We invite you to join us for a dialogue via Zoom on Thursday, September 24 at 8:30 am Pacific / 10:30 am Central / 12:30 pm Atlantic (for approximately an hour and a half).

Register at: https://www.waysofknowingforum.ca/episode3

Known for her award-winning books Gathering Moss: A Natural & Cultural History of Mosses and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, amongst many other ways in which she has had an impact as a teacher, researcher, and writer, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer will speak in dialogue with friend, colleague, renowned ethnobotanist and moderator Dr. Nancy Turner on the theme of Braiding Ways of Knowing.

The dialogue will proceed in three stages: First, Drs. Wall Kimmerer and Turner will discuss how Dr. Wall Kimmerer has found Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing can be braided together in her work on the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and the ecology of mosses. Then, second, fellow Reconciling Ways of Knowing project founders Miles Richardson, O.C., Dr. David Suzuki, and Elder Dr. Dave Courchene, Jr. will join Dr. Turner in the dialogue with Dr. Wall Kimmerer to connect her findings and reflections from her work to the objective of the Reconciling Ways of Knowing project to facilitate pathways for building better relationships across ways of knowing and for creating better stewardship outcomes together. And finally, the floor will be opened to registering participants to ask Dr. Wall Kimmerer or any of the project founders questions about how they can apply the considerations from the discussion on braiding ways of knowing to their work and engagement in community.

This is a ticketed event to cover the costs of organizing and hosting. Tickets are $10 per person. For anyone able to contribute at a higher level to support our organizing efforts, we also provide a $25 and $50 registration option and gratefully appreciate your support for our efforts to organize this ongoing critical dialogue. Thank you for your support.

Register at: https://www.waysofknowingforum.ca/episode3

DR ROBIN WALL KIMMERER Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, writer and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. She serves as the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. Her research interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and the ecology of mosses. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science education for Native students, and to create new models for integration of Indigenous philosophy and scientific tools on behalf of land and culture. She is engaged in programs which introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects Indigenous knowledge. She is the co-founder and past president of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section of the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Kimmerer serves as a Senior Fellow for the Center for Nature and Humans. Of European and Anishinaabe ancestry, Robin is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land.

DR NANCY TURNER Dr. Nancy Turner is an ethnobotanist whose research integrates the fields of botany and ecology with anthropology, geography and linguistics, amongst others. She is interested in the traditional knowledge systems and traditional land and resource management systems of Indigenous Peoples, particularly in western Canada. She has worked with Indigenous Elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 40 years, collaborating with Indigenous communities to help document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and habitats, including Indigenous foods, materials and medicines, as well as language and vocabulary relating to plants and environments. Her interests also include the roles of plants and animals in narratives, ceremonies, language and belief systems. Emeritus Professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, Dr. Turner was awarded a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Fellowship in 2015, in support of discussion amongst multiple informed groups on the roles of ethnobotany and ethnoecology in policy, planning and decision-making in the legal and governance arenas around Indigenous Peoples’ land rights and title. Turner has authored, co-authored or co-edited over 20 books and over 150 book chapters and peer-reviewed papers, and numerous other publications, both popular and academic.

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