January 11, 2020

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

January 11, 2020

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

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

Interview: Mindful Foraging
May 2018, Pacific Sun
Interview: Lessons from a Fire Ecology
April 2018, Made Local Magazine
Weaving Earth Staff Bio
Buckeye Gathering
“Fire Forward: Building Ecosystem Resilience Together” - Controlled Burning information for Sonoma County in Audobon Canyon Ranch’s Conservation in Action

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.

Cultural Conservancy

January 4, 2020

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 1

Cultural Conservancy

January 4, 2020

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.

““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

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

Additional Resources

Interview: Mindful Foraging
May 2018, Pacific Sun
Interview: Lessons from a Fire Ecology
April 2018, Made Local Magazine
Weaving Earth Staff Bio
Buckeye Gathering
“Fire Forward: Building Ecosystem Resilience Together” - Controlled Burning information for Sonoma County in Audobon Canyon Ranch’s Conservation in Action

CREDITS

Songs (in order of appearance):

Californian Indian Songs by Kanyon Sayer-Roods (Mutsun Ohlone/Chumash)
California bird songs by Tuvan Women Throat Singers

Cultural Conservancy

December 27, 2018

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

Cultural Conservancy

December 27, 2018

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

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.

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 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:

University of British Columbia - https://ourstories.ok.ubc.ca/stories/marlowe-sam/

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:

University of British Columbia - https://ourstories.ok.ubc.ca/stories/jeannette-armstrong/
“Human Relationship as Land Ethic,” presentation at Bioneers Conference - https://youtu.be/qwNoX3MNisE
“Grandmother Jeannette Armstrong: Syilx Okanagan Author, Educator, Artist & Activist” - https://youtu.be/BYEqF_enfuw

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:

“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

Cultural Conservancy

November 9, 2018

Nourishing the Spirit in Native California

Cultural Conservancy

November 9, 2018

Nourishing the Spirit in Native California

Dive deep into agroecology and the Native plant wisdom of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Keeper and medical herbalist Sage LaPena (Nomtipom Wintu) in this autumn new moon episode. This episode is unique in that it is based on the public lecture and hands-on teachings of Sage LaPena earlier this year during The Cultural Conservancy’s (TCC) Spring Planting Gathering at TCC’s Ethnobotany garden at the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden at the College of Marin in Novato, California.

We learn about the sacred Oak and Peppernut trees of the North Coast landscape along with many of the cultural foods, medicines and craft plants native to the woodlands, grasslands, and riparian ecosystems of Coast Miwok territory. Sage eloquently shares ethnobotanical knowledge about trees, shrubs, grasses, and underground rooted plant parts such as mahogany, manzanita, elderberry, soap root, and Calechortus, among others. Sage reveals the life cycles and unique characteristics of these beautiful Native plant relatives, along with the high-TEK tools used to gather with, such as digging sticks and baskets. Additionally, we learn about traditional fire management and cultural burning and California Indian tribes historical and contemporary use of fire as a land-care practice.

Ben Shleffer—who teaches about soaproot and manzanita in this episode—weaving tule with his son.

Sage’s teachings demonstrate the power of applied Indigenous environmental education, the importance of Native peoples as agroecologists and biocultural restorationists, and the spiritual ecology of relationships between human, plant, and planetary health.

Additional Resources

Interview: Oneness With That Place: A Chat With Native Herbalist Sage LaPena, December 6, 2016, KCET
Video: Sage LaPena on Traditional Native American Herbalism in KCET’s Tending the Wild.

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Assistants: Yvonne Martinez
Additional photography: Loren Risley

Cultural Conservancy

October 12, 2018

#CafeOhlone: Language, Food, Community

Cultural Conservancy

October 12, 2018

#CafeOhlone: Language, Food, Community

20171118_IVOFGharvest-VinceMedina_mfh_DSC05888_edit.jpg

For this episode we sit down with California Native chefs and educators Vincent Medina (Muwekma Ohlone) and Louis Trevino (Rumsen Ohlone), to talk about their journey revitalizing Ohlone languages and foods in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area community and across the globe. Tucked into the quiet corner of a busy Berkeley bookstore we joined Vince and Louis at the site of their new “permanent pop-up” restaurant, Café Ohlone.

This unique Native California Indian food gathering place is the first of its kind as it focuses on the traditional Ohlone foods of the East Bay and creates a safe space for community to gather and share food and stories. From the delicious menu featuring seasonal foods like acorn bread and quail eggs to their recent work sharing these foods at the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto gathering in Turin, Italy, they talk about reconnecting with the values, respect and love their ancestors shared with the land, plants and foods of their traditional homelands.

Additional Resources

mak-’amham / Café Ohlone - contemporary Ohlone cuisine by Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino.
Article, “Coming Home – Revitalizing Native California Culture in the East Bay,” Flora Magazine, California Native Plant Society, October 8, 2018.
Article “Behind the Scenes With the Creators of the First Ohlone Food Café,” Bay Nature Magazine, Fall 2018.
Article “Acorns in Italy: Strengthening Our Traditional Foods Thousands of Miles Away,” News from Native California, Fall 2016.

Café Ohlone
2430 Bancroft Way, xučyun (Berkeley, California)
Open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
CafeOhlone.com
Twitter: @makamham
Instagram: makamham
Hashtag: #cafeohlone

CREDITS

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