Conspiracy of Ancestors: The Indigeneity Essentials

We’re all indigenous to planet Earth, but we’ve not been acting that way. Cultural ecologist, indigenous scholar and activist Dr. Melissa K. Nelson reminds native and non-native peoples alike that we all need to re-indigenize ourselves by learning and practicing nature’s operating instructions and the Original Instructions for how to be a human being. At this unprecedented moment of globalized environmental breakdown, it’s going to take the best of Western science and the indigenous science of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to navigate this evolutionary keyhole.

About the speaker:

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) is a writer, researcher, educator, media-maker and cultural and environmental activist. Melissa has served as The Cultural Conservancy’s president and executive director since 1993. In 2000 she completed her Ph.D. in Cultural Ecology with an Emphasis in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Since 2002 she has also served as a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. Nelson is a Switzer Environmental Fellow and Leadership Award recipient and has served on the boards of numerous environmental organizations including Earth Island Institute and the Collective Heritage Institute, the parent organization to the Bioneers Conference. Her published works have appeared in academic and national journals. Her new edited anthology is Original Instructions – Indigenous Teachings For A Sustainable Future (Bear & Company 2008).


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