Dedication
For my mother Peggy (born Margaret Louise Kowalk), and her parents Margaret (born Margaret Elizabeth Wilson) and Lavern.
Acknowledgments
To the Spirit, the Light, the Universe, for carrying me in hope. To loved ones, especially my mom Peggy and partner Tom, for support. To Deena M. Tyler, Chey Davis, and the Women Writers circle of Lansing, Michigan, for insights. To Gloria Anzaldúa and Anaïs Nin, for your lives and works. To Susan Griffin, for inspiration from A Chorus of Stones: The Private Lives of War.
Introduction
the land, once called DeWitt is an installation debuting "the land project," which I began in 2005. "The land" is home to the Anishinabeg, particularly the People of the Three Fires - the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi. I was raised there, in a city known as DeWitt (Michigan, USA) - a name given by Europeans and their descendents.
My family is woven into the land's story along with glaciers and suburbs, where Great Great Grandfather Henry Kowalk brought three sons from war-torn Prussia (northern Europe). So the story I relate is a braid of time, place, and people. The poems and photographs in the land, once called DeWitt are arranged to convey a version of the land's story, partial in every sense.
