“If you want to talk about the Indigenous Food Warrior, that's what we all are.  We're here to protect. We're here to give. We're here to heal.” - Chef Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo) 

How Indigenous people show up in the kitchen is how they will show up for community, so the responsibility and care in creating food for others is taken very seriously, from the recipes created to the sourcing of ingredients. 

Our latest Spotlight comes from the amazing team behind The Native Seed Pod. In this episode, we get to hear a fast-moving conversation between guest host Sara Moncada (Yaqui) with Indigenous chef Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo), who is the owner of Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland, California. Crystal received the Indigenous Artist Activist Award and has been inducted into the Native American Almanac for being one of the first Native American women to own a catering business. In 2016, she was the first Native American Chef to compete in The Food Network’s show, Chopped, and in 2022, she was a finalist for a prestigious James Beard Award in the category of “Emerging Chef.” Crystal and Sara talk about Native foods, how they carry their shared work of educating the next generation on preserving Indigenous food systems, and what it means to be an Indigenous Food Warrior. In addition to hosting this episode of The Native Seed Pod, Sara is also the current CEO of The Cultural Conservancy, which is the home of The Native Seed Pod, as well as a grantee of Nia Tero. 

The Native Seed Pod has just started their fourth season, so catch up on their episodes on their website or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Special thanks to the vibrant team behind The Native Seed Pod: Mateo Hinojosa, Melissa K. Nelson, Sara Moncada, Raven K. Marshall, and more. 

Learn more:  

• Learn more about and listen to more episodes of The Native Seed Pod 
• Learn more about Crystal Wahpepah and Wahpepah’s Kitchen 
• Learn more about The Cultural Conservancy, home to The Native Seed Pod 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

“I'm sacred, the next person is sacred, and all life is sacred. That connection we have to each other and to all forms of life is sacred and must be cherished. In the same way, the relationship we have with land and the relationship the land has with us should be honored.” - Agaiotupu Viena (Samoan) 

Colonization has disrupted the identities of queer Indigenous Peoples, and because of this, they practice deep forms of care, often making chosen families as a built space of refuge. In Samoa, one way to describe a refuge is “paolo,” which means “to give shade” or “protect.” Care and shade are inherently a part of queer and trans Pacific Islander identity.  

This summer, Seedcast producer Ha’aheo Auwae Dekker (Kanaka Maoli) was a guest at UTOPIA Washingtonʻs Hoʻolauleʻa, a community event dedicated to celebrating queer and trans Pacific Islanders, or QTPIs. In this episode, they share the sounds and music from the event along with wisdom from fellow QTPIs Ara Sifainu’ululei “Ara-Lei” Mahealani Yandall and Agaiotupu Viena. Both share about their experiences as fa'afafine, a gender identity embedded in the lands of Samoa, as well as the reason UTOPIA was created, and the unique role they play in caring for the wider Pasifika community and each other. 

Special thanks to Ara-Lei, Agaiotupu, and UTOPIA Washington for welcoming Seedcast into their Hoʻolauleʻa earlier this year and for sharing their time, stories, and energy with us. Thanks also to our Nia Tero colleagues Michael Painter, Nichlas Emmons, and Anne Quidez for their feedback on this episode. 

Host: Jessica Ramirez. Producer and Audio Mix: Ha’aheo Auwae-Dekker. Story Editor: Jenny Asarnow. 

Resources: 

• UTOPIA Washington 
• Enjoy the full video recording of the 2023 Hoʻolauleʻa showcased in this episode of Seedcast
• Follow UTOPIA Washington on Instagram  
• Learn more about UTOPIA in this South Seattle Emerald piece 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

For this episode of Seedcast, let’s meet in the Mojave Desert in a spot where we can gaze upon Mamápukaiv, also known as the Old Woman Mountains. We’re surrounded by boulders, mesquite, deer, bighorn sheep, and even eagles. The air smells of creosote, and when it rains, you can smell tar. Water is an extremely precious resource here, and the survival of every living thing - humans, animals, and plants - depends on it.  

Almost thirty years ago, a group of Native Peoples came together to form the Native American Land Conservancy to protect not only the land their peoples are from but to revitalize their cultural wellbeing.  

“With the land comes a lot of knowledge. And this knowledge is inside the rocks, it's inside the water, it's inside the plants,” explains Sean Milanovich, a member of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Southern California, a PhD, and the Vice President of Native American Land Conservancy. 

Right now, Native American Land Conservancy is fighting a big corporation threatening their lands, their water, and their traditional ways of life. In this episode, Sean shares about Native American Land Conservancy's work to buy back land, to protect the water, and to engage people like you to help them in their work to heal our shared planet through interviews with Sean and audio from the Wayfinders Circle film about Native American Land Conservancy, “Tuhaymani'chi Pal Waniqa (The Water Flows Always)", directed by Nils Cowan and Gina Milanovich (Cahuilla, Cupeño.) 

We’re grateful for the collaboration on this story with Sean Milanovich and Native American Land Conservancy, which is part of the Wayfinders Circle. Wayfinders Circle is a global network of Indigenous Peoples from around the world who work to strengthen self-determination in managing their lands and territories and maintain the cultural and spiritual continuity through intergenerational transmissions. It is a joint effort convened by the Pawanka Fund, World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners, and Nia Tero. 

Special thanks also to Nia Tero Wayfinders Circle collaborators Mariana López, Marianna Olinger, Michael Painter, and David Rothschild. 

Host: and Producer: Jessica Ramirez. Story Editor: Nils Cowan. Audio Mix: Jenny Asarnow.  

More Wayfinders Circle Collaborations:

• The Boat of Dreams: How the Achuar Embraced Solar Power 
• Meet the Gabbra People of East Africa Pt 1 
• The Omen Bird Still Sings in Sungai Utik
• The Sacred Essence of Blackfoot Culture

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

“Our language is a land acknowledgment, you know, when we use that language, it automatically imbues our world with life force. We're not going to cut down that tree. And if we do, we're going to offer something, you know, because it's a being just like us.” ~Jeremy Dutcher, Member of the Wolastoqiyik People of the Neqotkuk 

Today we’re listening to music that is an act of language revitalization and a crafted response to the crises we collectively face.  

Recently, Nia Tero brought musician and storyteller Jeremy Dutcher together with a group of young Indigenous creators and culture bearers to talk about the intersections of artistic practice and Indigenous sovereignty. During this gathering, Jeremy performed on “Live on KEXP and shared a powerful conversation with musician and long-time KEXP DJ Gabriel Teodros.  

Jeremy Dutcher is a member of the Wolastoqiyik People of the Neqotkuk (formerly known as Tobique First Nation) in eastern Canada. Jeremy is a Two-Spirit song carrier, a classically trained musician and composer, an activist, and ethnomusicologist who writes and sings music in their Native language as an act of language preservation and Indigenous sovereignty. In this episode, Jeremy shares songs from their first album, “Sakomawit”, as well as their new album “Motewolonuwok ᒣᑏᐧᐁᓓᓄᐧᐁᒃ”, which came out October 6, 2023. 

We greatly appreciate this unique collaboration with our long-time friends at KEXP. This episode was hosted and produced by Jessica Ramirez, with story editing and audio mix by Jenny Asarnow. 

More information: 

• Learn more about Jeremy and find their music here. 
• Keep up with Jeremy’s album release and current tour dates by following them on Instagram. 
• Get to know KEXP! Listen to their live content via their website and catch up with a rich treasure trove of past episodes of Live on KEXP here. 
• Get to know Gabiel Teodros on Instagram, and follow his post-KEXP journey here. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

• Elder and Language Keeper Maggie Paul 
• Buffy St. Marie 
• Kehkimin Wolastoqey language immersion school  
• 4th World Media Lab 
• Seattle International Film Festival 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

[In Passamaquoddy] “And all of a sudden the sun begins to rise until everyone could see the sun. And the sun felt so nice and was very bright. The Knowledge Keeper says, ‘The People of the First Light know that the sun loves us.’” ~ Roger Paul, Passamaquoddy Language Keeper and Storyteller 

In Seedcast's second Sonic Journey, join the circle as we bear witness to a Wabanaki ceremony singing up the sun. We’ll listen to spoken words, music, and the ocean breeze that fills the soundscape of the short film Weckuwapok (The Approaching Dawn). We will have a front seat to a story by Passamaquoddy Language Keeper and Storyteller Roger Paul, warm words from filmmaker Chris Newell, a special contribution from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (the first Native cabinet secretary in the United States), and a collaboration of music and songs from Chris, Yo-Yo Ma, and Lauren Stevens. 

This Sonic Journey is dedicated to Wayne Newell, father to Chris Newell and now an ancestor whose values carry through his son, spirit, and the people of the light.  

We send much gratitude to the collective of filmmakers who created this film as part of the first season of the Emmy-winning Reciprocity Project, which is a partnership between Nia Tero and Upstander Project, in association with REI Co-op Studios. 

If you enjoy this, listen to another Sonic Journey here. 

Host: Jessica Ramirez. Producer and Editor: Stina Hamlin. Story Editor & Audio Mix: Jenny Asarnow.  

Relevant Links: 

• Watch the film Weckuwapok on the Reciprocity Project website. 
• Learn more about Yo-Yo Ma’s nonprofit Our Common Nature .
• Learn more about Reciprocity Project and partners Nia Tero, Upstander Project, and REI Co-op Studios . 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

Imagine learning a language that is spoken by only a few hundred people—an Indigenous language that belongs to a people and a land that have been in relationship with each other for countless generations. This is the heart of our episode about Gwich’in language revitalization in the Boreal. 

Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets'aii Gwich'in) is an Indigenous TV and film producer on a patient journey of learning, reclaiming, and revitalizing Gwich’in. The language connects her to the land and to the people who came before her. “Our generation is really making the effort to use the language, and express ourselves in the language, and it's really powerful,” she explains. 
 
Princess and her dear friend Alishia Carlson (also Neets'aii Gwich'in) talk with language journalist Kavita Pillay about the struggles of learning Gwich’in, and the joy with which they approach the effort, especially in relation to the language learning of children. Princess is inspiring a whole new generation to be curious about Indigenous languages through her work as a screenwriter on the Peabody award-winning PBS Kids series Molly of Denali. Also in this episode: a celebration of caribou. 

Content note: The episode touches on the violence of residential schools on Turtle Island and how they contributed to today’s language crisis. 

Learn more: 

• Dinjii Vadzaih Dhidlit: The Man Who Became a Caribou (bilingual book) 
• "Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of our Ancestors)" (short film by Princess and Alishia, part of Reciprocity Project) 
• Seedcast Sonic Journey episode featuring “Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of our Ancestors)” 
• Molly of Denali (PBS) 
• Subtitle, a podcast co-hosted by Kavita Pillay and Patrick Cox 

This episode won a 2022 Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA, formerly Native American Journalists Association) award for Best Radio/Podcast Coverage of Native America, Second Place. 

Host: Jessica Ramirez. Producer: Kavita Pillay. Story Editor: Jenny Asarnow. Special thanks to Michelle Hurtubise and Patrick Cox. 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

“I’ll always remember my grandfather’s stories... about what it means to be a Gwich'in person. We want our children to live like our Ancestors.” - Alisha Carlson, translation from Gwich’in 

We hope you’re ready for something different. In this episode of Seedcast, we’re going on a Sonic Journey, immersing ourselves in the words and sounds from a story told entirely in the Gwich’in language. “Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of Our Ancestors)” is a short film created by friends Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Alisha Carlson, who are working to revitalize the Gwich’in language and keep the lessons of their elders and ancestors alive in the Boreal. In this episode, hear the sounds of snowshoes crunching on ice, crackling fires, and lessons passed down from Alisha’s grandfather to her and her children. 

We send much gratitude to both Princess and Alisha for sharing their beautiful film. We also extend thanks to Alisha’s grandfather, Chief Reverend Trimble Gilbert, and the other community members whose voices we hear in this episode. Thanks also to our sibling initiative, the Emmy-winning Reciprocity Project, which is a partnership between Nia Tero and Upstander Project, in association with REI Co-op Studios.

And if you enjoy this episode, listen to our next Sonic Journey episode here.

Host: Jessica Ramirez. Producer and Editor: Stina Hamlin. Story Editor: Jenny Asarnow. Audio Mix: Ha’aheo Auwae-Dekker. 

More:

• Watch the film Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of our Ancestors).
• Learn more about Reciprocity Project and partners Nia Tero, Upstander Project, and REI. 
• Listen to this Season One episode about Gwich'in language revitalization, featuring Princess and Alishia, produced by Kavita Pillay.

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

“It’s a radical act of solidarity in itself to take care of the Earth that we are all living on. We can’t be here without the nurturing that we get from the Earth.” ~Korina Emmerich 

Indigenous cultures have contributed to some of the most exquisite and incredible fashion designs that people wear today, and it’s no surprise that Indigenous fashion designers are thinking about their impact and how it affects climate change.  

Our latest Spotlight comes from the amazing team behind The Solidarity Index, and they’re sharing their conversation with Indigenous fashion designer and community builder Korina Emmerich (Puyallup). Most notably her work has been featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the pages of Vogue and Elle, and been worn by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and actor Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs). Korina is the founder of the slow fashion brand EMME Studio, and co-founder of Relative Arts, a community space that celebrating sustainable and subversive art and fashion in New York. Emmerich speaks with The Solidarity Index host Zahyr Lauren, aka The Artist L. Haz, about solidarity and sustainability. 

Special thanks to Stina Hamlin for your beautiful work and your generous introduction to The Solidarity Index team. And big hugs to everyone behind The Solidarity Index: Zahyr Lauren aka The Artist L. Haz, Jen Bell, Shalva Wise, and Stina Hamlin. 

Learn more:  

• The Solidarity Index  
• Korina Emmerich's EMME Studio and Relative Arts NYC 

Also mentioned in this podcast: 

• Seattle Indian Health Board (Estelle Lucero, Abigail Echohawk) 
• Finding Tamika (Erika Alexander) 
• Dr. Adrienne Keene 

Indigenous Companies: 

• Eighth Generation  
• Urban Native Era 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

Sometimes it’s important to go back to your roots. 

Seedcast is proud to re-release our third episode ever, an interview with filmmaker Brit Hensel (Cherokee Nation). When first released in December of 2020, our team was just beginning to learn how to produce a podcast. We still love the rawness and honesty of this conversation between Brit and host Jessica Ramirez. 

In this episode, Brit talks about the meaning of reciprocity, cultural preservation by way of language, how the ways in which we treat animals reflect how we treat each other, and the importance of narrative sovereignty. When we made this, we already knew that Brit was a bright star. Since the original release of this episode, Brit’s film ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught), which she created with Keli Gonzales (Cherokee Nation), was a selection of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival – which made Brit the first ever female Cherokee director to have a film featured at Sundance – and earned an IDA Award nomination for best short film. Brit has also worked on all three seasons of the FX series Reservation Dogs. We cannot wait to hear what Brit is going to do next.  

ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught) is part of the first season of Reciprocity Project, a partnership between Nia Tero and Upstander Project, in association with REI Co-op Studios. 

Host: Jessica Ramirez. Producers: Jessica Ramirez, Felipe Contreras, Tracy Rector 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

“Pregnancy is a natural time to think about, ‘what is it that I'm going to pass down?’ For most of us, that is culture... our spirituality, our language, our food, and our connection to land.”    

Parenting is a cultural practice that has the power to heal historical trauma, according to Camie J. Goldhammer (mixed race heritage, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate). She is a birth worker and lactation consultant who is devoted to supporting Indigenous parents - both living on their homelands and in the diaspora. She describes her own spiritual experience of healing her ancestors through her first birthing experience, and the essential role non-parents play in the lives of new parents and families. Camie trains Indigenous doulas and lactation consultants across Turtle Island and is the founding executive director of Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services, an Indigenous agency that serves Indigenous babies and their families.       

Host and Producer: Jessica Ramirez. Story Editor: Julie Keck. Audio Mix: Ha’aheo Auwae-Dekker. 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.