Nunxʷenemn for Earth Day: Belief & Knowledge Beyond Hope

Photo (L-R): Paula Akana Guanzon, Dr. Krystyna Aune, Cristina Higa, Jessica Yamauchi, Dr. Melodi Wynne, & SCI Chair Dr. Hye-ryeon Lee.  Photo by Amelia Marchand.

This Earth Day (4/22/25), we are honored to celebrate the accomplishments and wisdom of Melodi Wynne, Ph.D., a citizen of the Spokane Tribe and the Community and Cultural Psychologist with the Spokane Tribal Network (STN).  On April 11, 2025, Dr. Wynne received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa) School of Communication and Information (SCI) for her exceptional leadership in furthering SCI’s mission of fostering communication, information, and media that contribute to a more peaceful, just, and informed society.  The award ceremony was held at the UH Mānoa campus in Honolulu, HI. 

A former McNair Scholar and graduate from Eastern Washington University (EWU), Dr. Wynne also obtained a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution from the Matsunaga Institute for Peace (Institute) along with her doctorate while at UH Mānoa.  She was nominated for the Distinguished Alumni award by her colleagues from SCI and the Institute’s program who acknowledge her significant contributions and inspiring work in her community.  “Through her work with the Spokane Tribal Network and beyond, Dr. Wynne demonstrates the power of community-driven change rooted in culture, relationships, and a vision for collective wellness,” said Dr. Dan Milz, Associate Professor with the Institute.  True to form, shortly after accepting the Distinguished Alumni Award, Dr. Wynne brought a group of 8th-12th grade students from the Wellpinit School District to the Institute for a peer mediation training.  It was the second time since the pandemic that she’s been able to bring Tribal students to UH Mānoa to learn 1:1 from the multidisciplinary scholars and practitioners at the Institute.  Upon returning home to the Spokane Reservation, students apply mediation practices directly in their school experience, resolving conflicts between their peers and classmates.

Among Dr. Wynne’s many accolades is her ability to bring compassionate, culture-based leadership to the work she is engaged in.  The L.I.G.H.T. Foundation (LF) is especially grateful for Dr. Wynne’s leadership in advancing collaborative Indigenous food sovereignty and restoring cultural fire traditions of Inland Northwest Tribes.  A core member of the Northeast Washington Indigenous Peoples [Prescribed] Burning Network (NE WA IPBN), Dr. Wynne’s work at STN restores landscapes and culture through Indigenous land management practices, like planting food forests and coordinating on traditional burning.  In partnership with Red Bird Camp Collective, STN has also recently produced a publication titled GOOD FIRE – sʔiłn sḿeḿí: food stories. Vol 2.  It is a collection of art, poetry, stories, and articles describing the relationship between Indigenous Peoples, landscapes, and healthy fire.  We had the opportunity to celebrate Dr. Wynne’s award and visit with her about her work supporting native plants and pollinators. We are pleased to share her poignant words this Earth Day.

At the L.I.G.H.T. Foundation, we believe native plants and pollinators are our relatives and that we should do all we can to protect and conserve their existence.  Please share with us a little about your roles and experiences in advocating for biodiversity and conservation of native plants and pollinators in ways which honor your traditions and cultural practices.

It all started seeing the power of traditional foods to bring people together, especially women.  The power of our traditional foods is that they are healthy and nourishing. I saw that our protein sources, like deer, elk, salmon, and others, they were really cared for and talked about a lot by our Tribal Natural Resources Department, but the plants were forgotten about.  I started to develop this concept of plants and food sovereignty and started learning what other Tribes were doing - and I saw some of them were farther along in their work to restore their traditional foods.  I listened and learned from many Tribal families that have kept their cultural harvesting practices going for generations.  I remember that growing up, my family hunted deer and elk, and we harvested huckleberries, and foamberries were always important for us, too.  But then I started to learn about the other native plants.  

There are lessons that our Spokane Tribal Network team had to learn to get reintroduced to the plants.  We would invite the Tribal community to go out and gather with us, and we were so fortunate because elders and knowledge holders would come and help teach us all how to harvest plants in the right way.  Every landscape has different lessons to teach, so gathering is different in different areas: woods, meadows, scablands, wetlands, etc.  

There is this common Western belief that there is a hierarchy to nature which puts humans (and men) at the top, with all the rest of the natural world below it. But the more I learn, I see that we, as Tribal peoples, are the opposite.  We see the natural world as the top of the hierarchy, giving thanks for plants, and we honor the teachings we were raised with: you take only what you need, share it with others, don’t waste what you take.  We advocate for that.

One thing I’ve learned is that earth is so abundant, there is enough for all of us, we just have to not be greedy.  The Earth wants to provide, huckleberry wants to provide and give to us, but we need to take care of her.  The summer of 2021, when we experienced the heat dome in Washington State, was the same year that STN planted a small demonstration garden at our food sovereignty site.  We often visited our plant relatives in the wild and were so worried and concerned that the bushes wouldn’t survive.  And it also made us wonder, with climate change altering and condensing the growing seasons, will the medicinal and nutritional properties of the plants be scarce?  It reminded me of a story I heard from one of our Elders, that a story once existed that the people were misbehaving really bad, and as punishment the animals stood up and said, “We will carry disease so that you will die.”  But then the plants stood up and said, “We will carry the cure so you will live.”  

There is research from one of the Tribes West of the Cascades that when we access and harvest the plants, they thrive.  They need us.  I think of it as a relative.  If you only have two weeks to visit that relative and be with them, then you give them so much love, attention, and you strengthen that relationship with them.  If you don’t see them, then they fail to thrive and they suffer.  So, during these times of shortened gathering seasons, high heat, and other environmental damage, we must be with our Plant Relatives.  Visit them, don’t over-harvest, take only what we need, use what we take, leave their home nicer than we found it.

What, would you say, is one of the accomplishments related to environmental or native plants/pollinators protection, restoration, or education which you are most proud of?

My first goal is always to connect people with plants and all life including pollinators, connect people with the soil, connect people with themselves, and then connect them with each other.  I’ve seen kids so interested, they are so engaged when they are out on the land, and it’s really rewarding.  I remember one young man went out and he just wanted to do things by himself.  But we taught him how to do the work correctly and every time he came after that, he just was so focused and so in tune with the activities.  He was always really quiet though.  One day, we were driving together and he started opening up and talking to me.  He said that he struggled with depression, that there had been times when he had suicidal thoughts (suicidal ideation).  But the young man said that ever since he learned about the work in the food garden and food forest and started participating in tending to it, he learned there was something bigger than himself.  He said that when he is out there, he doesn’t think about hurting himself anymore.  I was struck by his words, to hear how this work was healing him.  It was the most valuable thing to learn.

The food garden and food forest we have at STN is 24 acres of land on the reservation.  The first year we started and got access to the land, there was only ants, wasps, snakes,, moles and voles there.  Then, the next year, after we planted our first set of foods, more birds and insects came.  Then, the next year, we had more pollinators and mammals starting to come in.  Every year there is more biodiversity.  We’ve witnessed the land come back to life, and it’s the work of bringing the kids, the youth, the Elders - getting the people back is part of that healing too.

We can learn so much from our plant/pollinator relatives, they are like teachers.  Are there any that have helped teach you about strength and resilience?  

The dragonfly.  There is a saying about dragonfly; that it eats the wind: taking the energy of the wind and harnessing it.  It is not a legend from my Tribe, it is from another country, but it is still true.  And I’ve heard another saying that when it is windy, that is our prayers moving about, so the dragonfly can travel within and with our prayers.  

Is there a person who has helped inspire your desire to protect and advocate for our native plant/pollinator relatives?

All my teachers!  When I first came to Hawai’i, food sovereignty was such a big deal at UH Mānoa and on the island, and that permeated into my activities when I returned to the Spokane Tribe.  While there, I worked on a Sustainable Master Plan grant and it was my role to increase meaningful community participation.  We would hold these community meetings and at every single one, the topic of food came up and we told the planners, “Well, they talked about food again!”  And every time the planners weren’t interested in including food as a topic in the Master Plan, they didn’t think it belonged there. But we convinced them to hold a community meeting just on the topic of food, and we were able to invite Valerie Segrest and Elizabeth Campbell of Tahoma Peak Solutions to facilitate the meeting. From that meeting, they developed a report and we were able to integrate food sustainability into the Master Plan.

What about these people inspires you?

Their concern, their love, their expectations.  Their trust.  Their belief.  “Nunxʷenemn.”  That means believe, but believe in such a way that you know it is going to happen.  For example, if you go to a healer, you have to go with the belief that you will be healed, not the hope.  That’s nunxʷenemn.

Are there any additional insights about your journey that you’d like to share with us?  

The Earth is abundant and wants to take care of us.  Right now we are giving it the support that we need.  The Earth is going to be okay, but we need to undo the damage we have done.  We need to stop being the damage.  It's like one of our elders said, “The people will be fully healed when the land is healed.”  It’s a million-year project, and this is a good year to start!

Beautiful words, beautiful wisdom, and a beautiful journey.  Thank you, Dr. Wynne, for sharing your Voice with us this Earth Day 2025!