For this New Directions in the American Landscape virtual workshop on March 11 from 1 – 2:30, Patricia Klindienst and Clayton Brascoupe will share ideas about how the making of a garden helps maintain and transmit cultural heritage. They will explore the twin imperatives to honor and pass on traditional knowledge of garden and farming practices while healing the land and people estranged from their cultural heritage. $28. Cosponsored by the American Horticultural Society, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and Wild Ones – Native Plants, Natural Landscapes. Register at www.ndal.org
Patricia Klindienst is the author of The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, & Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans. Clayton Brascoupe , Mohawk / Anishnabeg/ life long gardener / farmer, began working on family subsistence garden and commercial farms at age 13. Clayton has worked with Akwesasne Notes, at the time was the largest Native Newspaper, with distribution nationally and internationally. Currently farming with family at Pueblo of Tesuque New Mexico, USA Clayton and wife Margaret named their farm Four Sisters Farm after their 4 daughters, where they grow traditional and heirloom crops for food and seed. Clayton is a founding member of and Program Director of the Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA) a non-profit inter-tribal association of Indigenous farmers, gardeners, educators, and health professionals. TNAFA’s mission is “to revitalize traditional agriculture for spiritual and human need”. Program director of TNAFA develops educational programs to engage Native youth, women, current farmers and those who wish to learn.
