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OAKLAND — Forged from an arsenal of 40 guns taken off the streets, some 40 shovels were used Sunday to build a ceremonial arbor on indigenous-controlled land in East Oakland as a way to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The day of action, which was promoted by the Permaculture Action Network, was the first part of a two-day event that will culminate Monday with the sacramental smelting of guns to molten metal in a live demonstration at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland. The metal in Monday’s observance will be cast into the constellation of stars present in the sky when a police officer shot and killed Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale BART station on New Year’s Day in 2009.

For Brontë Valez, reclaiming King’s legacy means reducing violence — whether that’s against humans or the Earth. The organization she co-directs, called Lead to Life, last year transformed 50 guns obtained through gun buy-back programs or that had been used in crimes and were being housed in police departments. Those guns were turned into 50 shovels used to plant 50 trees around Atlanta, Georgia, to commemorate 50 years since a bullet struck down King.

Sunday’s event was about carrying on that legacy, she said, and pushing it forward. Although King was famed for his work as a civil rights advocate, by the end of his life, he began turning to related causes, including calling for an end to the Vietnam War and an end to poverty in the United States. If he were alive today, Valez believes he’d be advocating for environmental justice, too.

“Especially, the end of his life, which was committed to land ‘re-matriation,’ ” she said, “it was about economic justice, community safety and security, all of those things.”

In April, Valez’s group will plant dozens of trees around Oakland the East Bay, said Kyle Lemle, another Lead to Life co-director. The hope is to then continue the work in other cities, he said.

“We need these types of ceremonies and practices to imagine another way is possible,” Lemle said. “It needs to expand beyond the political dimension and move into the spiritual and cultural dimension.”

In the East Bay, that work began with using Lead to Life’s shovels on Sunday to create a community gathering space and ceremonial arbor on a parcel of land that will one day be deeded to the Sogorea Te Land Trust. The women-led organization seeks to return Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the Bay Area to indigenous stewardship, said Corrina Gould, one of the co-founders of the trust.

“It will be a gathering space for people to talk about their visions for changing the land and how we take care of it,” Gould said. “And, it will be a place for ceremony.”

The opportunity to learn about the history of Ohlone people in the East Bay was part of what drew Caleb Smith, one of several hundred volunteers, to the event on Sunday. The Oakland resident has lived all over the Bay Area but said he sometimes forgets he’s living on indigenous peoples’ land.

“In a lot of ways, indigenous people have been left behind or mythologized as if they aren’t still here,” Smith said. “So, I think today, it’s about being a little bit more intentional about what Dr. King’s dream was, and how we can’t forget the dream should be moving us beyond our past and thinking of race relations as just black and white.”

The land trust worked with Planting Justice, which acquired the East Oakland parcel in mid-2016, to set aside a quarter-acre for the site. Haleh Zandi and Gavin Raders founded Planting Justice 10 years ago, Raders said, to create landscaping, farming and other jobs for people coming out of prison. The organization has since built some 450 edible gardens around the Bay Area and regularly works with high schools to develop sustainable farming curricula. It also operates a five-acre farm in El Sobrante, in addition to its plant nursery in Oakland, where the ceremonial arbor is being built.

Before Planting Justice moved in, the vacant parcel was fenced off from the neighborhood, Raders said. Now, nearly all of the employees at the plant nursery live within walking distance. It offers a free farm stand one day of the week and opens its doors to neighbors who just want to walk through its rows of thousands and thousands of trees and plants. After the land is deeded to the land-trust, it will continue to be leased to the nursery, Raders said.

“Martin Luther King was somebody who continues to inspire people to dedicate their lives toward building a more peaceful and just world, starting with where we are,” Raders said. “And, this is just one of a million expressions of what that looks like.”