This collection contains images, sound recordings, maps, and videos collected throughout
the Lands We Share initiative (2017-2019), as well as files relating to various projects
making use of those collected materials, including a traveling exhibit and an incomplete web
mapping tool. The collection also contains administrative files, notes, minutes, and other
documents relating to outreach, community engagement, and Lands We Share project staff
members.
The Lands We Share initiative sought to highlight six farm-related sites around
Wisconsin:
Allenville (Winnebago County), including Allenville Produce, which employed Latinx and
Hmong workers and raised market vegetables, as well as several other farms operated by Allen
family members;
Dettman Dairy Farms in Johnson Creek (Jefferson County), which employed farm workers from
Mexico and Central America;
Three farms on the Oneida reservation (northeastern Wisconsin)—the Oneida Nation Farm,
Tsyunhehkwa Farm, and the Ohe.laku white corn growers' group—consisting of over 9,000 acres
that grew a variety of crops for the benefit of the tribe and its members;
Metcalfe Park Legacy Garden, located in a predominately African American community in
Milwaukee, which raised vegetables and employed adolescents from the neighborhood;
Vang C&C, an organic farm near Jefferson (Jefferson County), run by a Hmong family from
Laos;
Walker Square Farmer's Market, a hub of the Mexican and Latinx community in Milwaukee and
center of migrant farm worker activism.
Although the initiative ultimately focused on the first five farm sites, some materials
relating to Walker Square are present in the collection.
By interrogating these sites, past and present, the project examined the tension between
the land and human interaction with it, including transitions from Native American
possession and use of the land, through ownership by immigrants (first white Europeans,
later Mexican, Central Americans, and Hmong), community growth (and
urbanization/industrialization in Milwaukee), and transition to both traditional and modern
land uses. The project facilitated oral history interviews and community discussions
relating to food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption in order to
understand the diverse meanings people have given to the land and how those meanings have
shaped identity, culture, and community in Wisconsin.
Prominent themes and issues represented in the Lands We Share collection include recruiting
and retaining farm and garden workers; loss of housing and encroaching development;
separation of migrant families; deportations; divisive rhetoric; destructive fires;
appropriate management of reservation land; economic, environmental, and cultural
sustainability; migration; land gained, lost, and regained; economic cycles; and
agricultural labor.
