Young & Indigenous Young & Indigenous

Kimmerrer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled tribal member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerrer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to the land. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. She lives on a farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild.

Alexander is the policy lead for RE Sources’ land use and water protection programs. Alexander completed a graduate program in Environmental Policy at Western Washington University in 2022, where his research focused on how community-driven forest stewardship can help restore the Nooksack watershed. Having grown up in southern Oregon, Alexander graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Philosophy and Political Science. Alexander has worked for numerous conservation nonprofits on various policy issues ranging from public forest management and wildfire mitigation to ecological forest management and climate mitigation. Alexander and his partner spend most of their free time homesteading, floating the river, or rambling through the woods. Alex recently co-created a consortium of activists and advocates called the Whatcom Forest Watch, who worked hard to protect the remaining legacy old growth forests in Washington State. After months of emailing politicians, rallying and campaigning, the WFW saw a victory and the rest of the old growth legacy forests were finally protected. But keeping that victory permanent is what we need to ensure, so spreading more awareness and telling more stories are crucial.

Happy Mother’s Day! Join Wykeklyaa and Roy as they sit down with their mothers to talk about the true essence of motherhood. From cherished memories to the joy and challenges, its a heartwarming episode you won’t want to miss!

NSEA is the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. Darrell Grey has been the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) Project Manager for nearly 30 years leading conservation projects and managing restoration efforts in his time with the organization. James Vanderhoort joined NSEA after graduating from Western Washington University and will step into the role of co-project manager as one of Darrell's predecessors. James has spent quite a while following Darrell’s leadership and learning about how to manage conservation projects while they are underway and maintaining the project so that it has a higher chance of being successful. James and Darrell share that this recent year (2023) NSEA planted just over 30,000 Native plants, shrubs and trees in hopes to help combat effects of climate change and habitat loss.

We continue our PLANTS series with Sadie Olsen, a proud member of the Lummi Nation. Sadie is also a co-founder of Whiteswan Environmental (WE), an Indigenous led 501(c)(3) whose mission is to support community healing through the natural, cultural and historical restoration to the Salish Sea for 7th generation sustainability as a measure of ecological health protection for all.

Sadie shares about how WE utilizes plants for programs and tools such as their Field to Classroom Program Curriculum, Digital Ecological Mapping, Stewardship Corps, 13 Moons Food Sovereignty, and Indigenous Public Health. Sadie also gives the audience insight on her own personal experience with plants and how these amazing beings helped her in a time and place where there were no other options.

Sadie Olsen is known for her advocacy for the environment, her passion for revitalization of the traditional language of the Lummi People and traditional ways of being. Learning from her elders how to weave cedar and wool and learning about the ecological knowledge which has been passed down, Sadie hopes to help reestablish ancient values in these territories as well as pass on this knowledge to the next generations. Sadie says “I don’t like being called an activist, because for me it is just a way of life.”

Continuing on from our last episode, Morgan Brown is a Tsimshian mother, auntie, sister, and daughter. Morgan works as the Environmental Education Coordinator and Indigenous Science Educator for the Swinomish Tribe. She considers her students to be some of her biggest teachers. Morgan’s inspiration and knowledge fall in the realms of traditional plant medicine, first foods, seed keeping and seed reMatriation, weaving, Sm’algyax language revitalization, poetry, birth keeping, motherhood, advocacy for and protection of Indigenous youth, and healing generational trauma through partnering with plants, animals and ancestors. Morgans current passions are reviving ancestral trade routes and trade based gatherings, Chilkat weaving and natural dying, as well as cultivating an educational ethnobotanical garden with Indigenous youth that centers the teachings of kinship ecosystems, seed and plant stewardship, and Lushootseed language.