The tallgrass prairie cannot exist without fire, and some of the most productive food systems in history were designed to feed not just people, but clams, raccoons and birds as well.
In her DLD26 talk, Dr. Lyla June Johnston – an Indigenous musician, scholar, community organizer and board member of Cultural Survival – shares Native American environmental philosophies that she says are neither primitive nor obsolete, but remain highly relevant today.
“We were not technologically backward”, she says. In fact, in some respects, Indigenous practices was far ahead of today’s. Agriculture is a case-in-point, Johnston argues. “I suggest that we cease monoculture and we start doing more polyculture so that the system can be resilient and so that it can thrive and it can last.”
Watch the video to explore this inspiring talk in detail.
