Native Science

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.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, here on this site