Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 11, 2020 | Run Time: 42mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 2

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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.

Rekindling Native California Ecologies - Part 1

Speaker: Redbird (Edward Willie) | Air Date: January 4, 2020 | Run Time: 36mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2

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.

Redbird weaving with Tule reeds

““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

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Redbird and Melissa Nelson oversee willow coppicing at Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden.

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

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: Melissa K. Nelson

Songs (in order of appearance):

• Californian Indian Songs by Kanyon Sayer-Roods (Mutsun Ohlone/Chumash)

• California bird songs by Tuvan Women Throat Singers

Nourishing the Spirit in Native California

Speaker: Sage LaPena | Air Date: November 9, 2018 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

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.

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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

#CafeOhlone: Language, Food, Community

Speaker: Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino | Air Date: October 12, 2018 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 1

#CafeOhlone: Language, Food, Community

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.

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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