Native American Culture Bearer Kat High shares insights this week on how growing a garden can grow us. When you care for the land and keep it healthy, the land gives you health, she says — not just physical health, but also gifts of spiritual value and strength.
Kat High, a teacher, storyteller, and native-plant specialist of Hupa descent who has worked extensively with Southern California elders, tells a little about her upcoming special Zoom conversation with us at 6 pm on Monday, September, 21, 2020. From her longtime home in Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, she’ll share: “Gardening for Dynamic Balance: The Seasons of A Native Woman’s Garden.”
Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, this week also tells about a relationship with the native plant, California buckwheat.
Gardening for Dynamic Balance
Kat High shares nettles lasagna and other contemporary foods made with native plants at the Learning Center’s 2019 Native Voices Poetry Festival (Carlos Puma Photo).
By Candy Navarrete
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Intern
For some, gardening is therapeutic, taking patience, love, and dedication, especially while sheltering in place. For Kat High, gardening is cultural, traditional, and most importantly, about balance.
Gardening, no matter the size or location, is an ecosystem where all living things are connected (even down to the rocks) and in a constant state of homeostasis. This is what Kat High calls “dynamic balance.” Yet, activities such as gathering can offset this balance. Gathering, when overdone, depletes the environment. However, when it comes to putting together a garden, specifically a Native garden, then gathering is as essential. Kat High advocates planting your own garden, and building a community around that garden. Here’s our conversation on gardening and gathering:
“Take Care of the Earth,
And the Earth Will Take Care of You.”
Candy Navarrete: What exactly is gardening for dynamic balance?
Kat High: We are all related — not only people, but plants, animals, rocks. Spirit is in all. Dynamic balance = the interdependence of all, the give and take, the sharing of the network of life with all things.
CN: Please give a quick summary or list of some of the concepts taught to you by your mentors/elders.
Kat High:
Jane Dumas
[The late Jamul Band of Kumeyaay Indians elder shared her traditional knowledge with many, and co-founded the San Diego American Indian Health Center. She was awarded Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Dragonfly Award in 2005]:
“Take care of the earth and the earth will take care of you. Only go gathering with a song in your heart.”
Barbara Drake
[This Tongva elder who widely shares her vast traditional knowledge of native plants was awarded Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Dragonfly Award in 2012]:
“Always offer a prayer and a thank you.”
“Plants have spirit”
CN: The importance of "statement of intent" and taking only what is needed?
Kat High: Plants have spirit, and I feel they are happy to know how they will contribute to the balance. (It doesn't have to be out loud— it can be subliminal.) Please take only what you need. Leave some for others — birds, rabbits, squirrels, other humans — [all] part of the dynamic balance. This has become evident with the over-harvesting of white sage.
[Editor’s note: Rose Ramirez and Deborah Small tell how white sage is paying the price for popularity, HERE. ]
When Plants become Family,
Give them a Community
Processing yucca blossoms for food is traditionally a group effort. (Pat Murkland Photo)
CN: What is your process when beginning to plant or gather?
Kat High: I prepare. I take the proper tools, the tobacco, gloves, water, if I'm gathering, proper clothing. If I'm planting, tools, tobacco, water, mulch — and always a song.
CN: In the KCET series “Tending the Wild,” you quickly mentioned “gathering areas.” What exactly would a gathering area be?
Kat High: … In my yard I have an abundance of oaks, mugwort, dogbane, berries, etc., and have enough for me to gather, and use for classes. Not enough for a community, but I do invite neighbors to come gather for their uses. They in turn offer me treasures from their gardens. I discourage foraging, and encourage expanding your private or community garden to feature those plants that you most use.
“It’s All About the Land”
Elderberries are an important resource and grow well (Pat Murkland Photo).
CN: In your experience how has having a native plant garden connected you with your community or created community? Have you aided others in creating their own native plant garden? How does it give an individual or community a purpose, responsibility and/or role?
Kat High: Yep. The docents from Topanga State Park aren't allowed to gather there, but are invited to gather in my garden. I share recipes, share cuttings to take to their gardens, and work with them to use Native management techniques in the State park and their homes. Gathering was the main purpose of our land "management" practices over millennia. One of the difficulties these days is the overgrowth of the understory, because gathering, and cultural burning aren't allowed.
CN: What is your take on land and Native/Indigenous bodies? How does land connect them with their identity, culture, and traditions?
Kat High: It’s all about the land! Culture is based on the land, language is based in the land. Traditions developed from a deep knowledge and understanding of the nuances of the land and its inhabitants.
Kat High: Acknowledge the First People of each place.
CN: Lastly, I think it would be fun to have a list of the Top 5-10 plants for gardeners who would like to start their own Native Plant garden …
Kat High: Hah! What is your environment? What do you want? Who is it for? Beauty, medicine, food, ceremony? Basketry? Most these days want white sage; grow your own! Herbs can be grown in pots, with a good mix of native and non-native, and are easy to grow. I love prickly pear; I teach a workshop. The (Sept. 21) powerpoint goes over where, water management — it could be a whole college course!
Kat High: So, get to know your land, get to know its seasons, get to know its First People, and then decide what you want from your garden, what you can give to your garden, and go out with a song.
Join us!
When you set down roots into the soil, and plant in respect, you start to tap into deeper connections. You then grow your own roots, Kat High says. Join Kat High via Zoom and explore how gardens offer deeper meanings along with gifts of traditional food and medicines.
DETAILS: Sept. 21, 2020, 6 pm California time online via zoom.
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center online adventure
(Co-Sponsored by Rivers and Lands Conservancy)
FREE. Donations to the nonprofit 501(c)3 Center welcome.
To join the conversation, please sign up for “Gardening for Dynamic Balance” via zoom. A link will be sent to you to join the session: REGISTER.
About Kat High
Receiving the Dragonfly Award in 2019 from Learning Center leaders Ernest and June Siva (Carlos Puma Photo).
Kat High, a Native Californian of Hupa descent, has been trained by traditional elders in Native American land-management traditions, and is a teacher on adapting those principles to the modern world. She participated in the KCET “Tending the Wild” documentary, and is part of the California Continued exhibit at the Autry National Center. As the founder of Kidiwische Connections, she has offered workshops on modern adaptations of a Native relationship to the Earth throughout Southern California. She received Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Dragonfly Award in 2019 for her soaring achievements in saving and sharing Native American cultures.
Kat High founded Giveaway Songs, a small production company that has produced over 200 Public Access TV shows, and 6 award-winning short documentaries. She’s served as the past chair of the American Indian Scholarship Fund of Southern California, and as the director of the Haramokngna American Indian Cultural Center for over 15 years. She also has been active in the California Indian Storytellers Association, California Indian Basketweavers Association, and Neshkinukat, the California Indian artists’ network.
Ernest Siva: Buckwheat memories
Elder Ernest Siva shares some memories of California buckwheat to give you a taste of our upcoming Sept. 30, 2020, News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, which will feature this amazing native plant.
Upcoming Event
The Desert is our Mother
Sept. 28, 2020, 6 pm, California time online via zoom
Take a poetic journey with poet Ruth Nolan and her beautiful photography. Explore the desert’s immense powers for healing and transformation. Free. Donations welcome.
Desert Tales?
Do you have any desert stories to share in our September 23, 2020, newsletter? Please tell us by Sept. 19: Email. We welcome ideas for future newsletters! Thank you!
Pat Murkland, Editor. Sept. 16, 2020
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Join us at dorothyramon.org and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center on Facebook.