@songspeaksaro: An English folk song about inequality and the enclosure of the commons, dating back to an 18th-century poem. It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when a great deal more land was held in common for the benefit of the community. Public lands for hunting, pastoral needs, and agriculture were fundamental to how communities functioned. In England, beginning in the 12th century, but accelerated from the 16th century forward, land became privatized. This was a death by a thousand cuts: Between 1604 and 1914 over 5,200 individual acts enclosing public land were passed. The same short-sighted philosophies that hastened the privatization of land in England were repeated on Native lands here in the U.S. by European colonizers. Suffice to say, we will not survive as a species unless we reverse this way of treating the planet and each other. Full stop. I was inspired to learn this version of “The Goose and the Common” from a recording made by the Common Land Choir, produced as part of the current movement to protect Felton Common in North Somerset, England. If you like my version, you will LOVE theirs, beautifully produced and replete with beautiful harmonies. You can download the Common Land Choir’s “The Goose and the Common” using the link in my bio- all proceeds go to the Save Felton Common campaign. #englishfolksong #peopleshistory #environmental #medievalhistory #justice

Saro Lynch-Thomason

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Tuesday 04 August 2026 16:08:22 GMT