Watch SOIL STORIES recordings on the
NM Healthy Soil YouTube Channel:
Online conversations on soil health
Our guest starts with a short presentation, followed by conversation with participants.
Indigenous soil management techniques, past and present: As an historical ecologist, Lyla June Johnston will be focusing on the intersection of Indigenous land management and Indigenous food systems in both pre-Columbian and contemporary times. Her research unearths the nuances of how Indigenous Nations shaped the North American continent through extensive nourishing, burning, pruning, amending, cultivating, and sculpting of land and marine food systems through meticulous management of complex biotic communities. Her work translates this poorly understood history to the Western world and highlights the connection between Indigenous sovereignty, decolonizing historical ecological narratives, carbon sequestration, biodiversity augmentation and regional ecosystems connectivity.
Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her dynamic, multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing. She blends studies in Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree, focusing on Indigenous food systems revitalization.
Watch 3000-year-old solutions to modern problems | TED talk by Lyla June