Indigenous on deep ecology

Profile: Tyson Yunkaporta

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal Australian scholar and member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He founded the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University and wrote Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (2019), which examines how Aboriginal methods of inquiry address contemporary ecological and social challenges.

Yunkaporta’s work brings Aboriginal ways of knowing into dialogue with complexity science, examining how Indigenous thought represents systems thinking developed over tens of thousands of years. His methodology honors Aboriginal traditions of knowledge creation through “yarning” - collaborative dialogue through stories and mutual respect - and “sand talk,” the practice of drawing symbols in earth to convey complex ideas.

Profile: Ailton Krenak

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ailton Krenak (born 1953) is a Brazilian indigenous intellectual, environmental activist, and leader of the Krenak people of Minas Gerais. He advocates for indigenous rights, environmental protection, and presents indigenous perspectives on human-nature relationships.

Krenak gained recognition during Brazil’s constitutional assembly in the 1980s, where he painted his face black while speaking to Congress, symbolizing indigenous peoples’ mourning. This act of resistance became notable in indigenous advocacy against colonization.

Profile: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist, author, and distinguished professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. As an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she integrates indigenous wisdom and Western scientific knowledge in her work on traditional ecological knowledge and restoration ecology.

Kimmerer’s approach bridges empirical science with the holistic worldview of indigenous peoples. She advocates for what she terms “the grammar of animacy” - recognizing the personhood of the more-than-human world. Her work examines how indigenous protocols for relating to land can inform contemporary environmental practice while respecting indigenous sovereignty and wisdom.