A Land Laureate is an individual who through life experience and study has accumulated a storehouse of knowledge about the workings of the land, and of the relationships between the people and the local, wild plants and animals. Through extraordinary skills of observation, empathy, and creative imagination, these individuals have attained a high level of knowledge and understanding of appropriate, sustaining, respectful ways to engage with animals, plants and the living land. These Land Laureates are holders of a practical and spiritual land-based knowledge that our culture is sorely in need of learning. The Land Laureate Institute seeks to bring these spokespeople and their perspectives into the greater cultural arena.




The Land Laureate Program


Traditional cultures have often recognized individuals within their communities who have a special understanding of the existent (and possible) social relationships between their human communities and the surrounding animal and plant communities. These individuals are often given honorific titles and held in great esteem in their communities. In other cultures, a person who mediates between the human and natural world might be called a shaman, a kahuna or a guardbosque. There is no analogous title and job description in our own culture. The Land Laureate Institute will institutionalize this practice of conferring respect upon these individuals, and listening to their wisdom within our own culture.

Modeled loosely after the Poet Laureate program, a committee of distinguished advisors will nominate and select individual Land Laureates on regional, state and national levels. Each Land Laureate will serve for a term of two years, during which time they will act as spokesperson for their land and the people, animals and plants who inhabit their home lands. Along with their title (i.e. Sonoma County land Laureate, California Land Laureate, U.S. Land Laureate), they will be awarded a monetary prize. This honorarium will allow the Laureates to spend time traveling and speaking on behalf of their constituencies, discussing the environmental and social issues affecting their regions.

The Land Laureate program creates a highly visible public podium from which the Land Laureates may educate the general population about the places in which they live, and how they may better care for them. In addition, the existence of Land Laureate Institute and the Laureates sends a strong message to adults and children alike about the importance and value of studying the land, animals and plants where one lives. It is this relational knowledge that allows us to appropriately and respectfully care for, and protect the land and all of its inhabitants.