See also: Dahlia Square could become a garden spot -- but right now plans are sowing dissension
While she does not hunt -- until the last two decades hunting was men's work in her community -- she has brought some of the gardening traditions of her indigenous ancestors to a small plot at the Eastside Growers Collective in northeast Park Hill.
Salazar Monk spent the first three years of her life in New Mexico, before moving with her mother to Aurora. There her family struggled to maintain their traditional hunting practices that were under attack by the U.S. government, which outlawed century-old, sustainable hunting methods, calling them "poaching," a term that evokes safari hunters gunning down elephants for ivory. But these laws are more often used to persecute impoverished indigenous communities attempting to maintain their traditional ways of gathering food, she says.
Salazar Monk identifies as a Christian, though she does not believe that excludes other traditions. A lot of her spirituality comes from her practice as a gardener and her scientific interest in the lives of plants. She connects with others through the lessons she learns growing food and medicine, and says she finds commonality with people of various faiths at the community garden: Muslims, Christians, Rastafarians and atheists alike.
Salazar Monk has lived in northeast Park Hill for fourteen years and spent many of those years escorting her four children from swimming lessons to community activities. On the parenting circuit, she befriended Faatma Mehrmanesh, mother of three and urban farmer.
The two formed the Eastside Growers Collective (see Dahlia Square could become a garden spot -- but right now plans are sowing dissension ), which set its sights on a plot of land beneath Liggins Tower, Park Hill's lone high-rise housing seniors. Zion Baptist Church owns the land, and Salazar Monk approached her stepfather, minister at the church, for permission to garden there. He agreed.
At the garden, Salazar Monk grows kale, collards, onions, cabbage, cucumbers and green chiles as well as a variety of medicinal and culinary herbs: basil, sage, marigolds, calendula, rue and horehound. She has studied a range of traditional healing practices, everything from herbalism to massage, and recently completed a biology degree. She runs Brown and Green Botanics, a small business focusing on botanical concoctions, remedies and education.
While her children are not as immersed in gardening, "thave a healthy knowledge of food and where it comes from," she says.
And Salazar Monk not only grows plants, she's building a grassroots, black and brown community base at the Eastside Growers Collective and is working to harness the "know-how" of residents at the community space. She has more respect for community elders than for the new breed of urban farmers.
Read on for more from Salazar Monk
