Traditional ecological knowledge

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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
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The people of the
seventh fire
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The Onondaga Nation calls for a healing.
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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
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Two neighboring centers of ecological knowledge

• Scientific Ecological Knowledge (SEK)

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Privileged knowledge
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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

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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.
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 practical common sense based on teachings
  and experiences passed on from generation to
  generation.

• 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. 

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Kenomagwen mno bmaadiziwin

• The knowledge for sustaining good life

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Indigenous environmental philosophy
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Agricultural knowledge
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Traditional Ecosystem Management Knowledge
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Medicine Knowledge
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Population dynamics and regulation
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Knowledge of climate change
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TEK is an important, overlooked resource in
ecological restoration

• Knowledge for reference ecosystems
• Land management practices
• Alternative ecological models
• Restoration of cultural relationships

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What is the restoration goal? Identification of
the reference ecosystem
What species should be there?
What habitats?
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Information on reference ecosystems may be
embedded in

• Scientific ecological knowledge
• Traditional ecological knowledge
• oral history
• ethnographies
• harvesting practices
• management practices
• material culture

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Indigenous Languages a library of ecological
knowledge

• Species names
• Place names

A valuable asset for restoration
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Material culture as sources of ecological
knowledge
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The approach to restoration depends on the
meaning of land
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What does land mean?
Land as property
Land as source of ecosystem services
Land as capital
Land as natural resources
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The ecosystem as machine a collection of
interacting parts
Western paradigm Nature as object
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The evolution of restoration philosophy raising
the bar
Scientific approaches
Ecological Restoration
Reclamation
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• 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
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Through a different lens

• What does land mean?

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Ecosystem as community of sovereign persons
Indigenous paradigm nature as subject
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Land as Sustainer
Land As Identity
Land as Residence of non-human relatives
Land As Enspirited
Land as Home
Land as Ancestral Connection
Land as Source of Knowledge
Land as Healer
Land as Moral Responsibility
Land as sacred
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It is not the land which is
broken, but our relationship to it
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Land as A source of
belongings? or A source of
belonging?
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If Land is understood as a set of
relationships
then to restore land we must
also restore
relationships
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Indigenous ways of knowing may prioritize
restoration goals differentlyRestored landscape
should provide

• Practice of spiritual responsibility to land
• Ability to support subsistence use activities
• Focus on cultural keystone species

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Subsistence Goals a healthy ecosystem is one
rich enough to sustain All Our relatives,
human and non
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Restoration may focus on return of cultural
keystone species
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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

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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
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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

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The evolution of restoration philosophy and
approach- a progressive raising of the bar on
what is a healthy ecosystem
TEK approaches
Biocultural restoration
Scientific approaches
Ecological Restoration
Reclamation
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A new holistic approach to restoration

• Restoration of ecosystem structure and function,
  species composition
• Restoration of relationships between land and
  community

Bio-cultural Restoration
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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
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Can biocultural thinking help us imagine and
implement a different future for Onondaga
Lake?for ourselves?
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Biocultural restoration includes
re-story-ation
An opportunity to tell a different story
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Economic Values Material economy
Ecosystem Services Nutrient
cycling Hydrologic cycling Air quality Habitat Soi
l formation
Cultural Services Subsistence Spiritual
responsibility identity Knowledge
source Reciprocal relationships
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What should the reference ecosystem be ?
What do we envision as the reference
relationship?
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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

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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

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The Altai
The Amazon
The Arctic
Why not here?
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A Model for Biocultural Restoration
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The evolution of restoration philosophy
Reciprocal restoration
TEK approaches
Biocultural restoration
Scientific approaches
Ecological Restoration
Reclamation
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Reciprocal restoration in healing the land we
are healing ourselves
a bigger vision..
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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

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Restoration is an act of reciprocityin return
for the gifts of Mother Earth
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to achieve this goalwe need a symbiosis
betweenways of knowing
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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
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Envisioning a symbiosis scientific
knowledge guided by traditional knowledge and
wisdom .and so all are fed
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• 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 gatheringdont write it
  off
• Ceremonial space