responsibility

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 2

 

Speaker: Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson | Air Date: November 30, 2023 | Run Time: 60 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 2

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.

Series Synopsis

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.

Quiet your cleverness. Come at this from a place of curiosity—that’s a guiding practice for any successful biomimic—which includes setting ego aside, setting aside this notion that you have all the answers.
— Dayna Baumeister

About Dr. Dayna Baumeister

Dr. Dayna Baumeister is Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and Co-director of the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. With a devotion to applied natural history and a passion for sharing the genius of nature, Dayna has worked in the field of biomimicry with business partner Janine Benyus since 1998, traveling the world as a biomimicry thought-leader, business consultant, and professor. Together they founded the Biomimicry Guild consulting practice, The Biomimicry Institute 501c3, and in 2010, Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise that helps clients find innovation inspired by nature and offers the highest level of biomimicry training to professionals worldwide. She also co-founded the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University, offering the first entire programs in biomimicry, including a master's of science and an undergraduate certificate.

Dayna’s foundational work has been critical to the biomimicry movement, establishing it as a fresh and innovative practice and a philosophy to meet the world’s sustainability challenges. Dayna serves as the director of ASU’s Biomimicry Center graduate programs, and a Professor of Practice in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems at ASU. She also is a regular guest instructor for the Harvard Executive Education in Sustainability Leadership. Dayna is the senior editor of Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2014), where she compiled more than a decade’s worth of practical biomimicry experience into one comprehensive biomimicry handbook. She serves on the Board of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, and is also a Dana Meadows Fellow of the Sustainability Institute.

About Melissa Nelson

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. is an award-winning ecologist, writer, media-maker, and Indigenous scholar-activist. For over 30 years she has been dedicated to Indigenous rights and revitalization and the protection of Native lands and food sovereignty. Melissa is a professor of Indigenous Sustainability at Arizona State University and professor emerita of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. She is board chair of The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous rights organization, which she directed as a founding executive director and CEO from 1993 - 2021. Melissa is the co-producer and photographer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together, and has co-produced several other documentary short films with The Cultural Conservancy, the Native American Academy, and Philomath Films. She was a writer and host for the PBS website and documentary film, Circle of Stories, and consultant on the award-winning IMAX film, Into American’s Wild. She has co-produced several audio recordings, including Songscapes of Native America, Profiles of Native American Food Revitalization (with Slow Food USA), Red Earth Rising (with Canyon Records) and Sounds of Belonging (with ASU). In 2018 she co-founded the Native Seed Pod podcast and serves as its primary host and writer. Melissa has also edited and contributed to three anthologies focused on Indigenous ecological knowledges. She is Anishinaabe/Cree/Métis/Norwegian, a proud member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians.

About Sara El-Sayed

Sara El-Sayed has a joint position as the Co-Director of the Biomimicry Center and Assistant Research Professor at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. El-Sayed has a doctorate in food system sustainability, specifically on regenerative food practices in arid regions, and a master's in Biomimicry, both from ASU. She also has a Biomimicry Professional Certificate from Biomimicry 3.8. She held a postdoctoral position at the School for Future Innovation and Society, in Public Interest Technology. Her research interests include exploring ways to have more regenerative and net-positive local food systems, and she is currently involved in the local Arizona food space. Previously she worked as a researcher in Biomimicry and microbial geographies. She is the co-founder of several enterprises in Egypt. Nawaya is a social enterprise working as a catalyst to transition small-scale farmer communities into more sustainable ones through education and research. Dayma is an LLC responsible for outdoor Environmental Education, teaching young adults about Biomimicry and local Egyptian communities. Clayola is an LLC producing low-tech irrigation systems. She is an avid traveler, nature lover, and enjoys tasting foods, cooking and interacting with people through food experiences. Sara is on the board of Slow Food, an international movement that started in Italy aiming to safeguard local food cultures and traditions and does so by promoting Good, Clean, and Fair food for all. Sara has also worked on other podcasts including a series on regenerative food systems.

 
Melissa K Nelson rows a traditional California Native tule reed boat

Melissa K Nelson rows a traditional California Native tule reed boat


 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson, Sara El-Sayed, Lily Urmann
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada
Co-producer: Raven Marshall
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Vocals by Eddie Madril
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Theme song: “Life’ By Colin Farish
From the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”
Featuring:
piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Airto Moreira
guitar: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

Featuring:
piano, guitar, percussion, synths, samples, and flutes: Colin Farish
voice: Capomo
piano: Jasnam Daya Singh
cello quartet: Fog Town Four
violin: Jeremy Cohen
guitar: Christen Konopka
flute & percussion: Jhaffur Kahn
beat-boxing, drums: Cameron Campbell

Featuring:
voice: Ava Nichol Francis
shakers: Glen Velez

 
 


Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 1

 

Speaker: Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson | Air Date: November 7, 2023 | Run Time: 57 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

Knowledge Symbiosis with Dayna Baumeister and Melissa K Nelson Part 1

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.

Series Synopsis

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

One of the biggest flaws of industrialized western science is its inability to tell stories, its inability to take that information and tell in it a way that is compelling–it gets written in a journal and then it’s like there’s a big brick wall...

It is in the storytelling, and the lack thereof, that becomes the undertone for how we behave in the world... If we change the story, we change everything.
— Dayna Baumeister

About Dr. Dayna Baumeister

Dr. Dayna Baumeister is Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and Co-director of the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. With a devotion to applied natural history and a passion for sharing the genius of nature, Dayna has worked in the field of biomimicry with business partner Janine Benyus since 1998, traveling the world as a biomimicry thought-leader, business consultant, and professor. Together they founded the Biomimicry Guild consulting practice, The Biomimicry Institute 501c3, and in 2010, Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise that helps clients find innovation inspired by nature and offers the highest level of biomimicry training to professionals worldwide. She also co-founded the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University, offering the first entire programs in biomimicry, including a master's of science and an undergraduate certificate.

Dayna’s foundational work has been critical to the biomimicry movement, establishing it as a fresh and innovative practice and a philosophy to meet the world’s sustainability challenges. Dayna serves as the director of ASU’s Biomimicry Center graduate programs, and a Professor of Practice in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems at ASU. She also is a regular guest instructor for the Harvard Executive Education in Sustainability Leadership. Dayna is the senior editor of Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2014), where she compiled more than a decade’s worth of practical biomimicry experience into one comprehensive biomimicry handbook. She serves on the Board of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, and is also a Dana Meadows Fellow of the Sustainability Institute.

About Melissa Nelson

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. is an award-winning ecologist, writer, media-maker, and Indigenous scholar-activist. For over 30 years she has been dedicated to Indigenous rights and revitalization and the protection of Native lands and food sovereignty. Melissa is a professor of Indigenous Sustainability at Arizona State University and professor emerita of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. She is board chair of The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous rights organization, which she directed as a founding executive director and CEO from 1993 - 2021. Melissa is the co-producer and photographer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together, and has co-produced several other documentary short films with The Cultural Conservancy, the Native American Academy, and Philomath Films. She was a writer and host for the PBS website and documentary film, Circle of Stories, and consultant on the award-winning IMAX film, Into American’s Wild. She has co-produced several audio recordings, including Songscapes of Native America, Profiles of Native American Food Revitalization (with Slow Food USA), Red Earth Rising (with Canyon Records) and Sounds of Belonging (with ASU). In 2018 she co-founded the Native Seed Pod podcast and serves as its primary host and writer. Melissa has also edited and contributed to three anthologies focused on Indigenous ecological knowledges. She is Anishinaabe/Cree/Métis/Norwegian, a proud member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians.

About Sara El-Sayed

Sara El-Sayed has a joint position as the Co-Director of the Biomimicry Center and Assistant Research Professor at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. El-Sayed has a doctorate in food system sustainability, specifically on regenerative food practices in arid regions, and a master's in Biomimicry, both from ASU. She also has a Biomimicry Professional Certificate from Biomimicry 3.8. She held a postdoctoral position at the School for Future Innovation and Society, in Public Interest Technology. Her research interests include exploring ways to have more regenerative and net-positive local food systems, and she is currently involved in the local Arizona food space. Previously she worked as a researcher in Biomimicry and microbial geographies. She is the co-founder of several enterprises in Egypt. Nawaya is a social enterprise working as a catalyst to transition small-scale farmer communities into more sustainable ones through education and research. Dayma is an LLC responsible for outdoor Environmental Education, teaching young adults about Biomimicry and local Egyptian communities. Clayola is an LLC producing low-tech irrigation systems. She is an avid traveler, nature lover, and enjoys tasting foods, cooking and interacting with people through food experiences. Sara is on the board of Slow Food, an international movement that started in Italy aiming to safeguard local food cultures and traditions and does so by promoting Good, Clean, and Fair food for all. Sara has also worked on other podcasts including a series on regenerative food systems.

About Lily Urmann

Lily Urmann – a biomimic, educator, and nature communicator – is a graduate of the Biomimicry Master’s program at Arizona State University, and received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies at The University of California, Santa Cruz. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on "Integrating Biomimicry Into Higher Education", which kickstarted her journey in the biomimicry and education space. Lily was the Program Coordinator at the ASU Biomimicry Center, where she helped to design and launch one of the world's first undergraduate certificates in biomimicry. During her time in Arizona, she guest lectured across campus, and has led community workshops at the Natural History Institute, the Desert Botanical Garden, and the Highland Center for Natural History. Lily is currently a Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute where she teaches a course she created, titled "Biology for Biomimicry',' and runs after-school nature connection programs for The Kiva Center at Denver elementary schools. She is the creator and host of Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast. Lily’s ultimate passion lies at the intersection of biomimicry, place-based experiential education, and engaging change-agents in this exciting field.


 

Dayna Baumeister teaching students in the field

 


CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson, Sara El-Sayed, Lily Urmann
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Raven Marshall, Sara Moncada
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Theme song: “Life’ By Colin Farish
From the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”
Featuring:
piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Airto Moreira
guitar: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

Featuring:
piano, guitar, percussion, synths, samples, and flutes: Colin Farish
voice: Capomo
piano: Jasnam Daya Singh
cello quartet: Fog Town Four
violin: Jeremy Cohen
guitar: Christen Konopka
flute & percussion: Jhaffur Kahn
beat-boxing, drums: Cameron Campbell

 
 

 

This episode is being co-broadcast with Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast with Lily Urmann

TEK Warriors use ethical space to indigenize ecology

 

Speaker: James Rattling Leaf and Gwen Bridge | Air Date: July 27, 2023 | Run Time: 51 mins | Season 4
Cover art by John Jairo Valencia

 

TEK Warriors use ethical space to indigenize ecology

Join Lakota leader James Rattling Leaf, a global Indigenous consultant, and Gwen Bridge, a Cree First Nations environmental leader, together with Native ecologist and host Melissa Nelson, in a conversation about the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). In this episode, we learn about their work 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. From the ethical space framework and Canadian policies supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in land management regimes, such as prescribed fire, to discussing tribally specific climate strategies during these extreme times, Gwen, James, and Melissa provide a concrete case study of Indigenous ecologists ethically and respectfully including TEK in a major ecological society of Western trained scientists and promoting Native ways of knowing through intergenerational Indigenous leadership. Ultimately, we encourage everyone to explore ethical space and learn about Indigenous policies to create more reciprocal collaborations between Indigenous and Western sciences. Join the TEK Section movement in ESA and support these strategies throughout the world.

Ethical space is a wonderful framework for providing the container, if you will, the space to be able to deeply explore the assumptions we’re bringing into the conversations we’re having between different worldviews. So the opportunity within ethical space is to, as my mentor in the space, Reg Crowshoe says, is to, deeply understand what needs to be understood from the other’s perspective and then create something new from that understanding.

Part of this work is on that individual commitment level to allow yourself to be transformed through your understanding, and then the creativity to be able to create something new.
— Gwen Bridge
 

About James Rattling Leaf, Sr.

James Rattling Leaf is a global Indigenous Consultant and Principal of the Wolakota Lab, LLC who serves as a guide and inspiration to organizations to work more effectively with Indigenous Peoples for a more equitable world. He has over 25 years’ working with the US federal government, higher education institutions and non-profits to develop and maintain effective working relationships with federally and non-federally recognized American Indian tribes, tribal colleges and universities and tribal communities. He specializes in developing programs that utilize the interface between Indigenous people’s traditional knowledge and western science. He sees a greater vision of human knowledge that incorporates the many insights of human cultures and provides a context for our better understanding of the planet.

https://nccasc.colorado.edu/

https://esiil.org/

About Gwen Bridge

Gwen is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation and has been working for over 20 years with First Nations, all levels of government, and the private and non profit sectors, across North America, developing relationships and strategies that advance reconciliation. Gwen has been negotiating initiatives and advising on strategy and policy that recognize and implement Indigenous Knowledge, such as in the proposed South Okanagan Similkameen National Park Reserve. Gwen has also recently been advising the BC government on how to better consider indigenous knowledge in collaborative land use planning and forestry related climate change considerations. Support to local governments include developing strategies and principles for becoming “Cities of Reconciliation”, and advising on climate change policy and economic development engagement strategies. Indigenous led conservation focuses recently include the smelqmix Protected Area and caribou habitat conservation advancement in the territory of the Okanagan Nation Alliance. Advancing an understanding of the ecological, economic and equity based partnership mechanisms to support our collective reconciliation agenda through training is a recent focus. Other clients include First Nations and First Nation organizations, Parks Canada, US National Parks Service, National Geographic Society, other non profits, regional and municipal governments including Metro Vancouver, other consulting firms, the University of Washington, Blue Quills University, BC Ministries of: Environment, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Forests, and Land, Water and Resource Stewardship. 

Gwen is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC. Gwen has a Master of Science in Forest Hydrology from the University of Alberta.

 
 
 

Melissa, James, Gwen, and TEK team in Montreal, Canada, 2022

 

CREDITS

Host/Writer/Director: Melissa Nelson
Producers: Mateo Hinojosa, Sara Moncada, Raven Marshall
Audio Engineering: Colin Farish
Audio Recording: Melissa Nelson, Raven Marshall, Alexis Stanley
Episode cover artwork: John Jairo Valencia

Original Soundscapes and Songs

Soundscapes and Music Composed and Produced by Colin Farish
Listen to more of Colin’s music at colinfarish.com

Song credits

Theme song “Life” by Colin Farish
From the the album Colin Farish: “Curious Species”
Featuring:
Piano: Colin Farish
percussion: Peter Medlam
bass: Chas Thompson

Featuring:
piano, guitar, percussion, synths, samples, and flutes: Colin Farish
voice: Capomo
piano: Jasnam Daya Singh
cello quartet: Fog Town Four
violin: Jeremy Cohen
guitar: Christen Konopka
flute & percussion: Jhaffur Kahn
beat-boxing, drums: Cameron Campbell


Featuring:
“Plants of the Sea, Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai”
ukulele: Del Medina
voice: Linda Low
percussion: Colin Farish