welcome dear one!

***Credit****: Image taken by Intisar Abioto.*
***Description****: ridhi is leaning against a giant sequoia tree, while wearing a felted hat decorated with a marigold flower and a cedar frond.*

my name is ridhi d’cruz (they/them) and i identify as a gender-wild, neurospicy Malayali who grew up in the city of Bangalore in southern India and moved to the unceded lands of several Indigenous groups including the Chinook people (Portland, USA) in 2010 to pursue a graduate program in sociocultural and applied anthropology. Trained as a journalist and anthropologist, i fondly identify as a facilitator, artist and educator. My life artistry roots at the intersections of place, healing, design and creativity. i have dedicated over a decade of my life here on Turtle Island, working with communities to cultivate liberatory processes, projects and places that enrich our belonging to ourselves, to Land and to each other. i strive to honor the Original Peoples as well as their sacred and stolen Lands with whom i am so honored to be deepening relationship with in two continents connected by the Pacific Ocean.

i has been cultivating a place justice practice for over a decade on Chinook lands. Beyond being a co-facilitator and council member of Moon & Mirror Herbal Education Apprenticeship Program since 2020, i’ve been involved in various aligned initiatives including being a nature educator and adventure guide with and for QT/BIPOC community through Wild Diversity since 2022. i have also been curating collaborative place justice installations with memory activists - Vanport Mosaic.

i also humbly supports the urban Indigenous community involved at the Native Gathering Garden at Cully Parksince 2012 and also the Black-led initiative Justice for Keaton Otis Memorial Art Project since 2019. i also did some organizing with the Oregon Caste Abolition Collective in 2024.

After over a decade in the field as an urban Permaculture practitioner & educator through my previous work at City Repair Project, i completed my third Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) program and my first Permaculture Teacher Training (PTT) with Aranya Agricultural Alternatives in Jan- Feb 2023. i am excited to be returning to organizing in my homelands. i hope to continue to root into the fertile soil of climate justice and caste abolition work in the lands now called India.

You can reach me via manithottamtimegarden@proton.me and @timegardening