Email Exchange:
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Monday, November 22nd, 2021 at 7:32 AM, Lupinewood Survivors <lupinewoodsurvivors@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey Lupinewood,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits. I’m inviting you, on behalf of myself and others, to enter an accountability process. We’d like to find some common ground with your collective. There are a lot of unresolved issues that need to be discussed and processed. Not just with me, but also many other people who’ve lived and/or worked with y’all over the years. It has taken us months of thoughtful planning and sharing to get to this point. For now these individuals would like to remain anonymous until some ground rules are agreed upon for fear of reprisal and deepening of traumas. We are in conversation with Pax Crew; a group that is willing and able to facilitate this conversation. They specialize in diversity, equity, inclusivity, and have an intimate understanding of QTIPOC struggles.
It took me a long time to get to this point. Many of the negative experiences I had weren’t realized until after I left the house with some time to process. For too long I believed I was the only one going through it. I would even go so far as to say that I was made to feel isolated with my feelings. It wasn’t until I spoke to others outside of the house that my experiences were validated.
Everyone participating in this process has a unique experience in regards to the issues at hand. And even though the level of culpability differs from each collective member it is important that all of Lupinewood is part of this process in order to undo the toxic patterns that continue to hurt people. There are many people in community with you that want to enter a (facilitated) conversation, but are afraid or don’t know how to. Despite Lupinewood’s potential as a collective, it also engages in harmful behavior that directly affects marginalized people who are less likely to voice an opinion for fear of losing support and resources. I know, because I was one of them.
What we’d like to share won’t be easy to hear, much less to process but if we’re honest and open with each other I believe this could be incredibly healing for everyone involved. There are many excuses for not participating, but holding each other accountable is so crucial. If we can’t make the effort within our own communities then what are we really working towards? One of y’all once told me, “It’s not about avoiding conflict. That’s inevitable. It’s about how we deal with conflict. That’s where trust and community is built.” I still believe that. I hope that my letter is received with an open heart. I look forward to your response.
Peace,
#####
On Nov 23, 2021, at 7:57 PM, lupinewood <lupinewoodcollective@protonmail.com> wrote:
Hey #####,
We wanted to let you know we got your message, and we’re open to talking more about a mediated conversation with you. We agree with you that everyone in the collective would need to be present. Right now ***** is in jail with other Native land defenders and we are working to get her out and home — that’s our top priority in this moment, and we can’t predict what the timeline will look like for her return. When ***** is safely home we can return to this message, discuss as a full collective, and reach back out to you from there.
Best,
Lupinewood Collective (minus *****)
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Nov 23, 2021, at 8:27 PM, Lupinewood Survivors <lupinewoodsurvivors@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the timely response. That’s completely understandably. Sorry to hear about *****. Just reach back when that’s sorted out.
Best,
-#####
On Saturday, November 27th, 2021 at 11:37 AM, Lupinewood Survivors <lupinewoodsurvivors@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, just checking in about your answer to our invitation. I know ***** is out of jail so we’d like you to send her the letter. That way you can make an informed collective decision regardless of whether she’s back In Greenfield or not.
We don’t want this process to rely on the simultaneous availability of everyone. Most of us, at one point or another, have received an excuse regarding “capacity” when trying to bring up issues at Lupinewood. The perfect opportunity, especially for something as complicated as this, does not exist. So we’d appreciate an honest effort on your part.
If you have any clarifying questions please don’t hesitate to ask us or PAX. But we do need a response to whether you want to enter this process or not.
Best
On Dec 3, 2021, at 9:22 PM, lupinewood <lupinewoodcollective@protonmail.com> wrote:
Hello ######,
We had understood from your first email that it was important for everyone in our collective to be present, which we all agree with. Even if that has changed for you, it’s still going to take us a couple of weeks to respond, as our collective is made up of many different people and we make decisions by consensus.
***** suffered transphobic and racist abuses while incarcerated after she and other Water Protectors were arrested — she is still recovering from that, while also engaged in multiple legal processes. She has been difficult to reach, and we aren’t completely sure when she’ll be home.
You can rely on us to respond to your emails by December 16th, and we will be in touch before if possible.
Best,
the collective at Lupinewood
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, December 3rd, 2021 at 9:41 PM, Lupinewood Survivors <lupinewoodsurvivors@gmail.com> wrote:
16th it is then.
On Thursday, December 16th, 2021 at 6:40 PM, lupinewood <lupinewoodcollective@protonmail.com> wrote:
Hi ######,
We have all now had the chance to meet and discuss your email, and we do have some questions before we can agree to a process. Right now what you are seeking accountability around is undefined, the process you are asking us into is undefined, and you are representing an unidentified group of people, so a starting point for us is getting more information.
When you decided to fully leave your artist residency at Lupinewood a year ago, after long stretches of time spent away on trips elsewhere, you said it was because you were unsure of how to stop hurting people. We spent many hours with you discussing and creating pathways forward for you at Lupinewood after each of the many times you broke agreements, lied, crossed people’s boundaries or otherwise put/threatened to put vulnerable people in harm’s way. We did this because we believed you when you said you wanted to change patterns you identified as having caused you pain throughout your life, and we understand from experience that having been hurt can lead to hurting people, that patterns take time to break and that healing can be messy and nonlinear. But when you acknowledged that you were consistently harming people in ways you couldn’t track or change, this matched our experience and we agreed. We wished you well, and lines of communication between you and the collective as a whole remained open. Your email on November 22 was the first the collective has heard from you since then.
Because this is our experience of your time here, we need to understand: What are you specifically seeking accountability from us for? In what ways were you harmed by us? As it stands, we have only insinuations to go on.
We also need to understand what the process is you’re inviting us into. Our collective has conducted a number of accountability processes and mediated conflict resolution conversations over the years and we believe, as you stated you do, that this work can be crucial for healing. But whether it is healing depends on what the process is, how it’s conducted, and whether the framework is shared and consented to by all parties. So please tell us more about what the process is specifically that you’re envisioning.
Additionally, you are asking us into a process where you are representing an unidentified group of people. We already learned a series of painful lessons about trusting your representations of other people, and we have been asked by people who identified as having been coerced and manipulated by you to not let you represent them or others. If other people we’ve lived or worked with would like to bring things to our attention or seek accountability from us they are welcome to, but we cannot consent to you acting as a pass-through or intermediary for an unidentified group of people given the history of your actions.
In regard to what you said about fearing reprisal or the loss of resources should you or others voice opinions, we do not use what resources we’ve collectively built as tools for punishment, nor do we exact reprisals on people.
Because of the degree and consistency of harm people coming from varied age, race, gender, and class positions experienced from you at Lupinewood and in the surrounding community, any conversation would need to be mediated by a mutually agreed upon and multi-partial peer mediator. Provided we agree it makes sense to continue this conversation with you after receiving answers to our questions, we’re open to discussing further what that mediation could look like.
Wishing you the best,
the collective at Lupinewood