Meet the Black Women Elders Farming on Harriet Tubman's Ancestral Lands (Exclusive)
These two inspirational land stewards have been together for over 50 years.
Published Feb. 21 2025, 3:36 p.m. ET
Donna Dear and Paulette Greene at Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms
On a 111-acre farm located on the Eastern shore of Maryland, you’ll find married couple and land stewards Donna Dear and Paulette Greene, proudly tending to their farm.
The two (self-described) Black gay elders, who have been together for over 50 years, jointly possess a certain spellbinding quality — perhaps, in part, due to them absorbing the rich history of their sacred land, which is located along the site of the Underground Railroad.
Their story is told in the 2023 short documentary film The Aunties; and in honor of Black History Month 2025, the six-minute short is now streaming on YouTube, as an episode of Black Public Media’s AfroPoP Digital Shorts series.
Read on to learn more about this award-winning doc; how Dear and Greene are using their land to teach others about conservation, sustainability, and Black history; and for exclusive commentary from filmmaker Charlyn Griffith-Oro.
Paulette Greene and Donna Dear
Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms has an incredible history.
Donna Dear and Paulette Greene — a military veteran and educator, respectively — met on Jan. 1, 1974. They soon fell in love, and embarked a rich life of international travel together. In 1994, they inherited the land in Maryland from Greene's great-grandparents. They decided to settle back in the U.S., and establish Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms.
According to The Aunties, the farm sits on the same spot where enslaved people once lived and worked on a 2,167-acre plantation, including Harriet Tubman and her family. The land was also allegedly a stop on the Underground Railroad, and Black Public Media describes it as “Harriet Tubman’s ancestral lands.”
A view of Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms
As Dear and Greene began their farming journey, they also worked to restore all aspects of the land, including the farmland, adjacent forest, and most importantly, a tree known as the Witness Tree. This tree is where “those escaping enslavement prayed before each journey North,” according to the film, and the present-day “site of radical healing and liberation for a new generation of Black climate activists,” as put by Black Public Media.
And since founding their farm three decades ago, Dear and Greene have spent all their summers harvesting crops on their farm, including cucumbers, tomatoes, string beans, watermelons, and cantaloupes.
Donna Dear and Paulette Greene at work on their farm
The filmmakers used artful storytelling to share the aunties’ story.
Charlyn Griffith-Oro and Jeannine Kayembe-Oro are the filmmakers behind The Aunties. The Oros, who are a married couple, describe themselves as two of Dear and Greene’s many nieces.
They tell the story of their beloved aunties with colorful footage taken all across the farm, featuring closeups of succulent grapes and sweet potatoes, wide shots of trees and creeks, and artsy shots of Dear and Greene, as the two elders narrate the story of their relationship and their farm.
"Aunt Paulette and Aunt Donna’s willingness to share their story provides a multitude of entry points for anyone who is curious about liberation," Griffith-Oro tells Green Matters exclusively via email. "Their own anecdotes and the histories they preserve are a chronicle of the dismantling of the institution of slavery."
Griffith-Oro also hopes that this film will inspire viewers to recognize the importance of community, protecting the environment, and climate justice.
"Care and responsibility are learned at the family and community level through love, and intimacy," Griffith-Oro says. "Pay attention to the needs and dreams of the people around you. Kindness, honesty, and safety create the trust necessary for the co-stewardship of our environments, and the healing and restoration of what has been damaged or destroyed."