much we expect that our needs and desires will be met. On a cultural and psychological level, entitlement is historically manifest in the ways that some individuals and cultures have granted themselves more power than others and prioritized some ways of life.

Relinquishing entitlement touches many topics. For those who have been granted access to surplus wealth, relinquishing entitlement can be the process of voluntarily re-distributing wealth. In relation to Land, relinquishing entitlement encourages us to think about land as a life-giving entity we are in relationship with, not just something we own. On a personal level, particularly for those who are in a position of comfort and affluence, we can choose to engage in our own process of coming to terms with history and structures of power that have created our own patterns of entitlement.

A liberatory approach to relinquishing entitlement means:

• Everyone can benefit from examining and questioning their own entitlement.

• Each community or person’s path to deconstructing entitlement will be unique depending on access to wealth, historical privilege and/or marginalization, and culture.

• Each person must engage in this work voluntarily.

• Relinquishing entitlement does not mean silencing people and their experiences, as silencing voices is a tool of oppression, not liberation.

The resources in this direction touch on many different aspects of relinquishing entitlement.