DeepSummary
In this episode, Melissa K. Nelson, an Indigenous ecologist, writer, and scholar-activist, discusses how climate change is a symptom of a deeper imbalance and disconnect from the Earth rather than the root cause itself. She emphasizes the importance of listening to and learning from Indigenous worldviews, stories, and practices that honor the intricate relationships between humans and the natural world.
Nelson explores the concept of 'balance' as a dynamic dance rather than a static state, inviting us to embrace the constant change and evolution inherent in life. She also critiques the notion of 'sustainability' as often co-opted to maintain the status quo, proposing the idea of 'regeneration' to encompass the full cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
The episode delves into practices of reciprocal restoration, composting harmful systems and worldviews, and engaging in 'storied landscapes' through embodied relationships with place. Nelson ultimately calls for a 'knowledge symbiosis' that honors diverse epistemologies while confronting historical injustices, paving the way for a more harmonious and just coexistence.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Climate change is a symptom of a deeper imbalance and disconnect from the Earth, rather than the root cause itself.
- Indigenous worldviews, stories, and practices offer valuable insights and guidance for addressing climate change and restoring balance with the natural world.
- The concept of 'balance' should be understood as a dynamic dance rather than a static state, embracing constant change and evolution.
- The notion of 'sustainability' has been co-opted and should be reconsidered in favor of 'regeneration,' which encompasses the full cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
- Practices of reciprocal restoration, composting harmful systems and worldviews, and engaging in 'storied landscapes' through embodied relationships with place can promote healing and regeneration.
- A 'knowledge symbiosis' that honors diverse epistemologies while confronting historical injustices and privileges is necessary for a more harmonious and just coexistence.
- Finding resilience and wisdom through a deep connection with the natural world, regardless of one's spiritual or religious beliefs, is essential.
- Indigenous scholars and practitioners have been at the forefront of developing concepts like 'reciprocal restoration' and 'biocultural restoration,' which should be acknowledged and amplified.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Sustainability does not bring in with it that imbalance or that wobble, or even the importance of disintegration and death and decay and composting, you know, and regeneration. I love how the word regeneration really includes the whole life cycle.“ by Melissa K. Nelson
- “It's very important that we translate how different knowledge systems have been privileged and others have been marginalized and repressed and erased. And so to have true knowledge symbiosis where there is harmony and balance and interrelationality, and each contributing respectfully, with care, thoughtfulness, humility, that is a process, and it's a messy, entangled process.“ by Melissa K. Nelson
- “We find our cultural resilience in the medicines of the land. And whether you are identify as a spiritual person, a religious person, or an atheist or whatever it is, have pantheist just know that this gift of life is so precious, and Mother Earth has lots of medicines to give, and father sky has lots of medicines to give, and the stars have lots of medicines to give if we just open ourselves up to receive it.“ by Melissa K. Nelson
- “So reciprocal restoration has the potential and opportunity to heal us at an individual, collective, ecological and historical level.“ by Melissa K. Nelson
- “Reciprocal restoration is something I was introduced to by Robin Wall Kimmerer, although I probably have been doing it for 30 or 40 years without having an explicit name for it. Also, Dennis Martinez and autumn, swedish restoration ecologist, talked about biocultural restoration or ecocultural restoration also about 30, 40 years ago.“ by Melissa K. Nelson
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Episode Information
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Kamea Chayne
6/17/23
“It’s very important that we translate how different knowledge systems have been privileged and others have been marginalized and repressed and erased. To have true knowledge symbiosis, where there is harmony and balance and inter-relationality and each contributing respectfully with care, thoughtfulness, humility, that is a process and it’s a messy and tangled process.”
In this episode, we welcome Melissa K. Nelson, an Indigenous ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and scholar-activist. Expanding on her years of community based work as well as mixed background and heritage, Melissa reflects on climate change as a symptom, rather than a cause, of disharmonious imbalance with the earth. She invites us to ask: how might acts of ‘balance’ be more dynamic than we may perceive? And how might we re-examine, re-situate, and even re-claim the word “sustainability” to invoke more than maintaining stasis, or keeping a status quo? In staying with these questions, Melissa reminds us of the importance of death, decay and composting; concepts so often eschewed under the house that modernity built. In composting that which needs to change, Melissa gestures towards practices of embodied story-ing that is relational, place-based, and ancestral. Ultimately, Melissa asks of herself and us: what does it mean to become, or be in the process of becoming, a good ancestor?
(The musical offering featured in this episode Carolina by Mother Juniper. The episode-inspired artwork is by Lauren Rosenfelt.)
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