This episode attempts to weaves together personal encounters and academic, historical accounts of human and animal relationships. I reflect on my own encounters with so-called "dangerous and dying" animals--Miko, a reactive dog we adopted; and Francie--a hedgehog dying from cancer. I turn to wisdom from Amazon, Singapore, and ocean mammals.

This was produced as a project for a course called Animals and The Unseen taught by Teren Sevea

This episode is dedicated to Michael Nunziato and Miko. Michael, you've been so dedicated to Miko's wellbeing. Miko, you're such a beautiful being, thank you for letting me love you. You two have taught me so much.

Content warning: the storytelling, particularly in the beginning of the episode, includes stories of animals who can be considered dangerous as well as experiences of animal deaths.

Here are some links from sources mentioned in the episode:

• Dog & deer from @thedodo
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned
• Professor Sevea's work on the miracle workers in Singapore
• Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics
• The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinn by Ikwan al-Safa'
• On tigers see: Dato' Paroï by Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad
• One example about the state of the Amazon

I also want to acknowledge Professor Teren Sevea for this opportunity to produce this episode as a class project. Additionally, an earlier draft of this story was inspired by courses and conversations with Professors Michael Puett and Janet Gyatso. Thank you to my community: Amy and Henry, Nat and Liri & Lala, Quinn, Rebeccah, Claudia, Jessy and Scout for walking through this experience with me, and to Michael, Miko, Francie, Rūmī for all your patience and love.

*** To learn more about Palestine from Native American, decolonial perspectives I recommend ⁠The Red Nation ⁠on Youtube or podcast apps. I have also signed on to ⁠this statement ⁠as a Ford Fellow, you can find further resources there.

PS: enjoy Rūmī's meowing (and the heater) in the background.

September of 1519 in Yucatan, Mexico. September of 2018 in Denver, Colorado, USA. Copal is a powerful incense across centuries, a scent and ceremonial presence familiar to Indigenous peoples, Mexicans, and Chicanx communities alike. But what happens when copal is stolen from Maya sacred sites and brought to storage in Massachussetts? For over 100 years thousands of bodies from Chichén Itzá have been held in a Harvard museum in Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA. This is  a tragic rupture of a relational network.

This is a bonus episode and based on a paper for Seeding Relations Conference March 2022. Here, I articulate some experiences, reflections, and questions that are emerging during my research and relationships with copalli. These are questions I hope to engage in my thesis and future doctoral work. Thank you for listening!

• Check out the March 2022 conference: Seeding Relations
• Read the paper, a partial transcript of this episode.
• Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie
• Find out more about Harvard  Museum Collections here
• Music from Epidemic Sounds

This podcast episode was recorded and produced on the ancestral lands of the Pawtucket and Massachussett. 

To support the show and/or Rebecca's PhD applications fall 2022 venmo @Rebecca-Nunziato

On this episode Johanna Guevara of Dropping Seeds joins Rebecca to discuss the ways that we can relate to plants and remember ancestral survival skills and healing practices. Johanna shares her personal journey of Indigenizing her family structure, homeschooling her children, and cultivating herbal medicine. Johanna inspires us to be held by nature and in rooted relationships even in fast-paced urban settings like Brooklyn or Boston.

Please consider purchasing amazing herbal blends for tea, smoking, and more from dropping-seeds.com!

Resources & Recs from Johanna:

• Kim Tallbear on All My Relations Podcast
• God is Red by Vine Deloria
• Mil Mundos Books
• Follow Dropping Seeds on IG & FB

This podcast was produced on Pawtucket and Massachussett land. Learn about the Indigenous lands you occupy here: https://native-land.ca/

To support the show and/or Rebecca's PhD applications venmo @Rebecca-Nunziato

About Johanna:

Johanna migrated to America with her family in the 80’s. As a last generation Colombian, her upbringing under the 7 Train in Queens, NYC, was mostly in Spanish. As with many Central, South American and Caribbean countries, both of her Grandmothers were influential and always had a plant for every ailment.
 
From very young, Johanna’s passion was creating. Her drive and determination lead her to graduate with a BFA from Parsons School of Design, only a couple months before Sept. 11. This global event would not only change the course of history but also propel her freelance design career into a full service branding studio with clients like Time Inc., CUNY, Afropunk, Department of Education, HighTimes and Sony Japan.
 
In 2008, during the collapse of the housing bubble which led to the Great Recession, she closed up her design studio and decided to travel the world with her then partner SirRoan. These travels very synchronistically turned into studies of sacred plant medicine, Ayurveda & Curanderismo with different masters from Brazil to New Mexico to heal personal emotional traumas. Johanna has also received certification in Reiki Level 2, Integrated Energy Technique Advanced , a Wasteskun Meztli Canada Moon Dancer and a Vision Quester in Atlantida, Colombia.