Lifeworlds

With Dr John Borrows, Lindsay Borrows & Abhayraj Naik.

This week we’re traveling from British Columbia to Bangalore, exploring two different legal systems that are revolutionizing the very foundations of our global system of law. In transforming how we advocate and litigate on behalf of nature, these approaches require legal professionals to develop a whole new series of skills and sensibilities which revolve around translating the lifeworlds of other beings. 

The wonderful daughter-father duo of Lindsay and John Borrows will talk about indigenous law systems in Canada. They are both lawyers and members of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario. John created the world's first dual Indigenous law program at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and Lindsay’s work supports Indigenous communities in revitalizing their traditional laws for contemporary contexts. What I found so astonishing about this conversation is how indigenous law is written in the land itself, as a verb, a living being. Nature is the professor. Their case laws brim with interspecies stories.

We’ll then jump into the Rights of Nature with Abhayraj Naik. The Rights of Nature is a legal tool, now present in over 15 countries and 50 cities around the world, that confers the rights usually given to human beings over to other forms of life. Why does this matter? Put quite bluntly, under the current system of law in almost every country, nature is our slave. He’ll get into some fascinating components of the RON in India and the thrilling, often philosophical, new sets of questions they open up. Abhayraj is an activist-academic legal practitioner, co-founder of the Initiative for Climate Action, and holds degrees from the National Law School of India University and the Yale Law School.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/ecocentriclaw

Show Links:

• University of Victoria Joint Degree in Indigenous Law
• Dark Matter Labs article 
• Otter’s Journey through Indigenous Language and Law
• Rights of Rivers South Asia Alliance
• Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
• People’s science movement from state of Kerala
• Ecocide
• Law’s Nature paper
• Initiative for Climate Action

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd & The Rising by Tryad CCPL

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Herb’s career in British Columbia has centered on forestry, land based communities and natural systems. From his work as a conventional forester he went all the way to launching an embodied learning forestry school and The Silva Forest Foundation, which he ran with his wife for 30 years. They developed over 25 nature-based plans across Canada, and around the world, upending ways that large landscape management was done by communities.

In our conversation, we speak about the role of intuition and heart based thinking in developing nature-directed communities, how you get everyone on board, and the differences in indigenous thinking when it comes to forests. We also touch on the absurdity of exporting wood pellets for ‘biofuels’, how decaying wood acts as a natural sponge cleaning precious water, why “sustainable” forestry is not so sustainable, and his experience of getting the skeptical to hug a tree.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/natureplansherbhammond

Show Links:

• Silva Forest Foundation
• Book: David Korten’s Change The Story, Change the Future
• Book: Maintaining Whole Systems on Earth's Crown by Herb Hammond

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I had the delightful honor of meeting Tara Martin when I lived on Vancouver Island. We canoed out to a tiny Salish Sea sand island and shared a delicious sunset picnic among old growth forests. I love Tara because she is a rare breed of scientist that can seamlessly blend rigorous data science and ecological analysis with deep intuition and cultural insight.

In this interview, we cover the basics of conservation decision science and “priority threat management” - a field she is pioneering - and how it can help policymakers prioritise complex conservation decisions. We discuss her lab’s work in the Frasier River Estuary and with First Nations across Canada. Listen to her vivid descriptions of lost eco-cultural landscapes, how she worked to save a preserved island and returned it back to indigenous stewards, how to have a seat at the table for the salmon, the role of art and beauty in conservation and the old-growth herbaceous elders that are hiding just out of sight.

Tara is a Professor in Conservation Decision Science with the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is also the Liber Ero Chair in Conservation at UBC and is a pioneer in the field of Conservation Decision Science. Tara was recently awarded The Nature Conservancy Professor in Practice Award and is a member of the IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group and co-leads the Climate Adaptation Theme.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/natureplanstaramartin 

Show Links:

• Tara Martin Decisions Lab
• Research: Frasier River Estuary 
• RELAW: West Coast Environmental Law
• Briony Penn Ecological Art 

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Dr Tara Martin & Herb Hammond.

Today we are joined by Dr. Tara Martin and Herb Hammond, who have pioneered fascinating methods in developing large-scale maps and management plans for biodiverse, high-priority conservation landscapes. What really sets them apart is their ability to integrate both cutting edge Western science and indigenous worldviews, a synthesis called "two-eyed seeing."

In these interviews, they debunk the misguided idea that separating humans from nature is the best way to restore and manage ecosystems, and show instead how human touch is vital in tending to the land. Tara and Herb are bridge builders, between the hard data science and predictive modelling, between governments and policy, along with private investment, and most importantly, the lived realities on the ground.

Dr Tara Martin is a scientist, professor, and the founder of the Martin Conservation Decisions Lab at the University of British Columbia. We cover the basics of conservation decision science and “priority threat management” (a tool she’s pioneered) and discuss her lab’s work with First Nations across Canada, especially in the Fraser River Estuary, along with the role of art and beauty. Peppered throughout the interview are glorious descriptions of the eco-cultural landscapes that she’s worked tirelessly to protect.

Herb Hammond is one of the most respected elders in the space of nature-based planning. Herb started out as a conventional forester but soon became dispirited with the destructive practices of the industry, and went on to found The Silva Forest Foundation which he ran with his wife Susie for 30 years. Over the course of their career they’ve developed over 25 large scale nature-directed plans for Canada and around the world, upending ways that landscape management is conceived and implemented.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/naturebasedplans

Show Links:

• Tara Martin Decisions Lab
• Research: Frasier River Estuary 
• RELAW: West Coast Environmental Law
• Briony Penn Ecological Art 
• Silva Forest Foundation
• Book: David Korten’s Change The Story, Change the Future
• Book: Maintaining Whole Systems on Earth's Crown by Herb Hammond

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd & The Rising by Tryad CCPL

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Without being awake in our bodies

We can’t feel how our bodies belong to this earth

Feel the touch of the world upon you.

This one I will keep brief, and allow the practice to speak for itself. Find a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for half an hour. If you can be outdoors, that’s even better. And settle in, allow yourself to be guided and drift into deep connection with the forces of our home planet.

Recorded in the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica -- thank you to all the birds and creatures who feature in this episode. I hope I have your consent.

Episode Link

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a beautiful conversation with Joe Martin, who is also known by his traditional name Tutakwisnapšiƛ.

We speak about his work as a master canoe and totem pole carver, and role as an elder in his community. Joe is a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation living in Tofino, Vancouver Island, and has carved over seventy canoes made from ancient trees. He has sparked a revitalization of this ancient art form in his own community and among neighboring nations in the Pacific Northwest.

In our talk, Joe describes how indigenous totem poles serve as visual living texts of natural laws of the land. He shares outlines of the learnings that are handed down in his tradition, from the land to grandparents to children. We learn about the teachings of the wolf, why bears are related to women’s puberty rituals, and how animals show us to only take what we need, and not for our greed.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/indigenousviewjoemartin

Show Links:

• Film: The Canoe Maker
• Book: Making a Chaputs, The Teachings and Responsibilities of a Canoe Maker
• BC Achievement Award, Joe Martin
• Joe’s Facebook page

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A delightful yarn with Tyson Yunkporta, Aboriginal scholar, founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, and author of Sand Talk. Tyson is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, Australia.

On this episode we discuss:

• How their systems lab aggregates data and knowledge through indigenous sense-making protocols
• “Avatar Depression” syndrome and how the West may begin to remember its own aboriginal knowledge
• How giving names to nature can either kill, or create kinship
• The role of ceremony in maintaining energy flows.. And why ceremony isn’t always such an enjoyable matter!
• Why baramundi is not the correct name for a saltwater fish, and why biomimicry doesn’t work quite as well as we may think
• How land seen as capital becomes a dying land
• And finally, what happens when the dress rehearsal for an epic ceremony actually becomes the real thing!

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/indigenousviewtysonyunkaporta

Show Links:

• Deakin University Indigenous Knowledges Systems Lab
• Sand Talk book
• Indigenous AI Lab
• The Other Others podcast

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Tyson Yunkaporta & Joe Martin (Tutakwisnapšiƛ).

Today we’re joined by two master indigenous scholars and artists, who will be laying down clues from their ancestral cultures on how to interpret and read the laws of the land.

Our first conversation is what he likes to call a yarn, with Tyson Yunkporta, Aboriginal scholar, founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, and member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, Australia. Tyson is the author of the book Sand Talk which was wildly successful, and I reckon part of its popularity is the way that Tyson is able to pack in such punchy wisdom along with his sharp-witted, trickster humor. We discuss how their lab collects data and knowledge through a very special indigenous sense-making protocol, and then applies it to issues like economic reform, broken landscapes, cyber safety and neuroscience. We delve into the importance of engaging with place, why a real ceremony is not all fun and games, and how the west can quit longing and start acting in rediscovering its own indigeneity.

We’ll then visit wisdom holder and elder Joe Martin, who will be speaking to us from British Columbia. Joe is a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and is a master canoe and totem pole carver, with over seventy canoes having been whittled and chiselled away by his hands. Just earlier this July, he and his community raised a new totem pole in ceremony at the ancient village of Opitsaht which depicts his family’s teachings of natural law. I’ve uploaded videos of the totem poles in the show notes, where you can see how each pole carries millennia old myths, stories and teachings about the human relationship with forces like the bear, wolf, raven, sun, moon and stars.

I hope that both of these conversations will entice you to uncover and excavate your own family lineage, all the brimming folk tales and myths and lifeworlds held by your people and the land where your blood and cosmologies sprouted from.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/indigenousview 

Show Links:

• Deakin University Indigenous Knowledges Systems Lab
• Sand Talk book
• Indigenous AI Lab
• The Other Others podcast
• Film: The Canoe Maker
• Book: Making a Chaputs, The Teachings and Responsibilities of a Canoe Maker
• BC Achievement Award, Joe Martin
• Joe’s Facebook page

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd & The Rising by Tryad CCPL

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eric Smith has spent his career working at the intersection of economics and nature.

Most recently he was the director of the venture capital vehicle Neglected Climate Opportunities (NCO) at the Grantham Environmental Trust, where he co-led over 40 direct investments in start-ups across all stages that can remove carbon and GHG at scale.

He was previously with SJF Ventures and worked for BlackRock on climate finance, and currently is Founder/CEO of Edacious, a company working to differentiate food quality and connect the dots between soil and human health.

Eric is also a dear friend and someone with whom I often converse on our shared focus of investing on behalf of nature.

We were both in Mexico for a climate investing conference and caught up, beachside sand rolling in, on everything from:

• His personal background in forestry and building certification frameworks around natural resource operations;
• Working in Costa Rica on their Payment for Ecosystem Services model;
• The tensions in regenerative agriculture and nature conservation;
• Why he supports EO Wilson’s Half Earth theory;
• If narrow metrics can ever be proxy enough for the complexity of a system;
• The intrinsic vs economic values of nature;
• Examples of start-ups and nature-serving businesses, and which ones are not suited for a venture capital model;
• And more…

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/financeericsmith

Show Links:

• Finance for Nature: Lifeworlds Resource Page
• Regenerative Economics: Lifeworlds Resource Page
• Grantham Trust: Neglected Climate Opportunities
• Edacious
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
• Payments for Environmental Services Program | Costa Rica
• Steward
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
• SPUN fungi
• EO Wilson Foundation
• Ground Effect

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lorenzo de Rosenzweig is what you might call an “OG” (original gangster) of the conservation finance world.

An engineer and marine biologist by training, for 25 years he was president of a $170 million endowment conservation trust fund - the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature - and for over 17 years he was chairman of the Mesoamerican Reef Fund. During his tenure in both institutions he led resource mobilization efforts that raised close to $410 million. He’s a member of the board of the Conservation Finance Alliance Executive Committee, the World Environment Center, The Healthy Reefs Initiative, and several other global trust funds.

Now “retired” he has started up a new enterprise, Terra Habitus A.C. — a regional environmental fund for Northern Mexico, focused on private lands conservation, borderlands cooperation, regenerative ranching, resource mobilization and environmental journalism.

Lorenzo is also a nature photographer and a watercolor artist, and is working on his first fiction book, a collection of illustrated essays on human nature and biodiversity called “Impossible animals in improbable environments”.

With this long list of accolades, and a long-time friendship and mentorship between us, who better to dig into the tricky questions surrounding finance’s relationship to the living world?

Join us as we talk about deep time and becoming a good ancestor; how to activate our senses and capacities to see the world for what it is; how to reconcile nature’s timelines with financial timelines; and some vivid tales on one lucky whale that saved a pelagic ecosystem from destruction.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/financelorenzoderosenzweig

Show Links:

• Finance for Nature: Lifeworlds Resource Page
• Regenerative Economics: Lifeworlds Resource Page
• Terra Habitus
• MAR Fund
• Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature
• Conservation Finance Alliance
• The Good Ancestor Book

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.