Architects of Abundance: Indigenous Regenerative Food Systems and the Excavation of Hidden History

April Wednesday 24, 2024

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST

With Dr. Lyla June Johnston

Dr. Lyla June Johnston is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her research focuses on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations gardened large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans. Contrary to popular belief, Indigenous Nations were active agents within the ecosystem and sculptured entire bio regions into edible landscapes. Whether it's periodically burning grassland ecosystems with low severity fires to maintain habitat for deer, buffalo, antelope, etc, or building intertidal rock walls that catch sediment and warmer waters to expand clam habitat, native people have a number of innovative strategies for scaling habitat for edible plants and animals whom they often view as relatives. Her work translates this poorly understood history to the Western world and highlights the connection between Indigenous land ethics, decolonial narratives, biodiversity augmentation, anthropogenic habitat expansion, and regional ecosystems design. The success of the systems is believed to be due to their underlying value system of respect, reverence, responsibility and reciprocity.