Tending Nature

Episode 1

Indigenous Land Stewardship

Sun, Nov 14, 2021

We meet basket weaver Linda Yamane (Ohlone) who is reviving knowledge from her tribe, weaving baskets which involves, language (singing), spirit, tending and gathering plants. We meet the Tolowa and Pit River tribes who are using traditional knowledge to teach their youth language and traditional hunting methods for healthier diets, mussel gathering with Tolowa and hunting deer with Pit River. Traditional practices, like the Flower Dance bring back ceremony around a young girl's first menstruation and we see the community of women coming together to harvest and make maple bark skirts. We hear from the Sweat Hogs that a weekly sweat process helps support being clean and sober. Both rituals shows the importance of reviving ceremony in daily life. Yurok River restoration shows the symbiotic relationship of nature and humans. River is teacher in itself. "If salmon die, we die." The artistry of Leah Mata shows how she is rethinking regalia in a time when traditional resources are scarce. Resources are all always changing and Native peoples have always had to adapt and change. Native peoples and artists are on the frontlines of seeing how climate change affects ability to access materials..."we know what places are like over thousands of years" Mak-'amham is revitalizing traditional foods in Oakland and bringing awareness of the land to urban environment.