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Traditional ecological knowledge
and biocultural restoration :
restoring relationships
between land and community
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Center for Native Peoples and the
Environment
SUNY ESF
The people of the
seventh fire
“The
Onondaga Nation calls for a healing…….
there can be no purpose more inspiring
than to begin the age of restoration,
reweaving the wondrous diversity of life
that still surrounds us”
E.O. Wilson
Two neighboring centers of
ecological knowledge
Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (TEK)
Privileged knowledge
Scientific Ecological
Knowledge (SEK)
What is Traditional Ecological
Knowledge?
• The cumulative body of knowledge,
practice and belief concerning the
relationship of living beings to one
another and to the physical environment
• an attribute of societies with historical
continuity in resource use practice
How do native people define TEK?
“Traditional
knowledge is a way of
life -wisdom is using
traditional knowledge
in good ways. It is
using the heart and
the head together.“
•“ It
is practical
common sense based
on teachings and
experiences passed
on from generation to
generation”.
From Alaska Native Science Commission
It sets out the rules governing
the use of resources respect, an obligation to
share. It is dynamic,
cumulative and stable.
•“It is knowing the
country. It covers
knowledge of the
environment - snow, ice,
weather, resources - and
the relationships between
things.”
•“It is holistic. It cannot be compartmentalized and cannot be separated
from the people who hold it. It is rooted in the spiritual health, culture and
language of the people”.
Kenomagwen mno
bmaadiziwin
The knowledge for
sustaining good life
Indigenous environmental philosophy
Agricultural
knowledge
Traditional Ecosystem
Management Knowledge
Medicine
Knowledge
Population dynamics
and regulation
Knowledge of climate change
TEK is an important, overlooked
resource in ecological restoration
• Knowledge for reference ecosystems
• Land management practices
• Alternative ecological models
• Restoration of cultural relationships
What is the restoration goal?
Identification of the reference ecosystem
What species should be there?
What habitats?
Information on reference
ecosystems may be embedded
in:
• Scientific ecological knowledge
• Traditional ecological knowledge:
•
•
•
•
•
oral history
ethnographies
harvesting practices
management practices
material culture
Indigenous Languages: a library of
ecological knowledge
Species names
Place names
A valuable asset for restoration
Material culture as sources of
ecological knowledge
The approach to restoration depends on the
meaning of land…
What does land mean?
Land as property
Land as source of
ecosystem services
Land as natural
resources
Land as capital
The ecosystem as machine: a collection of
interacting parts
Western paradigm: Nature as “object”
The evolution of restoration philosophy:
raising the bar
Ecological Restoration
Reclamation
The National Research Council defines
restoration as:
The return of an ecosystem to a close
approximation of its condition prior to
disturbance. In restoration, ecological
damage to the resource is repaired. Both the
structure and the function of the ecosystem
are recreated. Merely recreating the form
without the function, or the function in an
artificial configuration bearing little resemble
to a natural resource, does not constitute
restoration….the goal is to emulate.
NRC 1992
An SEK approach
Through a different
lens…
What does land
“mean”?
Ecosystem as
community of
sovereign ”persons”
Indigenous paradigm:
nature as “subject”
Land
as Sustainer
Land as
Residence
of non-human relatives
Land
as Home
Land
As
Identity
Land
As
Enspirited
Land as
Ancestral
Connection
Land as
Source
of Knowledge
Land
as Healer
Land
as
sacred
Land as
Moral
Responsibility
It is not the land which
is broken,
but our relationship to it
Land as:
A source of belongings?
or
A source of belonging?
If Land is understood as a set of
relationships
then
to restore land we must also restore
relationships
Indigenous ways of knowing may
prioritize restoration goals differently
Restored landscape should provide:
• Practice of spiritual responsibility to land
• Ability to support subsistence use activities
• Focus on cultural keystone species
Subsistence Goals:
a healthy ecosystem is one rich enough
to sustain All Our relatives,
human and non
Restoration may focus on
return of “cultural
keystone” species
The restored landscape should
• Support revitalization of language and
culture
• Support for sustainable place based
economies
• Support kincentric relationship to place
and history
• Enables people to engage in traditional
land management/caregiving activities
“ Cultural survival depends on healthy land and a
healthy, responsible relationship between humans
and the land. The traditional caregiving
responsibilities which maintained healthy land need
to be expanded to include ecological restoration.
Ecological restoration is inseparable
from cultural and spiritual restoration,
and is inseparable from the spiritual
responsibilities of care-giving and
world-renewal.
Collectively and individually, these indigenous
spiritual values must be central to the vision of
community ecological restoration. Western
science and technology, is a limited conceptual
and methodological tool-the “head and hands”
of restoration implementation. Native spirituality
is the “heart, that guides the head and hands.
Indigenous Environmental Network 1994
Two paradigms of ecological
restoration
• Restoration of
ecosystem structure
and function for
delivery of ecosystem
services
• Imposed solution for
equilibrial outcome
• Time frame: decades
• eg Cairns, National
Research Council
• Restoration of
relationship to land
• Respect, reciprocity
• Partnership with natural
processes
• Time frame:
generations
• Indigenous Peoples
Restoration Network
The evolution of restoration philosophy
and approach- a progressive raising of
the bar on what is a healthy ecosystem
Biocultural restoration
Ecological Restoration
Reclamation
A new holistic approach to
restoration:
• Restoration of ecosystem structure and
function, species composition
• Restoration of relationships between land
and community
Bio-cultural Restoration
To date, the Onondaga Lake Restoration Plan has employed only
limited SEK approaches-restoring selected features of ecosystem
structure and function
Holistic TEK perspectives have not yet been included
Can biocultural thinking help us
imagine and implement a different
future for Onondaga Lake?
for ourselves?
Biocultural restoration includes
re-story-ation
An opportunity to tell a different story
Economic
Values:
Material economy
Ecosystem Services:
Nutrient cycling
Hydrologic cycling
Air quality
Habitat
Soil formation
Cultural Services :
Subsistence
Spiritual responsibility
identity
Knowledge source
Reciprocal relationships
What should the reference ecosystem be ?
What do we envision as the “reference relationship?
We can do better for Onondaga
Lake
Incorporation of TEK and biocultural approaches will:
- Increase sustainability and longevity of restoration
- Build resilience in a changing climate
• Enhance biodiversity through cultural knowledge
• Honors history and cultures
• Complement purely SEK approaches
Biocultural restoration raises the
standards for ecosystem
integrity
•
•
•
•
Water clean enough to swim in
Fish that can be eaten
Habitat to support keystone species
Not looking backward…..a vision for the
future
• HONORS RELATIONSHIP AND
RESPONSIBILITY
The Altai
The Amazon
The Arctic
Why not here?
A Model for
Biocultural
Restoration
The evolution of restoration philosophy
Reciprocal restoration
Biocultural restoration
Ecological Restoration
Reclamation
a bigger vision……..
Reciprocal restoration:
in healing the land we are
healing ourselves
Reciprocal restoration
supports
• Renewal of material and spiritual
relationships
• revitalization of language and culture
• maintenance and protection of TEK
• Strengthened communities
• Resilience, adaptability
• Biological and cultural diversity
• Environmental justice
• Peacemaking between land and people
Restoration is an act of reciprocity
in return for the gifts of Mother
Earth
to achieve this goal………
we need a symbiosis between
ways of knowing
Corn supports
beans,
increases light
availability
Beans fertilize
soil, use light
efficiently by
positioning
leaves
opposite to
corn
Squash shades
ground and
suppress weeds
….and so all are
fed
Envisioning a
symbiosis…
scientific
knowledge
guided by
traditional
knowledge
and wisdom
….and so all
are fed
RESTORING RELATIONSHIP
•Education, culture and science center on the
Lake to re-story the watershed
•Environmental education to train next
generation of OL scientists, cross-cultural
•Public field trips and education
•Writers and artists gathering…don’t “write it
off”
•Ceremonial space