Freedom and Survival: Foraging for Matsutake and Housing

by Jade Weston, Kyto Katori, LucyGreeley, KayMcDowell.

Most quarters, a group of students at WWU gathers to discuss a recent book or set of podcasts about environmental justice. This post reflects our discussion of Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s: The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins in Winter 2021.

Our group facilitated the second week of discussions on Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s book, The Mushroom at the End of the World, which was on chapters six, seven, and eight. The most important theme throughout the chapters was freedom, and how different people interpret freedom in their own distinctive ways. Many of the mushroom pickers who live in forested camps in the Pacific Northwest during the mushroom season have been in contact with some form of war. Whether they fought, or fled, their war experiences resulted in physical and/or mental trauma for them. In the text, Cambodian pickers described how mushroom foraging healed them from the war and helped to mentally free themselves. Being in the forest and the mountains connected them back to old habits and dreams(Lowenhaupt Tsing, pg. 89). Another definition of freedom was revealed in the description of a woman who could hardly walk when she fled to the United States. While foraging for mushrooms she built her health back up, and regained her “freedom of motion” (Lowenhaupt Tsing,pg. 89).

Throughout these chapters, Tsing references a lot of counteractive language insinuating how complex and intricate the whole process of mushroom picking is. Specifically, with the term“haunted freedom” (pg. 86) and freedom is a “boundary object” (pg.94) they are explaining how foreign mushroom pickers viewed American freedom as a Melting Pot of culture and diversity.However, upon arrival realizing that freedom meant assimilating to American ideals and traditions. This overarching control over culture and ethnicities provoked mushroom pickers to define their own sense of freedom within this newAmericanized world. Tsing highlights the personal ways that pickers identify with this work and how it helps define their way of life. For example, Cambodians found mushroom picking as a way to “recover in the forests of American freedom” (pg.88). Whereas Hmong return to the forest to relive past wars in these new foreign fighting landscapes (pg.94). Within the boundaries of the U.S., different groups of people have created a secure sense of freedom all revolving around the growth of matsutake mushrooms.

The Bellingham Herald article by Denver Pratt talks about the experience of two residents at camp 210 on the day of the sweep. The camp, which started in November, was an occupied protest of about 120 people coming together on the issue of lack of shelter and aid for houseless individuals in Bellingham. The parallels between individuals at camp 210 and the pickers living at Open Ticket, Oregon are numerous.Buster, one of the two residents at camp210 expressed his immediate needs of a shower, bathroom, and the safety of the other campers, and future aspirations of working at a bike shop, practicing a hobby that he loves and hopes to continue. The article quotes him, “‘’Why? All we’re doing is trying to survive, trying to get something for everybody — homes,” Brooks said. “We’re people. A lot of people don’t want to be like this. We want jobs, homes, but we’re just doing what we’ve got to do to survive.’” (Pratt,2021).

Above, is a collage I made comparing the “haunted freedoms” (a term derived from Tsing in The Mushroom at the End of the World) of both the matsutake mushroom pickers and unhoused folks at Camp 210 in Bellingham. Both group’s lives are shaped by the wars they’ve endured and continue to endure in the Oregon forests or the city of Bellingham. My collage items are primarily from a 1980s book, Camouflage and Mimicry because I think both groups are having to hide: whether that be from hunters in the forest, National park rangers, or police in the city to remain alive. Both are “willing to brave the considerable dangers of the matsutake forest[and city of Bellingham] because it extends their living survival of war, a form of haunted freedom that goes everywhere with them” (Tsing, pp.85). However, this isn’t completely a fair comparison- mushroom picking grants more freedom than being houseless in our capitalist society and the level of policing, trauma and suffering is extremely higher within the unhoused communities than the mushroom pickers. In addition, often the mushroom pickers have found solace and freedom within the matsutake forests whereas the unhoused, namely camp 210, are seeking freedom by demanding the city to provide no-barrier housing.

Sources:

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article248882469.html https://noisywatersnw.com/2021/02/05/thoughts-on-the-camp-210-sweep-commentary-by-kai-rapaport/

@bopmutualaid Instagram

The Mushroom at the End of the WorldAnna by Lowenhaupt Tsing

-Their venmo is @camp_210-They also are always looking for donations of: tents,sleeping bags, propane, hats, socksgatorade, and drink mixes.