A New Chapter: Nesika Wilamut Will be Guided by Indigenous Voices
Nesika Wilamut, which means “Our Willamette'' in the Chinuk Wawa trade language, seeks to bring together restoration professionals, tribes, community members, scientists, public agencies, landowners, funders, and more to collaborate on Willamette River restoration and community connection to the River. The board of Nesika Wilamut envisions a network that centers the voices of Indigenous people, and as such has secured funding through Seeding Justice's Since Time Immemorial grant to create an Indigenous advisory council that will provide leadership and guidance to the network that Nesika Wilamut endeavors to bring together.
“We believe that the Indigenous people who care for and have historically stewarded this land are deeply invested in the health and wellbeing of the River and all those supported by it. Our board has directed us to create an Indigenous advisory council of intergenerational tribal experts, elders, and youth to guide our network as we work to center racial justice and tribal sovereignty within the environmental movement.” |
The council is intended to be a space for Indigenous people of diverse professional and personal backgrounds to come together to discuss the most pressing issues facing the Willamette River and offer direction to the network. Nesika Wilamut seeks participation by members of different tribes, both within and outside of the Willamette Valley, who are educators, activists, elders, youth, environmental health professionals, tribal natural resource managers/scientists, and watershed council staff. Through this diverse representation, the group is interdisciplinary and intentionally non-governmental. They operate in a space that is separate from the government-to-government relationships that tribal councils engage in as sovereign nations.
When describing how the group would interact with Nesika Wilamut and its partners, Co-Director, Tana Atchley Culbertson envisions a reciprocal relationship. “I think about it more as we are going to talk to our grandma. We are asking people with wisdom about something that is big and important to us and get their advice about what we should focus our energy on.” They may interact with partners and the board in response to specific questions and priorities. Still, they will primarily focus on issues that the council members believe are most important to address for the overall health of the Willamette and the communities it supports.
While the idea that Indigenous people are central to the stewardship of land and water has slowly been gaining mainstream acceptance, Indigenous people have been advocating for their voices to be heard about topics ranging from cultural burning to traditional ecological knowledge to water usage to racism and more for a very long time. “[The Indigenous advisory council] will have the power to really amplify those topics and bring them to the forefront, and get the people who are within our network, that are co-managing and stewarding these lands, to think about [them] in a different way. I’m excited about the role they will play in influencing that work.”
As she builds the relationships that will support the Indigenous advisory council as well as the broader partnerships that makeup Nesika Wilamut, Atchley Culbertson describes the importance of taking things slow. It takes time to build the trust that is foundational for healthy and reciprocal partnerships, and she intends to move slowly to create relationships that can move the conversations and actions around ecosystem and community health forward in a just way.
When describing how the group would interact with Nesika Wilamut and its partners, Co-Director, Tana Atchley Culbertson envisions a reciprocal relationship. “I think about it more as we are going to talk to our grandma. We are asking people with wisdom about something that is big and important to us and get their advice about what we should focus our energy on.” They may interact with partners and the board in response to specific questions and priorities. Still, they will primarily focus on issues that the council members believe are most important to address for the overall health of the Willamette and the communities it supports.
While the idea that Indigenous people are central to the stewardship of land and water has slowly been gaining mainstream acceptance, Indigenous people have been advocating for their voices to be heard about topics ranging from cultural burning to traditional ecological knowledge to water usage to racism and more for a very long time. “[The Indigenous advisory council] will have the power to really amplify those topics and bring them to the forefront, and get the people who are within our network, that are co-managing and stewarding these lands, to think about [them] in a different way. I’m excited about the role they will play in influencing that work.”
As she builds the relationships that will support the Indigenous advisory council as well as the broader partnerships that makeup Nesika Wilamut, Atchley Culbertson describes the importance of taking things slow. It takes time to build the trust that is foundational for healthy and reciprocal partnerships, and she intends to move slowly to create relationships that can move the conversations and actions around ecosystem and community health forward in a just way.
Excerpts taken from Bonneville Environmental Foundation's Treeline Newsletter
Nesika Wilamut is fiscally sponsored by Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
©2023 Nesika Wilamut. All rights reserved.
©2023 Nesika Wilamut. All rights reserved.