Melissa K. Nelson: Living in storied and moral landscapes

Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration

kaméa chayne

Nature, Alternative Health, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Health & Fitness, Science

4.9 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“It’s very important that we translate how different knowledge systems have been privileged and others have been marginalized and repressed and erased. To have true knowledge symbiosis, where there is harmony and balance and inter-relationality and each contributing respectfully with care, thoughtfulness, humility, that is a process and it’s a messy and tangled process.”

In this episode, we welcome Melissa K. Nelson, an Indigenous ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and scholar-activist. Expanding on her years of community based work as well as mixed background and heritage, Melissa reflects on climate change as a symptom, rather than a cause, of disharmonious imbalance with the earth. She invites us to ask: how might acts of ‘balance’ be more dynamic than we may perceive? And how might we re-examine, re-situate, and even re-claim the word “sustainability” to invoke more than maintaining stasis, or keeping a status quo? In staying with these questions, Melissa reminds us of the importance of death, decay and composting; concepts so often eschewed under the house that modernity built. In composting that which needs to change, Melissa gestures towards practices of embodied story-ing that is relational, place-based, and ancestral. Ultimately, Melissa asks of herself and us: what does it mean to become, or be in the process of becoming, a good ancestor?

(The musical offering featured in this episode Carolina by Mother Juniper. The episode-inspired artwork is by Lauren Rosenfelt.)

This episode was brought to you by our supporting listeners. Join us on Patreon to help us keep our show alive: www.greendreamer.com/support

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, this is your host, Kamea. I hope you had a restful holiday season and that your start to this new year has been all of the things that you might need during this time.
0:11.7	As we move deeper into 2025, first of all, I'm so excited to share the many conversations we already have in the pipeline for you this season.
0:20.5	So definitely stay tuned
0:22.2	and make sure you're subscribed to my Substack newsletter, which you can find at camilla.substack.com.
0:29.9	And I also just want to share that our call for your direct support continues as well, because
0:34.7	independent media is more important than ever, and every contribution,
0:39.4	no matter how small or large, really helps us out so much. So if you haven't already, we invite
0:45.0	you to join our Patreon or Substack membership or contribute a gift of any amount at
0:50.5	greendreamer.com slash support. If you need a planner for the new year,
0:55.5	you can also check out our fundraising green dreamer planners
0:58.7	at greendreamer.com slash shop.
1:01.8	Thank you so, so much for whatever forms of support
1:05.1	you're able to share with us.
1:06.9	For now, enjoy the show.
1:11.5	This is Green Dreamer and I'm your host, enjoy the show. This is Green Dreamer, and I'm your host, Kamea Shane.
1:15.3	Because this podcast is primarily listener-backed and we hope to keep it ad-free,
1:20.4	we do need your direct support today in order to continue the show.
1:24.5	Join us starting at just $2 a month, like treating us to a cup of coffee or tea,
1:29.0	or make a one-time contribution at greendreamer.com slash support.
1:38.6	Sustainability does not bring in with it that imbalance or that wobble or even the importance of disintegration
1:49.5	and death and decay and composting, you know, and regeneration. I love how the word regeneration
1:57.1	really includes the whole life cycle. Sustaining really is rooted so much, the way it's
	...

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