The Native Seed Pod

This sixth episode of Season Four with Frank K. Lake and Lydia Jennings centers around Indigenous ecologies and their practical application. Frank Lake discusses the complex relationship between science, research, and resource management, and the policy changes needed to apply TEK in ethical ways. Lydia Jennings dives deeper into the need to decolonize ecology and apply Indigenous rights and ethics for data access and governance.

We are honored to host this special podcast season that invites dialogue from many perspectives— elders, cultural practitioners, and Indigenous scholars—so we might better understand each other and explore opportunities to weave these learnings together. This podcast is a production of The Cultural Conservancy’s Native Seed Pod.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. These conversations delve into the ethics of science, human-nature connection, regenerative design, and our relationship to all other kin on this planet.

The speakers discuss how they are working 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. Ultimately, we encourage everyone to explore ethical space and learn about Indigenous policies to create more reciprocal collaborations between Indigenous and Western sciences. We encourage everyone to join the TEK Section movement in ESA and support these strategies throughout the world.

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 start 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.

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.

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

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.