TEK is a Verb: Activating Indigenous Ecologies at ESA

 

Speaker: Frank K. Lake and Lydia Jennings | Air Date: August 5, 2024 | Run Time: 43 mins | Season 4
Photograph by Alexandru Salceanu

 

TEK is a Verb: Activating Indigenous Ecologies at ESA

In this episode, Melissa Nelson interviews two Native scientist colleagues at the annual 2023 Ecological Society of America conference in Portland, Oregon where they discuss Indigenous ecologies, the history of the TEK section, and data sovereignty.

“Traditional Knowledge or TEK is a responsibility and to be able to put into action the gift of that knowledge and wisdom from the elders and community members ceremonial leaders... what benefits the tribe is also going to benefit society.”
— Frank Lake

About Frank K. Lake

Frank Kanawha Lake is a Research Ecologist, and the Tribal Liaison/Climate Change contact for the Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service. His research involves wildland fire effects, indigenous knowledge, tribal agroforestry, Climate Change, and ethno-ecology with an emphasis on cultural management and fire ecology of forest, shrub, grassland and riparian environments in the Klamath-Siskiyou and Pacific Northwest regions.

Other projects and research include: American Indian Tribes and Climate Change; Agroforestry practices of Indigenous and tribal people, Indigenous Fire Stewardship/Cultural burning, and Wildland Fire effects on Heritage and Cultural Resources. He mentors and serves as a graduate committee member for several students working on tribal food security, wildland fire, and forest management.

Frank is a Fire Line Qualified Resource Advisory (REAF) working on wildland fires with agencies and tribes. Frank is the Forest Service PSW coordinating scientist to the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership and for the Yurok Redwood Experimental Forest. His current focus is on Indigenous Knowledge data governance regarding the Co-production of Knowledge for research and resource management. Frank is of mixed Native American and European ancestry, being raised with and identifying more with his Karuk and Yurok family’s heritage in Northwestern California.

Photo courtesy of Frank Lake

Lake Property Klamath River TREX burn, October 2015 conducted by Karuk and Yurok ignitors. Photo courtesy of Frank Lake

Frank Lake explaining forest thinning at pre-conference field trip at ESA 2023 in Portland, Oregon. Photo by: Melissa Nelson

Frank Lake with USDA Forest Service and NRCS Scientists, Forest Service Fire Managers, Tribal Elders, discussing Black Oak restoration in the Sierra National Forest, June 2013. Photo by: Jonathan Long, USFS-PSW

Expert Q&A: Frank K. Lake, Biohabitats

 

About Lydia Jennings

Dr. Lydia Jennings (she/her) is an environmental soil scientist.

Lydia, citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Yoeme) and Huichol (Wixáritari), earned her Bachelors of Science from California State University, Monterey Bay in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy.

She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in the Department of Environmental Sciences, with a minor in American Indian Policy.

Her research interests are in soil health, environmental data stewardship and science communication. Lydia is a 2014 University of Arizona NIEHS Superfund Program trainee,  a 2015 recipient of National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, a 2019 American Geophysical Union  “Voices for Science” Fellow, a 2020 Native Nations Institute Indigenous Data Sovereignty Fellow, and a 2021 Data Science Fellow. Lydia is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University’s The School of Sustainability and the Research Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

Outside of her scholarship, Lydia is passionate about connecting her scholarship to outdoor spaces, through running and increasing representation in outdoor recreation.

Field sampling at an Arizona mining site. Photo courtesy of Lydia Jennings

Presenting at the 2019 American Geophysical Union National Conference on my work with establishing biological metrics for mining reclamation in arid ecosystems. Photo credit: Dr. Laura Meredith

Indigenous women scientists representing the TEK section at ESA 2023, Portland, Oregon after speaking together in the TEK Inspire Session. From Left to Right:  Gwen Bridge (Cree), TEK Section Chair, Jaime Grimm (Saulteaux), Danielle Ignace (Coeur d’Alene), TEK Section Secretary, Lydia Jennings (Yaqui/Huichol), Melissa Nelson (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), TEK Section Vice-Chair, Ellen Simmons (Cree),  Jocelyn Painter (Winnebago), Ruth Ann Plenty Sweetgrass-She-Kills (Hidatsa, Mandan, Dakota, and Nakota). Photo courtesy of Melissa K. Nelson

Melissa Nelson and Lydia Jennings together after Native Seed Pod interview at ESA 2023, Portland, Oregon. Photo by: Melissa K. Nelson

 

about melissa nelson

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. is an award-winning ecologist, writer, media-maker, and Indigenous scholar-activist. For over 30 years she has been dedicated to Indigenous rights and revitalization and the protection of Native lands and food sovereignty. Melissa is a professor of Indigenous Sustainability at Arizona State University and professor emerita of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University.

She is board chair of The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous rights organization, which she directed as a founding executive director and CEO from 1993 - 2021. Melissa is the co-producer and photographer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together, and has co-produced several other documentary short films with The Cultural Conservancy, the Native American Academy, and Philomath Films. She was a writer and host for the PBS website and documentary film, Circle of Stories, and consultant on the award-winning IMAX film, Into American’s Wild. She has co-produced several audio recordings, including Songscapes of Native America, Profiles of Native American Food Revitalization (with Slow Food USA), Red Earth Rising (with Canyon Records) and Sounds of Belonging (with ASU). In 2018 she co-founded the Native Seed Pod podcast and serves as its primary host and writer. Melissa has also edited and contributed to three anthologies focused on Indigenous ecological knowledges. She is Anishinaabe/Cree/Métis/Norwegian, a proud member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa
Co-producer: Raven Marshall, Sara Moncada
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson
Episode cover photo: Alexandru Salceanu

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Music and soundscapes composed, produced, arranged by Colin Farish

Featuring:
Opening Frame Drums: Glen Velez
Drums: Capomo
Kanyon Chumash Grandmother Song: Kanyon Sayers-Roods
Tongva Song: L Frank Manriquez

Excerpts from Colin Farish’s 2024 Mesa Bluemoon release, Acoustic Menagerie:

“Chase Play part 2”
Colin Farish – piano
Jhaffur Khan – bansuri flute
Stan Poplin – bass
Shabda Al Owens – voice
Savannah Jo Lock – voice
Jaron Lanier – xun

“Acoustic Menagerie part 2”
Colin Farish- piano, frame drum
Paul McCandless – oboe, soprano sax
Savannah Jo Lack – violin
Don Lax – violin
Jose Luis De La Paz – guitar
Kyle Lemle – voice
Stan Poplin – bass
Throat Singers from Tuva – throat singing
Composed, produced, & arranged by Colin Farish

Winds of the Muse 2024 ASCAP

The Native Seed Pod is produced by The Cultural Conservancy

 
 

Knowledge Symbiosis with Roxanne Swentzell and Anne LaForti

 

Speaker: Roxanne Swentzell and Anne LaForti | Air Date: January 26, 2024 | Run Time: 62 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

Knowledge Symbiosis with Roxanne Swentzell and Anne LaForti

In the fourth episode of our limited series Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, Roxanne Swentzell and Anne LaForti engage in a conversation hosted by Sara El-Sayed, converging Indigenous ideologies and scientific understanding of soils, seeds, regenerative versus sustainable terminologies, and steps to healing ourselves and our ecosystems.

Series Synopsis

This limited series, Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, is produced by The Cultural Conservancy’s Native Seed Pod in collaboration with Arizona State University and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. We invite dialogue from multiple perspectives—practitioners in biomimicry, and elders, practitioners, and Indigenous scholars—so we might better understand each other and explore opportunities to weave these learnings. These conversations delve into the ethics of science, human-nature connection, regenerative design, and our relationship to all other kin on this planet. Five episodes will be available on The Native Seed Pod and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast for listeners to tune in and reflect. The episodes are hosted in rotation by Dr. Melissa K Nelson, Dr. Sara El-Sayed, and Lily Urmann, and feature conversations between Indigenous scholars and practitioners: Kim Tall Bear, PennElys Droz, Melissa Nelson, and Roxanne Swentzell; and Biomimicry scientists and practitioners: Janine Benyus, Dayna Baumeister, Maibritt Pedersen, and Anne LaForti.

“We don’t even have a language for it in English. There’s a relationship, there’s a nurturing that goes beyond just eating healthy food. There’s something that happens on a spiritual level that I think we really need to take into account. That’s medicine. When they say food is medicine, it’s not just the nutrients in it. It’s the whole connection. It’s all of the parts that make us related to that tomato, that corn, that squash, that pineapple–wherever you’re from.
”
— Roxanne Swentzell

Photo by New Mexico True

About Roxanne Swentzell

Roxanne Swentzell is a Santa Clara Tewa Native American sculptor, ceramic artist, Indigenous food activist, and gallerist.

Roxanne is a prominent Santa Clara Pueblo clay and bronze sculptor and contemporary artist whose award-winning works are featured in major public collections, including the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Cartier in Paris, and other world-class museums and venues. 

Growing up within an artist family allowed Roxanne to naturally take up her mother's clay and start sculpting at a very early age. Her figures represent a full range of emotions and irrepressible moods. Roxanne Swentzell focuses a lot on interpretative female portraits attempting to bring back the balance of power between the male and female, inherently recognized in her own culture. Additionally, she increasingly uses a powerful sense of humor to communicate. Though steeped in her own culture, Roxanne's work demonstrates an astounding universality, speaking to people of all cultures. 

Today, Roxanne’s deeply emotive works and unique artistic style continue to be recognized and renowned worldwide. Using the ancient technique of layering coil upon coil, her large, contemporary works reflect the range of the human experience, connecting with both Native and non-Native audiences.

In 2013, Roxanne led the Pueblo Food Experience, where 14 Pueblo volunteers ate, for three months, only ancestral foods available before colonization, and the results were studied and published. She also runs the non-profit Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, which she helped found in 1989, working to inspire and nurture communities based on Indigenous ways of knowing. The Institute provides workshops, shares resources, trains interns, creates sustainable ecosystems, renews the earth, builds, hosts gatherings, grows food, teaches, and supports the community.

Roxanne keeping bees - photo via Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute

Roxanne’s outdoor patio

 

Photo credit: Anne Laforti 

About Anne Laforti 

Anne LaForti is a soil health expert with a Master’s in Biomimicry from Arizona State University. She is a project manager at Biomimicry 3.8, supporting nature-based innovation in the built environment through “Project Positive.” Anne is deeply interested in soil science, microbiomes, mycology, rainwater catchment, urban and regenerative agriculture, and growing nutrient-dense foods. She was the 2022 Spring Nature, Art, and Habitat Residency (NAHR) Fellow in Santa Ynez, where she worked on “Soil as Pattern Language: Emulating Healthy Soil Communities” and is currently a NAHR Ambassador. Anne is committed to creating regenerative designs that support healthy ecosystems to help heal the soils of California and beyond. 

Group collaboration and creativity at the Biomimicry Immersion workshop in Mill Valley, Northern California

School Garden:  Clifton Middle School's garden care team - during their first work day, as we planted a tree, covered the soil, and tended the compost

 

about Sara El-Sayed

Sara El-Sayed has a joint position as the Co-Director of the Biomimicry Center and Assistant Research Professor at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. El-Sayed has a doctorate in food system sustainability, specifically on regenerative food practices in arid regions, and a master's in Biomimicry, both from ASU. She also has a Biomimicry Professional Certificate from Biomimicry 3.8. She held a postdoctoral position at the School for Future Innovation and Society, in Public Interest Technology. Her research interests include exploring ways to have more regenerative and net-positive local food systems, and she is currently involved in the local Arizona food space. Previously she worked as a researcher in Biomimicry and microbial geographies.

El-Sayed is the co-founder of several enterprises in Egypt. Nawaya is a social enterprise working as a catalyst to transition small-scale farmer communities into more sustainable ones through education and research. Dayma is an LLC responsible for outdoor Environmental Education, teaching young adults about Biomimicry and local Egyptian communities. Clayola is an LLC producing low-tech irrigation systems. She is an avid traveler, nature lover, and enjoys tasting foods, cooking and interacting with people through food experiences. Sara is on the board of Slow Food, an international movement that started in Italy aiming to safeguard local food cultures and traditions and does so by promoting Good, Clean, and Fair food for all. Sara has also worked on other podcasts including a series on regenerative food systems.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson, Sara El-Sayed, Lily Urmann
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Raven Marshall
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Music and soundscapes composed, produced, arranged by Colin Farish
Theme song: “Life” By Colin Farish
From the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”

Featuring:
piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Airto Moreira
guitar: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

The Native Seed Pod is produced by The Cultural Conservancy

 
 

This episode is being co-broadcast with Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast with Lily Urmann

Campfire with Kumu: A gathering (around the campfire) of the LA's Soil Sponge Collective in the Sierra Nevada mountains to learn from nature and Kumu Mikilani Young, holding space for Indigenous wisdom and regenerative healing of place

Biomimicry LA (Los Angeles) "Functions of Plants" Walk at the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Garden, facilitated by Botanist Frank McDonough

Knowledge Symbiosis with PennElys Droz and Maibritt Pedersen Zari

 

Speaker: PennElys Droz and Maibritt Pedersen | Air Date: December 20, 2023 | Run Time: 65 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

Knowledge Symbiosis with PennElys Droz and Maibritt Pedersen Zari

In the third episode of our limited series Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, PennElys Droz and Maibritt Pedersen Zari engage in conversation hosted by Lily Urmann, exploring cosmologies, paradigm shifts and how to be in good relationship while we co-create and design as humans within creation. They outline principles of regenerative design in communities, and how we all might engage in decolonization as well as learn from Indigenous ecological relationships.

Series Synopsis

This limited series, Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, is produced by The Cultural Conservancy’s Native Seed Pod in collaboration with Arizona State University and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. We invite dialogue from multiple perspectives—practitioners in biomimicry, and elders, practitioners, and Indigenous scholars—so we might better understand each other and explore opportunities to weave these learnings. These conversations delve into the ethics of science, human-nature connection, regenerative design, and our relationship to all other kin on this planet. Five episodes will be available on The Native Seed Pod and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast for listeners to tune in and reflect. The episodes are hosted in rotation by Dr. Melissa K Nelson, Dr. Sara El-Sayed, and Lily Urmann, and feature conversations between Kim Tall Bear, Janine Benyus, Dayna Baumeister, PennElys Droz, Maibritt Pedersen, Anne LaForti, and Roxanne Swentzell.

“Maintaining your children’s ability to engage in that learning relationship with the living creation is a source of survival wisdom for the future. Start with whatever your community is, your community and then blow it out to the bioregion.”
— PennElys Droz

About Pennelys Droz 

Dr. PennElys Droz (she/her), Anishinaabe, and Wyandot descendent, is a Power Building & Curriculum Coordinator who has worked in Indigenous engineering and regenerative development for over twenty years, with the vision of the re-development of thriving ecologically, culturally and economically sustainable Native Nations; specializing in renewable energy, natural building, ecological wastewater treatment, whole-systems community infrastructure planning and design, and regenerative economy mapping.

PennElys holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Resource Engineering from Cal Poly Humboldt and a PhD in Biocultural Engineering Design, American Indian Studies from University of Arizona. She is a founding board member of Sustainable Nations, an Indigenous regenerative community development organization. A mother of five, she is committed to decolonial education and parenting that supports the reconnection of people with Land.

 
 
 

Tucson Indigenous Adobe Initiative at work

 

Photo credit: Maibritt Pedersen Zari taken by Maija Stephens for the NUWAO podcast series

About Maibritt Pedersen Zari

Maibritt Pedersen is an Associate Professor in the School of Future Environments at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

Maibritt’s research sits at the interface between ecology and designed human experiences across spatial scales, from interior architecture and architecture, through to urban design. Because Maibritt Pedersen Zari sees humans as indivisible parts of living ecologies, her work considers how human wellbeing is interconnected with the health of the ecologies we exist within. To leverage these interconnections for increased wellbeing (of all) is the work of regenerative design. Maibritt Pedersen Zari’s research explores how understanding ecosystems can be used to define tangible ecology-based metrics for sustainability or regenerative performance in the urban built environment, with particular regard to how climate change and continued loss of global biodiversity affects communities and built environments. 

Her expertise includes biomimicry and architecture, biophilic design, urban ecosystem services, ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions, urban climate change resilience and adaptation particularly in the Pacific, regenerative design, and design for urban biodiversity. Currently she is the Primary Investigator for the Marsden funded project ‘Wellbeing through Nature-based Design: Co-designing Climate Change Adaptation in Oceania’ and leads a complex and diverse team aiming to develop nature-based urban design solutions, rooted in Indigenous knowledges that support climate change adaptation and individual and community wellbeing in different contexts across Oceania.

about lily urmann

Lily Urmann – a biomimic, educator, and nature communicator – is a graduate of the Biomimicry Master’s program at Arizona State University, and received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies at The University of California, Santa Cruz. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on "Integrating Biomimicry Into Higher Education", which kickstarted her journey in the biomimicry and education space. Lily was the Program Coordinator at the ASU Biomimicry Center, where she helped to design and launch one of the world's first undergraduate certificates in biomimicry. During her time in Arizona, she guest lectured across campus, and has led community workshops at the Natural History Institute, the Desert Botanical Garden, and the Highland Center for Natural History. Lily is currently a Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute where she teaches a course she created, titled "Biology for Biomimicry',' and runs after-school nature connection programs for The Kiva Center at Denver elementary schools. She is the creator and host of Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. Lily’s ultimate passion lies at the intersection of biomimicry, place-based experiential education, and engaging change-agents in this exciting field

 

Photo credit: Apia field work image is taken by Maibritt in 2023 in Apia, Samoa at a participatory mapping workshop on climate change adaptation using nature-based solutions.

Photo credit: Image is by Samuel Dunstall and his project 'Katao o te maunga hokio ki te tai', who won a prize in the NUWAO Oceania Nature-based Urban Adaptation driven by Indigenous Knowledge Design Competition. Maibritt Pedersen is the project lead.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson, Sara El-Sayed, Lily Urmann
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Raven Marshall
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

 
 
 
 

This episode is being co-broadcast with Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast with Lily Urmann

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 2

 

Speaker: Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson | Air Date: November 30, 2023 | Run Time: 60 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 2

In this second episode of the limited series Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson continue their conversation, hosted by Sara El-Sayed, exploring the common ground and mapping the divergences between Indigenous science and biomimicry. They dive into the nature of biomimicry and Indigenous knowledges and how they are often misconstrued by non-practitioners; potential ethical limits to seeking knowledge; and an ethical space of engagement for biomimicry practitioners and Indigenous knowledge-holders.

Series Synopsis

This limited series, Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, is produced by The Cultural Conservancy’s Native Seed Pod in collaboration with Arizona State University and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. We invite dialogue from multiple perspectives—practitioners in biomimicry, and elders, practitioners, and Indigenous scholars—so we might better understand each other and explore opportunities to weave these learnings. These conversations delve into the ethics of science, human-nature connection, regenerative design, and our relationship to all other kin on this planet. Five episodes will be available on The Native Seed Pod and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast for listeners to tune in and reflect. The episodes are hosted in rotation by Dr. Melissa K Nelson, Dr. Sara El-Sayed, and Lily Urmann, and feature conversations between Kim Tall Bear, Janine Benyus, Dayna Baumeister, PennElys Droz, Maibritt Pederson, Anne LaForti, and Roxanne Swentzell.

“Quiet your cleverness. Come at this from a place of curiosity—that’s a guiding practice for any successful biomimic—which includes setting ego aside, setting aside this notion that you have all the answers.”
— Dayna Baumeister

About Dr. Dayna Baumeister

Dr. Dayna Baumeister is Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and Co-director of the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. With a devotion to applied natural history and a passion for sharing the genius of nature, Dayna has worked in the field of biomimicry with business partner Janine Benyus since 1998, traveling the world as a biomimicry thought-leader, business consultant, and professor. Together they founded the Biomimicry Guild consulting practice, The Biomimicry Institute 501c3, and in 2010, Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise that helps clients find innovation inspired by nature and offers the highest level of biomimicry training to professionals worldwide. She also co-founded the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University, offering the first entire programs in biomimicry, including a master's of science and an undergraduate certificate.

Dayna’s foundational work has been critical to the biomimicry movement, establishing it as a fresh and innovative practice and a philosophy to meet the world’s sustainability challenges. Dayna serves as the director of ASU’s Biomimicry Center graduate programs, and a Professor of Practice in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems at ASU. She also is a regular guest instructor for the Harvard Executive Education in Sustainability Leadership. Dayna is the senior editor of Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2014), where she compiled more than a decade’s worth of practical biomimicry experience into one comprehensive biomimicry handbook. She serves on the Board of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, and is also a Dana Meadows Fellow of the Sustainability Institute.

About Melissa Nelson

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. is an award-winning ecologist, writer, media-maker, and Indigenous scholar-activist. For over 30 years she has been dedicated to Indigenous rights and revitalization and the protection of Native lands and food sovereignty. Melissa is a professor of Indigenous Sustainability at Arizona State University and professor emerita of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. She is board chair of The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous rights organization, which she directed as a founding executive director and CEO from 1993 - 2021. Melissa is the co-producer and photographer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together, and has co-produced several other documentary short films with The Cultural Conservancy, the Native American Academy, and Philomath Films. She was a writer and host for the PBS website and documentary film, Circle of Stories, and consultant on the award-winning IMAX film, Into American’s Wild. She has co-produced several audio recordings, including Songscapes of Native America, Profiles of Native American Food Revitalization (with Slow Food USA), Red Earth Rising (with Canyon Records) and Sounds of Belonging (with ASU). In 2018 she co-founded the Native Seed Pod podcast and serves as its primary host and writer. Melissa has also edited and contributed to three anthologies focused on Indigenous ecological knowledges. She is Anishinaabe/Cree/Métis/Norwegian, a proud member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians.

About Sara El-Sayed

Sara El-Sayed has a joint position as the Co-Director of the Biomimicry Center and Assistant Research Professor at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. El-Sayed has a doctorate in food system sustainability, specifically on regenerative food practices in arid regions, and a master's in Biomimicry, both from ASU. She also has a Biomimicry Professional Certificate from Biomimicry 3.8. She held a postdoctoral position at the School for Future Innovation and Society, in Public Interest Technology. Her research interests include exploring ways to have more regenerative and net-positive local food systems, and she is currently involved in the local Arizona food space. Previously she worked as a researcher in Biomimicry and microbial geographies. She is the co-founder of several enterprises in Egypt. Nawaya is a social enterprise working as a catalyst to transition small-scale farmer communities into more sustainable ones through education and research. Dayma is an LLC responsible for outdoor Environmental Education, teaching young adults about Biomimicry and local Egyptian communities. Clayola is an LLC producing low-tech irrigation systems. She is an avid traveler, nature lover, and enjoys tasting foods, cooking and interacting with people through food experiences. Sara is on the board of Slow Food, an international movement that started in Italy aiming to safeguard local food cultures and traditions and does so by promoting Good, Clean, and Fair food for all. Sara has also worked on other podcasts including a series on regenerative food systems.

 
Melissa K Nelson rows a traditional California Native tule reed boat

Melissa K Nelson rows a traditional California Native tule reed boat

 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson, Sara El-Sayed, Lily Urmann
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Raven Marshall
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Vocals by Eddie Madril
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Theme song: “Life’ By Colin Farish
From the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”
Featuring:
piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Airto Moreira
guitar: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

Featuring:
piano, guitar, percussion, synths, samples, and flutes: Colin Farish
voice: Capomo
piano: Jasnam Daya Singh
cello quartet: Fog Town Four
violin: Jeremy Cohen
guitar: Christen Konopka
flute & percussion: Jhaffur Kahn
beat-boxing, drums: Cameron Campbell

Featuring:
voice: Ava Nichol Francis
shakers: Glen Velez

 
 

This episode is being co-broadcast with Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast with Lily Urmann

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 1

 

Speaker: Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson | Air Date: November 7, 2023 | Run Time: 57 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 1

In this inaugural episode of the limited series Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, Dayna Baumeister joins Melissa K. Nelson and Sara El-Sayed in a conversation exploring the common ground and mapping the divergences between Indigenous science and biomimicry.

Series Synopsis

Biomimicry, nature-inspired design, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), or Indigenous Knowledge Systems, both have roots in nature and a deep respect for natural processes. However, the two fields have different worldviews: biomimicry is oriented from a Western science perspective, while TEK emerges from Indigenous, spiritual, and cosmological worldviews. With a common source of inspiration, professionals in both fields recognize the potential for collaboration, yet no formal efforts or conversations in this realm have been published for a wide audience. This limited series, Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize?, is produced by The Cultural Conservancy’s Native Seed Pod in collaboration with Arizona State University and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. We invite dialogue from multiple perspectives—practitioners in biomimicry, and elders, practitioners, and Indigenous scholars—so we might better understand each other and explore opportunities to weave these learnings. Five episodes will be available on The Native Seed Pod and Learning From Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast for listeners to tune in and reflect. The episodes are hosted in rotation by Dr. Melissa Nelson, Dr. Sara El-Sayed, and Lily Urmann, and feature conversations between Kim Tall Bear, Janine Benyus, Dayna Baumeister, PennElys Droz, Maibritt Pederson, Anne LaForti, and Roxanne Swentzell. These conversations delve into the ethics of science, human-nature connection, regenerative design, and our relationship to all other kin on this planet.

“One of the biggest flaws of industrialized western science is its inability to tell stories, its inability to take that information and tell in it a way that is compelling–it gets written in a journal and then it’s like there’s a big brick wall...

It is in the storytelling, and the lack thereof, that becomes the undertone for how we behave in the world... If we change the story, we change everything.”
— Dayna Baumeister

About Dr. Dayna Baumeister

Dr. Dayna Baumeister is Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and Co-director of the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. With a devotion to applied natural history and a passion for sharing the genius of nature, Dayna has worked in the field of biomimicry with business partner Janine Benyus since 1998, traveling the world as a biomimicry thought-leader, business consultant, and professor. Together they founded the Biomimicry Guild consulting practice, The Biomimicry Institute 501c3, and in 2010, Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise that helps clients find innovation inspired by nature and offers the highest level of biomimicry training to professionals worldwide. She also co-founded the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University, offering the first entire programs in biomimicry, including a master's of science and an undergraduate certificate.

Dayna’s foundational work has been critical to the biomimicry movement, establishing it as a fresh and innovative practice and a philosophy to meet the world’s sustainability challenges. Dayna serves as the director of ASU’s Biomimicry Center graduate programs, and a Professor of Practice in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems at ASU. She also is a regular guest instructor for the Harvard Executive Education in Sustainability Leadership. Dayna is the senior editor of Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2014), where she compiled more than a decade’s worth of practical biomimicry experience into one comprehensive biomimicry handbook. She serves on the Board of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, and is also a Dana Meadows Fellow of the Sustainability Institute.

About Melissa Nelson

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. is an award-winning ecologist, writer, media-maker, and Indigenous scholar-activist. For over 30 years she has been dedicated to Indigenous rights and revitalization and the protection of Native lands and food sovereignty. Melissa is a professor of Indigenous Sustainability at Arizona State University and professor emerita of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. She is board chair of The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous rights organization, which she directed as a founding executive director and CEO from 1993 - 2021. Melissa is the co-producer and photographer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together, and has co-produced several other documentary short films with The Cultural Conservancy, the Native American Academy, and Philomath Films. She was a writer and host for the PBS website and documentary film, Circle of Stories, and consultant on the award-winning IMAX film, Into American’s Wild. She has co-produced several audio recordings, including Songscapes of Native America, Profiles of Native American Food Revitalization (with Slow Food USA), Red Earth Rising (with Canyon Records) and Sounds of Belonging (with ASU). In 2018 she co-founded the Native Seed Pod podcast and serves as its primary host and writer. Melissa has also edited and contributed to three anthologies focused on Indigenous ecological knowledges. She is Anishinaabe/Cree/Métis/Norwegian, a proud member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians.

About Sara El-Sayed

Sara El-Sayed has a joint position as the Co-Director of the Biomimicry Center and Assistant Research Professor at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. El-Sayed has a doctorate in food system sustainability, specifically on regenerative food practices in arid regions, and a master's in Biomimicry, both from ASU. She also has a Biomimicry Professional Certificate from Biomimicry 3.8. She held a postdoctoral position at the School for Future Innovation and Society, in Public Interest Technology. Her research interests include exploring ways to have more regenerative and net-positive local food systems, and she is currently involved in the local Arizona food space. Previously she worked as a researcher in Biomimicry and microbial geographies. She is the co-founder of several enterprises in Egypt. Nawaya is a social enterprise working as a catalyst to transition small-scale farmer communities into more sustainable ones through education and research. Dayma is an LLC responsible for outdoor Environmental Education, teaching young adults about Biomimicry and local Egyptian communities. Clayola is an LLC producing low-tech irrigation systems. She is an avid traveler, nature lover, and enjoys tasting foods, cooking and interacting with people through food experiences. Sara is on the board of Slow Food, an international movement that started in Italy aiming to safeguard local food cultures and traditions and does so by promoting Good, Clean, and Fair food for all. Sara has also worked on other podcasts including a series on regenerative food systems.

About Lily Urmann

Lily Urmann – a biomimic, educator, and nature communicator – is a graduate of the Biomimicry Master’s program at Arizona State University, and received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies at The University of California, Santa Cruz. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on "Integrating Biomimicry Into Higher Education", which kickstarted her journey in the biomimicry and education space. Lily was the Program Coordinator at the ASU Biomimicry Center, where she helped to design and launch one of the world's first undergraduate certificates in biomimicry. During her time in Arizona, she guest lectured across campus, and has led community workshops at the Natural History Institute, the Desert Botanical Garden, and the Highland Center for Natural History. Lily is currently a Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute where she teaches a course she created, titled "Biology for Biomimicry',' and runs after-school nature connection programs for The Kiva Center at Denver elementary schools. She is the creator and host of Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. Lily’s ultimate passion lies at the intersection of biomimicry, place-based experiential education, and engaging change-agents in this exciting field.

 

Dayna Baumeister teaching students in the field

 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson, Sara El-Sayed, Lily Urmann
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Raven Marshall, Sara Moncada
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Theme song: “Life’ By Colin Farish
From the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”
Featuring:
piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Airto Moreira
guitar: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

Featuring:
piano, guitar, percussion, synths, samples, and flutes: Colin Farish
voice: Capomo
piano: Jasnam Daya Singh
cello quartet: Fog Town Four
violin: Jeremy Cohen
guitar: Christen Konopka
flute & percussion: Jhaffur Kahn
beat-boxing, drums: Cameron Campbell

 
 
 

This episode is being co-broadcast with Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast with Lily Urmann

TEK Warriors use ethical space to indigenize ecology

 

Speaker: James Rattling Leaf and Gwen Bridge | Air Date: July 27, 2023 | Run Time: 51 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

TEK Warriors use ethical space to indigenize ecology

Join Lakota leader James Rattling Leaf, a global Indigenous consultant, and Gwen Bridge, a Cree First Nations environmental leader, together with Native ecologist and host Melissa Nelson, in a conversation about the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). In this episode, we learn about their work with Tribes and First Nations in the US and Canada and how they are elevating TEK in academia, research, and government. They specifically discuss the growing movement of TEK within the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the world’s largest community of professional ecologists. From the ethical space framework and Canadian policies supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in land management regimes, such as prescribed fire, to discussing tribally specific climate strategies during these extreme times, Gwen, James, and Melissa provide a concrete case study of Indigenous ecologists ethically and respectfully including TEK in a major ecological society of Western trained scientists and promoting Native ways of knowing through intergenerational Indigenous leadership. Ultimately, we encourage everyone to explore ethical space and learn about Indigenous policies to create more reciprocal collaborations between Indigenous and Western sciences. Join the TEK Section movement in ESA and support these strategies throughout the world.

“Ethical space is a wonderful framework for providing the container, if you will, the space to be able to deeply explore the assumptions we’re bringing into the conversations we’re having between different worldviews. So the opportunity within ethical space is to, as my mentor in the space, Reg Crowshoe says, is to, deeply understand what needs to be understood from the other’s perspective and then create something new from that understanding.

Part of this work is on that individual commitment level to allow yourself to be transformed through your understanding, and then the creativity to be able to create something new.”
— Gwen Bridge
 

About James Rattling Leaf, Sr.

James Rattling Leaf is a global Indigenous Consultant and Principal of the Wolakota Lab, LLC who serves as a guide and inspiration to organizations to work more effectively with Indigenous Peoples for a more equitable world. He has over 25 years’ working with the US federal government, higher education institutions and non-profits to develop and maintain effective working relationships with federally and non-federally recognized American Indian tribes, tribal colleges and universities and tribal communities. He specializes in developing programs that utilize the interface between Indigenous people’s traditional knowledge and western science. He sees a greater vision of human knowledge that incorporates the many insights of human cultures and provides a context for our better understanding of the planet.

https://nccasc.colorado.edu/

https://esiil.org/

About Gwen Bridge

Gwen is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation and has been working for over 20 years with First Nations, all levels of government, and the private and non profit sectors, across North America, developing relationships and strategies that advance reconciliation. Gwen has been negotiating initiatives and advising on strategy and policy that recognize and implement Indigenous Knowledge, such as in the proposed South Okanagan Similkameen National Park Reserve. Gwen has also recently been advising the BC government on how to better consider indigenous knowledge in collaborative land use planning and forestry related climate change considerations. Support to local governments include developing strategies and principles for becoming “Cities of Reconciliation”, and advising on climate change policy and economic development engagement strategies. Indigenous led conservation focuses recently include the smelqmix Protected Area and caribou habitat conservation advancement in the territory of the Okanagan Nation Alliance. Advancing an understanding of the ecological, economic and equity based partnership mechanisms to support our collective reconciliation agenda through training is a recent focus. Other clients include First Nations and First Nation organizations, Parks Canada, US National Parks Service, National Geographic Society, other non profits, regional and municipal governments including Metro Vancouver, other consulting firms, the University of Washington, Blue Quills University, BC Ministries of: Environment, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Forests, and Land, Water and Resource Stewardship. 

Gwen is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC. Gwen has a Master of Science in Forest Hydrology from the University of Alberta.

 
 
 

Melissa, James, Gwen, and TEK team in Montreal, Canada, 2022

 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada, Raven Marshall
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Theme song “Life” by Colin Farish
From the the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”
Featuring:
Piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

Featuring:
piano, guitar, percussion, synths, samples, and flutes: Colin Farish
voice: Capomo
piano: Jasnam Daya Singh
cello quartet: Fog Town Four
violin: Jeremy Cohen
guitar: Christen Konopka
flute & percussion: Jhaffur Kahn
beat-boxing, drums: Cameron Campbell


Featuring:
“Plants of the Sea, Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai”
ukulele: Del Medina
voice: Linda Low
percussion: Colin Farish

First Scientist: Exploring the Harmonics of Abundance with Rose Imai

Speaker: Rose Imai | Air Date: October 12, 2022 | Run Time: 45 mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

First Scientist: Exploring the Harmonics of Abundance with Rose Imai

In this final episode of the season, we honor the voice and wisdom of Rose Imai, a beloved Tuscarora elder who passed into the spirit world on April 22nd, 2022.  We recorded this episode in Rose’s home studio in the summer of 2021 and worked with her on shaping it along with her visual art series “The Children Series,” and the “Four Horses of Healing.” Stay tuned for a special video release featuring those teachings soon. 

In this free-flowing conversation, Rose shares her inspiration for the “first scientist” vision, a pregnant woman planting seeds in the Earth.  With that story and image as a springboard, Rose and host Melissa K Nelson traverse many topics, from the song of corn to the harmonics of abundance. At 83, with an illness, Rose shares profound philosophical and spiritual insights as someone preparing to face death. Embodying the first scientist herself, Rose uncovers the many layers of human experience as one reflects and prepares for that powerful journey, in her own words, “within the whole,” while being fully alive with humor, wit, and love. 

Melissa’s work with Rose inspired her to write a love song to “first scientist,” which is recited at the beginning of the episode.  The beautiful song at the beginning and end of the episode is a special traveling song sung by Leroy Little Bear, one of Rose’s closest friends and a mentor and inspiration to many of us.

The Horse of the West - The Place of Transformation - Where Answers Live - The Children Series - by Rose Imai

“I was born at the foot of Twin Peaks in San Francisco.
Up the hill from our flat below street level was a large vacant lot
filled with wild anise and blackberries,
poppies, yarrow, morning glories, nasturtiums…
I would climb down from the street, to range around and disappear into the sounds and smells,
the spirits of the place.
As a child it was natural to get lost in my senses, and to learn what the Earth feels like.
Later, I lived in the redwoods and began traveling;
the Southwest’s high deserts, the lakes of Minnesota, the Dakota Badlands,
Chaco Canyon where just before dawn, the stars come to dance on the Earth,
on Brazilian beaches, a humid summer day in Russia,
or drunk on the graciousness of Polynesia
I learned these places through how they feel, what they sound like,
how they smell and taste.
I go to the Earth for inspiration, solace, to play, learn, hide, grieve or find courage.
I live her rhythms.
My paintings reflect kinship with the natural world and its consciousness.
The richest vein of creativity for me and what I explore in my work,
is this sense of belonging. ”
— Nato Inn Ni Maki - Rose Imai, 2020

Rose Thater Braan-Imai (Tuscarora)

ABOUT Rose Imai

Rose Thater Braan-Imai (Tuscarora) is a self-taught artist. Her surrealist figurations explore the exquisiteness of our connections to the Earth expressing the sensuality and intimacy of the natural world as experienced through the human body. She works primarily in oils enjoying the depth and range of feeling she finds in their texture and in the way they carry light. She is the Founding Director of The Native American Academy, leading creative projects (Sculpture Garden of Native Science and Learning) and transcultural dialogues between Indigenous and Western worldviews to forward the potential for new knowledge using the lens of the Native paradigm, indigenous learning processes and Native science.

From 1989 to 2000 she served as the Director of Education at University of California (UC) Berkeley's Center for Particle Astrophysics, presenting at national and international forums, including the National Academy of Sciences, the Banff Centre, Goddard Space Flight Center and The National Science Foundation. Prior to 1989, Rose worked in theater (the American Conservatory Theater), television (KQED-TV), and as Liason and Assistant to writer/critic/producer Ralph J. Gleason, co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine before heading her own production company.  

Rose Thater Braan-Imai with Kaylena Bray at Indian Valley Organic Farm harvesting onëö corn.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Photography: Mateo Hinojosa, Melissa K. Nelson
Transcript correction and additional editing: Alexandru Salceanu

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
except: Traveling Song by Leroy Little Bear
and “Native Insight” by Ella Rose, produced by Colin Farish
©2022 Winds of the Muse
Colin Farish: piano, guitar, drums, and flutes
Jasnam Daya Singh: piano
Max Dyer: cello
Robin Bonnel: cello
Savanah Jo Lack: violin, viola
Ava Nichol Francis: voice
Kai Eckhardt: electric bass
Glen Velez: frame drums
Dierdre McCarthy: drums
Paul McCandless: oboe, soprano sax, English horn
Tina Malia: voice
Ayapishlo: voiceLeroy Little Bear – voice
Paul Hankinson: French horn
Ella Rose - piano and voice (on Native Insight)
Recorded, mixed, edited, and mastered by Colin Farish 
at Forest Flower Recording, Mill Valley CA 2022
Also recorded by: Sudhananda Paul Greaver, Max Dyer, and Andre Zweers

A vision of the Sculpture Garden of Native Science and Learning including First Scientist.

Indigenous Food Warriors with Chef Crystal Wahpepah

Speaker: Crystal Wahpepah | Air Date: June 20, 2022 | Run Time: 48mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Indigenous Food Warriors with Chef Crystal Wahpepah

Guest Host Sara Moncada sits down with Chef Crystal Wahpepah in Wahpepah’s Kitchen, her newly opened Native-owned restaurant in Oakland, California. In a wide-ranging and intimate conversation, they discuss Crystal’s vision of what it means to be an Indigenous Food Warrior: nourishing community through cooking and serving Native foods and educating the next generation on the power and beauty of traditional Indigenous food systems. From her work as a traveling caterer to opening her first restaurant in the heart of the Bay Area Native community, Crystal shares her journey of exploring the deep connection with our foods and food traditions through knowing our ingredients’ origins, through revitalizing traditional trade networks, and by sourcing seeds and foods grown from trusted community rooted in land. Join us as Crystal and Sara talk story about the path of Wahpepah’s Kitchen, the healthy responsibility of traditional lands and foods tending, and what it means to be able to offer these kinds of connections to the next generation.

This conversation was recorded on March 15, 2022 at Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland, California.

Mural in Wahpepah’s Kitchen restaurant - art by NSRGNTS

“I see a big ol’ plate of healing, flavor, something that’s from this land, and that connection. Even though I’m Kickapoo, we all have that connection.”
— Crystal Wahpepah

Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo)

ABOUT CRYSTAL WAHPEPAH

Crystal Wahpepah is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo nation of Oklahoma. She was born and raised in Oakland, California, on Ohlone land, surrounded by a multi-tribal, tight-knit, urban Native community. Crystal’s objectives for Wahpepah’s Kitchen are threefold: (1) to acknowledge that we live on stolen land; and (2) how that acknowledgement connects to the reclamation of Native food ways (food sovereignty); as well as (3) to educate communities and organizations on the health benefits of Native Foodways using the knowledge passed onto her.

Crystal does not merely cater events and go—she speaks on where her food comes from and honors its roots, its Indigenous cultivators and stewards and its place within the seasons. This is why you will always see diversity in her food, because Wahpepah’s Kitchen honors the seasons with changing menus and product availability.  Crystal’s creations through food and community shine with joy, lightness of heart, and are led by a solid internal compass. 

Crystal has catered and done educational talks in many forums that span local community settings, the tech world, non-profit organizations and educational institutions.  Crystal has worked with the American Indian film festival, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Salesforce, WeWork, UC Berkeley, Cal Poly, UCSF and the National Indian Health Board.  This is a small sample that illustrates the diversity of Crystal’s reach.  She has traveled all over the country attending food summits and building networks with other Native American and Indigenous farmers, land stewards and chefs. 

Crystal was recently nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award for Emerging Chefs.

The open pantry in the eating area of Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Fruitvale, Oakland, California.

Chef Crystal Wahpepah caters an event at The Cultural Conservancy’s land project, Heron Shadow, with traditional salmon, buffalo and more.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Sara Moncada
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada, Melissa Nelson
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Audio Recordist: Mateo Hinojosa
Photography: Mateo Hinojosa, Alexandru Salceanu
Transcript correction and additional editing: Alexandru Salceanu

ORIGINAL Songs

Opening Theme Music - Colin Farish featuring Airto Moreira
Soundscapes and Music Composition - Colin Farish
Piano, Guitar & Flute - Colin Farish, Sudhananda Paul Greaver
Flute - Enrique Salmón
Voice: L Frank Manriquez
Frame Drums - Glen Velez
Bass - Terry Miller
Drums - Bob Blankenship

Songs Used by Permission

Origins sung by Michael Bercier, courtesy of Sewam Dance
Crow Hop sung by Michael Bercier, courtesy of Sewam Dance

Rematriating the Land with Corrina Gould

Speaker: Corrina Gould | Air Date: February 3, 2022 | Run Time: 40 mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Rematriating the Land with Corrina Gould

Host Melissa Nelson sits down on the land for a wide-ranging conversation with Ohlone leader Corrina Gould of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, discussing rematriating Indigenous homelands, the history and strategy of land trusts and Native land taxes, resilience hubs in the Bay Area, and much more.

Corrina and Melissa talk about how to grow the network of Himmetka resilience hubs, emerging to respond to emergency and to be good hosts as Indigenous people based in urban areas such as in Lisjan, the traditional Ohlone village site in deep East Oakland, California. Corrina discusses multiple other sites that have returned to Ohlone hands, and dreams for the future of Sogorea Te’ and rematriating the land.

This conversation was recorded on August 2, 2021 at Heron Shadow.

 

Rematriate the Land geomorphic visualization by Maisie Richards and Inés Ixierda

 
“It’s going to take a lot to heal but I think we’re at the beginning, people want to do something different, they are finding the power to move in different ways...”
— Corrina Gould

Corrina Gould (Ohlone)

About Corrina Gould (Ohlone)

Corrina Gould is the tribal spokesperson for the  Confederated Villages of Lisjan. Born and raised in her ancestral  homeland, the Ohlone territory of Huchiun, she is the mother of three  and grandmother of four. Corrina has worked on preserving and protecting  the ancient burial sites of her ancestors throughout the Bay Area for  decades. She has developed an extensive network of partnerships and  collaborations within intertribal Indigenous communities and across a  broad spectrum of ethnic and community groups and organizations. A lead  organizer in the campaign to Save the West Berkeley Shellmound, Corrina  has won historic victories in the ongoing struggle to protect Indigenous  sacred sites. 

Corrina is the Co-Founder and a Lead Organizer for Indian People  Organizing for Change, a small Native run advocacy organization that works on Indigenous issues. From 2005-2009, IPOC led an annual Shellmound Peace Walk to bring about education and awareness of the  desecration of the sacred sites in the greater Bay Area.

In April of 2011 Corrina, Wounded Knee De Ocampo and a committee of  others, joined together and put a call out to warriors to create a  prayerful vigil and occupation of Sogorea Te’ in Vallejo CA. This is a 15 acre Sacred Site that sits along the Carquinez Straits. The  occupation lasted for 109 days and resulted in a cultural easement  between the City of Vallejo, the Greater Vallejo Recreation District and  two federally recognized tribes. This struggle was victorious and will  set precedence in this type of work going forward with others that are  working on sacred sites issues within city boundaries in California.

Corrina is the Co-Founder/Co-Director of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, the first Indigenous women led urban land trust in the country. She has helped to bring the work of rematriation into public consciousness. A  celebrated speaker locally, nationally and internationally, at schools,  universities, conferences and community events, she regularly offers  protocol, stories, guidance, history and vision.

Himmetka resilience hub in Lisjan, Oakland, California, on sovereign Ohlone territory stewarded by Sogorea Te’ land Trust. Photo courtesy of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust visiting The Cultural Conservancy’s farm at Heron Shadow.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Audio Recordists: Luke Reppe, Sara Moncada
Photography: Inés Ixierda, Melissa K. Nelson

Song Credits

Music by: Colin Farish
Guitar - Colin Farish, Sudhananda Paul Greaver
Strings - Worn Chamber Ensemble, Fog Town Four Cello Quartet
Voice: Teresa Nelson, Capomo, Kanyon Sayers-Rood, Tina Malia
Percussion and Frame Drums - Glen Velez, Colin Farish, Capomo
Violin - Genevieve Walker
Piano - Victoria Theodore
Soundscapes- Colin Farish

Used by permission
Winds of the Muse ASCAP 2022

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust visiting The Cultural Conservancy’s farm at Heron Shadow.

Seed Rematriation with Becky Webster

Speaker: Shelley Buffalo | Air Date: November 4, 2021 | Run Time: 34mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Speaker: Becky Webster | Air Date: November 30, 2021 | Run Time: 54 mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Seed Rematriation with Becky Webster

Harvesting beans at Ukwakhwa

Host Melissa Nelson sits down with Becky Webster, Oneida farmer, seedkeeper and attorney. Their conversation explores the challenges and joys of being a Native farmer, cultivating recently rematriated crops, navigating both market and trade economies, and more.

This episode is the third of three episodes focused on Seed Rematriation, and is a co-production of The Cultural Conservancy and Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s (NAFSA) Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN). These episodes are part of a collection of Seed Rematriation media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and Rowen White of ISKN.

This conversation was recorded on August 9, 2021.

“Ukwakhwa means Our Foods, Where We Plant Things. So it’s more than just about planting seeds in the ground. It’s about planting these ideas in our community about reclaiming, who we are, reclaiming our relationships with our foods and our relationships with each other.”
— Becky Webster

About Becky Webster

Dr. Rebecca Webster is an enrolled citizen of the Oneida Nation. She is a founding member of Ohe∙láku (among the cornstalks) a co-op of 10 Oneida families that grow 6 acres of traditional, heirloom corn together. She and her husband also own a 10 acre farmstead where they primarily grow Haudenosaunee varieties of corn, beans, and squash. Their philosophy is that every time an indigenous person plants a seed, that is an act of resistance, an assertion of sovereignty, and a reclamation of identity. With these goals in mind, an Oneida faithkeeper named their 10 acre homestead Ukwakhwa: Tsinu Niyukwayayʌthoslu (Our foods: Where we plant things). Based on their farming practices, they started a YouTube Channel called Ukwakhwa (Our Foods) where they share what they learned about planting, growing, harvesting, seed keeping, food preparation, food storage, as well as making traditional tools and crafts. Most recently, their family formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Ukwakhwa Inc., to help advance their goals of helping share knowledge with the community.

Additional Resources 

Haudenosaunee Bear Paw Beans (Scarlet Red Runners), one of the many seeds appearing in this episode

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Mateo Hinojosa
Co-Producer: Sara Moncada
Special Co-Producer: Rowen White
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Photography: Cale Stelken, Mateo Hinojosa

Song Credits

Music by: Colin Farish
Voice: Capomo
Keyboards, drums, flute, sound design: Colin Farish
Violin: Savannah Jo Lack
Cello: Robin Bonnel
Oboe: Paul McCandless
Recorded and mixed by Colin Farish at Stillwater Sound, San Francisco CA
(c)(p) Winds of the Muse ASCAP 2021. Used with permission.

This short film, highlighting the essence of the Seed Rematriation movement, is part of the collection of media that includes this podcast episode. It features Becky Webster and seeds that have been rematriated.

Seed Rematriation with Shelley Buffalo

Speaker: Shelley Buffalo | Air Date: October 8, 2021 | Run Time: 41mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Speaker: Shelley Buffalo | Air Date: October 8, 2021 | Run Time: 41mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Seed Rematriation with Shelley Buffalo

Tama Flint corn picked at the green stage, with its great variety of colors.

Tama Flint corn picked at the green stage, with its great variety of colors.

In this episode, Shelley Buffalo talks with host Melissa Nelson about the healing power of ancestral foods, feeding the community with rematriated crops and medicines, and her work with Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Initiative, Red Earth Gardens and Seed Savers Exchange. They also explore the power of art and the beauty of seeds.

This is the second of three episodes focused on Seed Rematriation, and is a co-production of The Cultural Conservancy and Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s (NAFSA) Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN). These episodes are part of a collection of Seed Rematriation media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and Rowen White.

This conversation was recorded on March 4, 2021.

“Just embracing your ancestral foods really does give you that connection to your ancestors. You know, the boarding school era and the dispossession of land era and all of that, all of that just washes away. In one season and in one bite of that food, you regain that connection and it’s just an incredibly beautiful and powerful thing.”
— Shelley Buffalo
Tama Flint corn picked at the green (milky) stage being cooked over fire. The corn is processed by parboiling for about 15 minutes. This is the first step in processing for dry storage. Once cool, it is shelled from the cob and the kernels are dried in the sun over several days.

Tama Flint corn picked at the green (milky) stage being cooked over fire. The corn is processed by parboiling for about 15 minutes. This is the first step in processing for dry storage. Once cool, it is shelled from the cob and the kernels are dried in the sun over several days.

About Shelley Buffalo

Shelley_Buffalo_portrait_2020.jpg

Shelley Buffalo is an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Tribe, also know as the Sac & Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa. Shelley served her community as Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Coordinator and now offers consultancy for food sovereignty and local foods initiatives. She is an advocate for indigenous food ways, food justice, and rematriation. A mother of two sons, Shelley made a living as a house painter and artist before finding her passion in farming and seed saving.

The Meskwaki are unique in that their land based community is a settlement, not a reservation. Established in 1857 with the purchase of 80 acres near Tama, Iowa, the Meskwaki Settlement has grown to approximately 8,400 acres.

Ruth Buffalo (Shelley’s mother) and Charlie Old Bear (Shelley’s stepfather) spreading out the parboiled Tama Flint green corn to sun dry

 

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer and Editor: Mateo Hinojosa
Co-Producer: Sara Moncada
Special Co-Producer: Rowen White
Sound Recordist: Mateo Hinojosa, Cale Stelken
Sound Designer and Audio Engineer: Colin Farish
Photography: Cale Stelken, Shelley Buffalo, Mateo Hinojosa

Meskwaki Tama Flint corn picked at the green stage

Meskwaki Tama Flint corn picked at the green stage

Song Credits

Mohawk Women’s Dance
Sung by: Rowen White
Field Recording: Mateo Hinojosa

Opening Interlude
Drums, flute: Colin Farish
Cello: Premdip Ted Lasker

Closing Interlude
Colin Farish, Premdip Ted Lasker, & Alexandrea Oswalt

(c)(p)2021 Winds of the Muse ASCAP
Used with permission

All Other Music
Music by: Colin Farish

Sun-drying strips of winter squash in Meskwaki

Sun-drying strips of winter squash in Meskwaki

This short film, highlighting the essence of the Seed Rematriation movement, is part of the collection of media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and that includes this podcast episode. It features Shelley Buffalo and many seeds that have been rematriated.

Seed Rematriation with Jessika Greendeer

Speaker: Jessika Greendeer | Air Date: September 6, 2021 | Run Time: 34mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Speaker: Jessika Greendeer | Air Date: September 6, 2021 | Run Time: 34mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 3

Seed Rematriation with Jessika Greendeer

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In the first episode of Season 3 of The Native Seed Pod, our host Melissa Nelson talks with Jessika Greendeer of Ho-Chunk Nation, who is the Seed Keeper and Farm Manager at Dream of Wild Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jessika and Melissa discuss the growing Seed Rematriation movement, seed keeping and agriculture, and her work at Dream of Wild Health.

This episode is the first of three episodes focused on Seed Rematriation, and is a co-production of The Cultural Conservancy and Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s (NAFSA) Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN). These episodes are part of a collection of Seed Rematriation media that we have co-produced with NAFSA and Rowen White of ISKN.

This conversation was recorded on October 8, 2020.

“Being a seed keeper, it’s a big responsibility. It’s a heavy title to carry. Everything we do as Native people, we always think about our future generations: being able to hold the future in your hands and also being able to hold the past in your hands at the same time. It’s an amazing journey and I’m grateful to be on it. ”
— Jessika Greendeer
Red Beauty Corn

Red Beauty Corn

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Mateo Hinojosa
Co-Producer: Sara Moncada
Special Co-Producer: Rowen White
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Photography: Cale Stelken, Mateo Hinojosa

Song Credits

Standing on the Ridge
Music by: Colin Farish
Voice: Capomo
Keyboards, drums, sound design: Colin Farish
Violin: Savannah Jo Lack
Cello: Robin Bonnel
Oboe: Paul McCandless
Recorded and mixed by Colin Farish at Stillwater Sound, San Francisco CA, and at Forest Flower Studio, Mill Valley CA, recorded by Andre Zweers at Screaming Lizard Studio, Petaluma CA, and mastered by Sudhananda Paul Greaver.
(c)(p) Winds of the Muse ASCAP 2021. Used with permission.

This short film, highlighting the essence of the Seed Rematriation movement, is part of the collection of media that includes this podcast episode. It features Jessika Greendeer and seeds that have been rematriated.

The Poetry of Sacred Food Culture: Conversations with Simon Ortiz

Speaker: Simon Ortiz | Air Date: March 2nd, 2020 | Run Time: 53mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speaker: Simon Ortiz | Air Date: March 2nd, 2020 | Run Time: 53mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

The Poetry of Sacred Food Culture: Conversations with Simon Ortiz 

In the final episode of Season 2 of The Native Seed Pod, podcast host Melissa Nelson sits down with famous Acoma Pueblo writer, poet, and storyteller Simon J. Ortiz at the Mesa Refuge writers retreat in Point Reyes, California. 

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During their time together, Melissa and Simon touch on many topics of varying depths; from the intricacies of traditional tribal identities to the wonder of our traditional foods, to our role as Indigenous peoples in the future of ‘green’ urban development on our traditional territories.

Simon’s gentle ease and wise words amplify simple truths and ground large heady concepts, leaving us open to receive the immensity of his final gift a sharing of his poem, Deer Dinner.

We are honored that this episode was an official selection for the 2022 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

 
“Culture is knowledge and knowledge is the basic elemental resource that we have in conducting our lives. ”
— Simon J. Ortiz

Woven Stone - book by Simon J. Ortiz

About Simon J. Ortiz

A tribal member of the Acoma Pueblo, Simon J. Ortiz became one of the most significant Native American writers of the twentieth century, being a major contributor to the Native American Renaissance in the late 1970s. Simon’s words and stories are infused with the presence and spirit of his first language, Acoma, and have been collected and published in over 25 collections of poetry and storytelling over the last 50 years. As a public speaker, author, and professor he has been recognized for countless awards and commendations. Ortiz is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University and resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Simon Ortiz at Amerind Museum with Linda Hogan and John Ware

Simon Ortiz at Amerind Museum with Linda Hogan and John Ware

Culture and The Universe

Simon J. Ortiz – Out There Somewhere

(University of Arizona Press, 2002)

 

Two nights ago
in the canyon darkness,
only the half-moon and stars,
only mere men.
Prayer, faith, love,
existence.
                       We are measured
by vastness beyond ourselves.
Dark is light.
Stone is rising.
I don’t know
if humankind understands
culture: the act
of being human
is not easy knowledge.
With painted wooden sticks
and feathers, we journey
into the canyon toward stone,
a massive presence
in midwinter.
We stop.
                       Lean into me.
                       The universe
sings in quiet meditation.
We are wordless:
                       I am in you.
Without knowing why
culture needs our knowledge,
we are one self in the canyon.
                       And the stone wall
I lean upon spins me
wordless and silent
to the reach of stars
and to the heavens within.
It’s not humankind after all
nor is it culture
that limits us.
It is the vastness
we do not enter.
It is the stars
we do not let own us.

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Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Photography: Melissa Nelson, Andrew Preble

Songs (in order of appearance):

Music by Colin Farish
Drums, flutes, and keyboards by Colin Farish
Voice, Taos drum, and jingles by Eddie Madril
Drums by Glen Velez
English horn by Paul McCandless
Cellos by Fogtown Cello Quartet
Female vocals by Teresa Nelson

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Hawaiian Cartography and 'Aina Sovereignty

Speakers: Renee Pualani Louis | Air Date: February 1, 2020 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speakers: Renee Pualani Louis | Air Date: February 1, 2020 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Hawaiian Cartography and ‘Aina Sovereignty

Cover of Kanaka Hawai’i Cartography: Hula, Navigation, and Oratory

Cover of Kanaka Hawai’i Cartography: Hula, Navigation, and Oratory

Rooting us further into the Indigenous cosmologies of the Pacific (Moana), podcast host Melissa Nelson catches up with Hawaiian Cartographer Renee Pualani Louis during a writers’ retreat at the Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes, California.

Renee shares her experience of being changed while writing her book Kanaka Hawaiʻi Cartography: Hula, Navigation, and Oratory (2017),  which explores Kanaka Hawai’i place-name and spatial knowledge systems. We are met with the breadth of Hawaiian, place-based language and knowledge of ‘Aina – the land-food matrix. Deep in intimate conversation, together we traverse stars and seasons, plants and mountains, and how to embody food sovereignty, self-determination, and nourish relationships of food and community.

“ . . . . you can see how the bones of our ancestors are really what’s feeding the generations to come, and again, this is how we become invested in the landscape.”
— Renee Pualani Louis

About Renee Pualani Louis

Renee Pualani Louis is a Hawaiian cartographer passionate about Hawaiian storied place names, spatial knowledge systems, and an advocate for the integration of indigenous knowledge systems into Western Geosciences.

A leader of her field, Louis is a graduate of The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, a Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers, the 2014 co-recipient of the American Association of Geographers Enhancing Diversity Award, and a member of CHIRP3 Working Group, whose goal is to develop new guidelines for building collaborations between Native and non-Native researchers working with Native communities.

Additional Resources

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional Photography: Melissa Nelson

Songs (in order of appearance):

“Plants of the Sea, Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai” by Del Medina, Linda Low, and Colin Farish

Kai Ora: Māori stories of life-giving foods across Moana

Speakers: Wikuki Kingi & Tania Wolfgramm | Air Date: January 18, 2020 | Run Time: 44mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speakers: Wikuki Kingi & Tania Wolfgramm | Air Date: January 18, 2020 | Run Time: 44mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Kai Ora: Māori stories of life-giving foods across Moana

Traditional umu (earth-oven) cooking, Tonga, 2019

Traditional umu (earth-oven) cooking, Tonga, 2019

Māori knowledge-holders Wikuki Kingi (Māori) and Tania Wolfgramm (Māori/Tongan) take us into the deep waters of Pacific Islander cosmologies, technologies, and foodways. 

On a sunny fall afternoon in the shadow of Mount Tamalpias, Seed Pod host Melissa Nelson and producer Sara Moncada sat down with Wikuki and Tania for a cup of tea to talk stories of land and foods across the Pacific. From the masterful Indigenous sciences of land and ocean, food and water (known to Māori peoples as kai wai), to the many foods of Aotearoa we explore the deep knowledge and nourishing relationships held across moana nui.

“Across the pacific we have the same word for our food, which is KAI. ‘KA’ is our word for energy, and ‘I’ infers our divinity. So we are actually talking about food as being divine energy. Kai means everything to us, without Kai we don’t exist. ”
— Tania Wolfgramm

Wikuki with a Māori Pukaea

About Wikuki Kingi

As a Tohunga Whakairo/Master Carver, with over 40 years’ experience, Wikuki has created many heritage taonga (treasures), including the intricately carved masterpiece Pou Kapūa, the tallest Māori/Pacific carving in the world. Wikuki is a founding trustee of Pou Kapua Creations Trust and the HAKAMANA Virtual Reality Collective; convenor and founding member of Planet Māori and the Te Ha Global Alliance. Wikuki has many relationships throughout New Zealand and the Pacific and continues to learn and build on his passion for Mana Whenua and Indigenous community development, cultural resilience and robust futures, believing stronger identities make stronger people and families.

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About Tania Wolfgramm

A creative producer, Native technologist, voyager, and storyteller, Tania hails from the Māori tribes of Aotearoa New Zealand and the beautiful island of Vava’u, of the Kingdom of Tonga. Following ancestral footsteps, she creates cultural taonga (treasures) in multiple media from stone and bronze to augmented and virtual reality. Tania is the founder of HAKAMANA Integrated System of Transformative Design, Development and Evaluation, which has been applied in technology, higher education, and healthcare. With her Global Reach Initiative and Development (GRID) Pacific Team, she captures incredible high-resolution imagery of Pacific peoples, places, cultures, and languages that (with their permission) is shared with the world.

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Photography: Mateo Hinojosa, Melissa Nelson

Songs (in order of appearance):

Station ID break music credit:  excerpt from composition for Ocean Trilogy Dance Production (Spector Dance) by Colin Farish. Piano by Colin Farish and Jasnam Daya Singh.

Te Aroha sung by Waikuki Kingi and Tania Wolfgramm

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 11, 2020 | Run Time: 42mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 11, 2020 | Run Time: 42mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

Redbird demonstrates ‘fired’ dogbane cordage.

Knowledge-keeper Redbird delivers a richly detailed message celebrating diversity and enlightening us with part of what he calls The Operating Manual for Taking Care of California, during The Cultural Conservancy’s annual Spring Planting Day.

Redbird teaches how Native Californians co-created the landscape using "mild disturbance," fire, seeding, and seasonal harvesting rotations to increase diversity and cultivate an ecosystem so vibrant and abundant that it was able to support huge populations of people and animals previously thought impossible without conventional agriculture.

““When the first settlers came to California, a lot of their comments were talking about how California looked like a park, a well-managed park…. and one of the big tools to make that happen was fire.””
— Redbird

About Redbird

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Edward Willie, a true Native of California—Pomo, Wintu, Paiute, and Wailaki—is a native ecologist and Traditional Ecological Knowledge keeper in the realms of traditional skills, permaculture, basket weaving, herbalism, and regalia-making. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Native Studies, Redbird continued a self-education fueled by his desire to uncover and rekindle the cultural earth-based knowledge of California Indians. Also an artist—drawing, painting, and sculpture—Redbird has been a core organizer of the annual Buckeye Gathering, a gathering in support of ancestral arts held in Northern California.

For more information about the traditional Dogbane site discussed in this episode, and The Cultural Conservancy’s role in helping to protect it, see this short article by TCC co-founder Claire Cummings from TCC’s 1998 Newsletter

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional photography: Leilani Clark

Songs (in order of appearance):

Final song credit: Grandmother Moon Song by Ayapish Slow, from Songscapes of Native America CD. Read about the details of this release here.

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 1

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 4, 2020 | Run Time: 36mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 4, 2020 | Run Time: 36mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 1

After a full day of harvesting, teachings, and community during The Cultural Conservancy’s annual Harvest Day, Melissa Nelson catches up with knowledge-keeper Redbird (Edward Willie) on the beautiful back acres of our partner, Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden in Novato, California. Redbird walks us gently through the changes to this land, the importance of certain plants and animals to the first peoples of this area, and the realities, responsibilities, and roles immigrants to California must take on to be in good relation with native California.

Redbird weaving with Tule reeds

Redbird weaving with Tule reeds

““When I come up to these spots, I just see everything that needs to be done. It’s just been mishandled and misused…One of the first things that comes to mind is:
this place needs a burn.””
— Redbird

Redbird and Melissa Nelson oversee willow coppicing at Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden.

About Redbird

Edward Willie, a true Native of California—Pomo, Wintu, Paiute, and Wailaki—is a native ecologist and Traditional Ecological Knowledge keeper in the realms of traditional skills, permaculture, basket weaving, herbalism, and regalia making. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Native Studies, Redbird continued a self-education fueled by his desire to uncover and rekindle the cultural earth-based knowledge of California Indians. Also an artist—drawing, painting, and sculpture—Redbird has been a core organizer of the annual Buckeye Gathering, a gathering in support of ancestral arts held in Northern California.

The Cultural Conservancy’s Media Director, Mateo Hinojosa, prepares to record Redbird

The Cultural Conservancy’s Media Director, Mateo Hinojosa, prepares to record Redbird

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional Photography: Melissa K. Nelson

Songs (in order of appearance):

  • Californian Indian Songs by Kanyon Sayer-Roods (Mutsun Ohlone/Chumash)

  • California bird songs by Tuvan Women Throat Singers

Food Is Medicine: Native Health and Cultural Foodscapes - Part 2

Speakers: Dr. Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater | Air Date: December 28, 2019 | Run Time: 28mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speakers: Dr. Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater | Air Date: December 28, 2019 | Run Time: 28mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Food Is Medicine: Native Health and Cultural Foodscapes - Part 2

Join us for Part 2 of Food Is Medicine with Native chefs Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater as we continue exploring their work on My Native American Power Plate, tribal-specific food cultures, decolonizing our diets, and handing off traditional food knowledge to the next generation. If you missed the first part listen to it here.

Walter and Lois, 2016

Walter and Lois, 2016

My Native American Power Plate - Diné Nation.

My Native American Power Plate - Diné Nation.

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-Producer/Photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor/Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional photography: Matteo Troncone

Songs (in order of appearance):

  • Opening song: “Life” composed by Colin Farish with Airto Moreira on seed pods and percussion, Peter Madlem on guitar, Eddie Madril on vocals and drum (Colin Farish sound design)

  • “Fry Bread Song” Walter Whitewater

  • “Justice Song” by Robert Woableza LaBatte (Dakota)

Food Is Medicine: Native Health and Cultural Foodscapes - Part 1

Speakers: Dr. Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater | Air Date: December 21, 2019 | Run Time: 39mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Speakers: Dr. Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater | Air Date: December 21, 2019 | Run Time: 39mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Food Is Medicine: Native Health and Cultural Foodscapes - Part 1

Walter and Lois, 2016

Walter and Lois, 2016

On a winter morning in Reno, Nevada, on the homelands of the Washoe nation, host Melissa Nelson has a conversation with Native chefs and health educators Dr. Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater. They all converged in this area for a “Food Sovereignty and Native Peoples Health” event at the University of Nevada, Reno, hosted by Dr. Deb Harry (Pyramid Lake Paiute), professor of Gender, Race, and Identity. 

For this first episode of season two, the Native Seed Pod dives into the topic of ‘Food is Medicine,’ learning from Lois and Walter about Native cuisine, healing through food, and the intercultural unity that can emerge through shared food traditions, or what they call “cultural foodscapes.”

Dr. Lois Ellen Frank

ABOUT LOIS

Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D. (Kiowa) is a Santa Fe, New Mexico based Native American Chef, a Native foods historian, culinary anthropologist, educator, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, photographer and organic gardener. She is the chef/owner of Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC a Native American catering company specializing in using Ancestral Native American ingredients all with a modern twist. Dr. Frank has spent over 25 years documenting and working with the foods and lifeways of Native Americans in the Southwest and other regions throughout the Americas. This lengthy immersion in Native American communities culminated in her book, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, featuring traditional and contemporary recipes, which won her the James Beard Award in the Americana category. She is also a Culinary Ambassador Diplomat with the U.S. State Department and Office of Cultural Affairs, where, with Chef Walter Whitewater (Diné), she has traveled to Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Russia, to teach about the history of Native American foodways. She also teaches locally at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Walter Whitewater

Walter Whitewater

ABOUT WALTER

Walter Whitewater (Diné/Navajo) began cooking professionally in 1992 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He is a chef at Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC a Native American Catering company, specializing in Native American Cuisine using ancestral foods with a modern twist. Chef Whitewater has appeared on numerous food TV Network cooking shows featuring foods of the Southwest.  Chef Whitewater worked on the James Beard Award winning cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations with Chef Lois Ellen Frank. He has traveled with Chef Frank, as part of the U.S. State Department and Consulate General’s Culinary Diplomacy Program to Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Russia, where the two chefs promoted indigenous foods of the Americas through the culinary arts.  Chef Whitewater was the first Native American chef to cook at the James Beard House in New York City. He won the James Lewis Award in 2008 from BCA Global for his work as a Native chef. He is very active on using Ancestral Native American foods for health and wellness in Native American communities.

Additional Resources 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-Producer/Photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor/Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional photography: Lottie Hedley

SONGS (in order of appearance):

  • Cedar flute John-Carlos Perea

  • Final song Walter Whitewater

A Feast of Food Stories with Abalone, Salmon and Wild Rice

Speakers: Jacquelyn Ross, Marlowe Sam, Jeannette Armstrong, and Winona LaDuke | Air Date: December 27, 2018 | Run Time: 46mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

Speakers: Jacquelyn Ross, Marlowe Sam, Jeannette Armstrong, and Winona LaDuke | Air Date: December 27, 2018 | Run Time: 46mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

A Feast of Food Stories with Abalone, Salmon and Wild Rice

Photo by Melissa K. Nelson

For this final episode of season one of the Native Seed Pod we featured the voices of four strong Native American food sovereignty leaders talking about critical food relatives: Jacquelyn Ross (Coast Miwok/Jenner Pomo) on Abalone, Marlowe Sam (Wenatchee) and Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan) on Salmon and Moose, and Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe) on Wild Rice. We are fortunate to work with these folks through many Indigenous networks and interviewed them about their traditional foods 15 years ago as part of an extensive project with Slow Food USA and others to record “Traditional Foodways of Native America,” documenting oral histories of Native food revitalization http://www.nativeland.org/oral-histories-native-food 

For this episode, we also brought in other special guests to talk about this project and these recordings—long-time TCC ally worker, Nicola Wagenberg, who was deeply involved with these oral histories 15 years ago, and local cultural artist and collaborator, Eddie Madril (Yaqui). Together with podcast co-producer Sara Moncada, the four of us have a conversation about the food stories shared in the four pre-recorded interviews. We explore the state of Native foods, including their traditional uses, changes over time, and the challenges to protect and access them today.

We hope you enjoy this multi-vocal conversation about the importance of Indigenous foods and foodways, from intertidal coastal gathering to moose hunting to wild rice gathering. This intertribal conversation demonstrates the diversity of Indigenous foodways and their critical cultural and nutritional significance to Native peoples, historically and for today.

Featuring pre-recorded interviews used with full permission.

Jacquelyn Ross

Jacquelyn Ross

Our Guests

Jacquelyn Ross is Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok. She comes from a long line of fisherpeople, hunters, plant helpers, and farmers. Tending Native plants, seed gathering, and communal food processing are annual activities. She is urgently concerned with ocean changes and the declining health and habitat of key food species. She works in university outreach and admissions and is also a writer, artist, and jewelry maker.

Marlowe Sam and Jeannette Armstrong

Marlowe Sam and Jeannette Armstrong

Marlowe Sam is descended from the Salish-speaking Wenatchi people from Eastern Washington State, Sam now resides in Penticton, BC, Canada but remains a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington. He is one of two indigenous students to earn a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, where he now teaches Indigenous Studies. Marlowe has been a tireless Indigenous rights activist for decades working nationally and internationally. For more information:

Jeannette Armstrong is one of the founders of the En’owkin Centre in Penticton, BC, Canada, the institute of higher learning for the Syilx Okanagan people dedicated to the recovery of Syilx language and protection of Syilx cultural identity. She currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Knowledge and Philosophy at University of British Columbia Okanagan and writes and speaks widely. Jeannette is a Language Keeper and an award-winning writer (fiction, poetry) and cultural activist. For more information:

Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke is an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy, and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice-presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party. Winona is an environmentalist, political activist, writer, and speaker. She is the founder of Honor the Earth and the White Earth Land Recovery Project and its  Native Harvest. For more information:

 

Other Special Guests

Eddie Madril (Pascua Yaqui) teaches American Indian studies at San Francisco State University, College of Marin, and is the Artistic Director for Sewam American Indian Dance. He is currently the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of World Arts West, producers of the acclaimed San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and previously served for 17 years on the Board of Directors for The Friendship House of American Indians, Inc. in San Francisco. He has worked nationally and internationally in Native American Arts and Education, has served on the advisory committee for Native programming at the de Young Museum of San Francisco, is a monthly host for KPFA Radio’s Bay Native Circle program and author of the new book The Dance of Caring.

Nícola Wagenberg is a clinical and cultural psychologist, artist, film producer and educator. Nícola has worked for over 20 years with diverse individuals, communities and organizations on personal and cultural transformation. Since 2005, Nícola has been working with TCC directing media projects, developing and implementing arts and cultural health programs and helping with the operations and development of the organization. She is the co-producer of “Traditional Foodways of Native America,” “The Salt Song Trail Living Documentary,” co-directed TCC’s Friendship House Urban Garden Project and is the director of the Native Youth Guardians of the Waters project.

Laurita Baldez was TCC's first Native Foodways Coordinator between 2002 and 2006. She was instrumental in helping with these Native food oral history recordings. We asked her to reflect on this work years later, now that she is a nurse practitioner and still a major advocate for Native health and wellness:

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“We recorded these stories about 15 years ago. It’s hard to believe how much has happened since that time. Most significant perhaps is that I went back to school to become a nurse, and later, a nurse practitioner. As happy as I am with the path I choose, I’ve always felt that something was missing. The question I continue to ask myself is this: What does it take to restore someone back to health, in every sense of the word? My education has provided me with some answers, but my understanding remains incomplete. When listening to these recordings again, however, I begin think to myself, ‘Perhaps what I’m looking for has been with me all along. Perhaps it is encoded in these stories that we recorded all those years ago.’ ”

And a special thanks to the original project that led to these historic recordings, the Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) project of Slow Food USA. Special thanks to Gary Paul Nabhan, Makale Faber, Laurita Baldez, and all the funders and sponsors of the gatherings we attended and recorded at as part of this work to highlight Traditional Foodways of Native America.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Assistants: Yvonne Martinez, Luke Reppe

Songs (in order of appearance):

  • “Interlude” by Colin Farish and Enrique Salmon

  • “Chasing Dreams” by Marcos Size

  • “Shadowland” by Colin Farish featuring SoVoSo

  • “Song for Justice” by Woableza LaBatte

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, here on this site