Ferin Davis Anderson will give a keynote talk for Wild Great Plains, the Center for Great Plains Studies’ 50th annual conference. This talk is free and open to the public, no conference ticket needed. All other speakers require a conference ticket.

Anderson will discuss reciprocal restoration and examples of how stewarding a place can lead to cultural revitalization within a community in a talk titled: “How Reciprocal Restoration Fosters Cultural Revitalization.”

“Reconnecting with traditional practices such as cultural burning is central in our connection with the land and lessening the impacts of devastating wildfires. Fire holds such power,” Anderson says. “It is our duty to acknowledge fire and to foster a good relationship. As our ancestors understood, the land will teach us.”

Anderson is the co-author of “Wildfire: The Culture, Science, and Future of Fire,” a STEAM book exploring the science of wildfires, the history of fire in the United States, and the relationship Indigenous people have with fire. Anderson is an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa/Ojibwe/Anishinaabe/Mitchifs in North Dakota. She is also the Natural Resources Manager for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s Land and Natural Resources Department.

Anderson is responsible for stewarding and restoring natural areas for the SMSC. She works to weave Indigenous knowledge and western science to implement holistic land stewardship practices. This includes using fire as an ecological and cultural tool to achieve beneficial and healing outcomes. Witnessing Indigenous people revitalize and reconnect with this practice has been one of the greatest gifts of her career. Anderson was also part of a team that helped bring bison back to the SMSC – a relative that will help the community connect with the land and their culture.

Funding for this talk is provided by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and the UNL Faculty Senate Convocations Committee.