A Word for Reclaiming Land & Confronting Existence
Polderen • (pol.də.rə(n)) • verb
Definition: a culture of reclaiming and sustaining land
Origin: Dutch
As Americans become more aware of our troubling history and how it still shapes the present, Thanksgiving becomes a focal point of the inevitable conflict.
We know that the narrative of Thanksgiving is a lie. We know that indigenous people and colonizers were never friends. There may have been brief and sporadic attempts at friendship, but it would be a lie to articulate their relationship as friendly. We know that the relationship was one of colonizers taking indigenous land, and then creating a new narrative that depicts the theft in a positive light. Thanksgiving is a tradition for celebrating and perpetuating this lie.
The modern tragedy of Thanksgiving and America’s ethnocidal society is also that our work-obsessed culture provides Americans with few opportunities to vacation and spend time with their families. Thanksgiving is one of the few times that we are actively encouraged to spend time with family, yet we get this opportunity only so that we can sustain a lie. As a people, we must cultivate new American traditions where we gather together to profess truths instead of lies.
During this week, as I thought about Thanksgiving and the importance of truth, I kept on thinking about the necessity of reclaiming the narrative. If we want to reclaim Thanksgiving to celebrate indigenous people, what food should be on our table and what actions should we take to elevate their culture? Thanksgiving is intended to celebrate the harvest; one of indigenous food and cuisine that varies from region to region, not the commodified sameness that blankets the nation.
When I think about the rigors and practice of reclamation I often think about a profound Dutch idea that existed long before Europe engaged in the madness of colonization: polderen.
Polderen & Existence
For about 1,000 years, the Dutch have been reclaiming land swallowed up by the North Sea. They would create dykes, canals, and windmills to direct the water from the land, creating more space to live and harvest crops. This word comes from cultivating a new relationship with your land and not dominating other people in order to survive.
The Dutch word for the reclaimed land is polder and the culture of sustaining the polder is polderen. Much of the Netherlands is below sea level so these polders are technically always in a precarious position. A massive storm or malfunctioning windmill, canal, or dyke could flood an entire polder. The Dutch are in a perpetual battle with the North Sea to keep their reclaimed land, and from this tension comes the culture of polderen.
With polderen, Dutch people have a narrative of everyone coming together to save the polder. One’s politics, religious beliefs, and other sources of division are cast aside as they come together to keep the water out. Via the language of Existentialism, it is clear that the work required to sustain a polder has inclined the Dutch to value existence ahead of essence. One’s essence, such as political affiliation, religious belief, or wealth does not exclude you from the communal effort required to sustain the polder. Prioritizing essence ahead of existence could literally end and destroy your polder and your existence.
Polderen may seem like a simple concept, but this philosophical practice still shapes Dutch culture and helps make them global leaders in many industries.
The Dutch parliament has never needed a majority party to govern and has always relied on coalitions between political parties because their cultural practice emphasizes the importance of coming together to sustain the existence of Dutch people regardless of political division. Since the 1500s, the Dutch have also embraced religious tolerance, and this was at a time when religious persecution was prevalent all across Europe. Also, America’s Salem witch trials started in 1692. When you acknowledge that we are all struggling to exist together on earth, it becomes much easier to not fight over where people believe they will live when they are dead.
Environmentally, the Dutch are reluctant to waste space and they focus on maximizing the efficiency of all of their land, an obvious result of their communal effort to create and sustain that land. Why would you ever want to waste or neglect the land that you cultivate and depend on? The polderen ethos to maintain their land has made the Dutch the global experts on protecting land from rising sea levels as a result of climate change.
Colonization & Essence
The United States is not a society that values existence. America cares about sustaining white essence, and 2020 is making it abundantly clear how deadly our essence-driven culture has always been. America lags behind the world at addressing COVID-19, and despite repeated calls from healthcare professionals and the in-coming Biden administration, a record number of Americans flew home over Thanksgiving. The essence of Thanksgiving trumped existence. For most of this year, an American idea, or essence, of freedom that rebelled against wearing face masks has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, if not more.
The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 reminded America, and the world, that America does not value existence if it does not exist to sustain white essence. A liberated Blackness that expects law enforcement to protect us and not terrorize us challenges America’s ethnocidal, essence-driven society.
Colonization is the destruction of non-European existence in order to create new land for celebrating white essence. Essence precedes existence in this equation, and there can be no positive outcome from devaluing existence. Even cultures like the Dutch that understand the importance of valuing existence more than essence can succumb to the ignorant essence-driven destruction of colonization, so we cannot forget that sustaining existence ahead of essence requires consistent effort.
Thanksgiving is a gathering where all Americans are encouraged to value white essence and the lies that sustain it ahead of existence, and that should not warrant a celebration. Instead, as we give thanks during Thanksgiving and throughout the year we need to celebrate existence before essence.
