Project Team

Project Summary

This project convened an interdisciplinary, problem-solving meeting of University of Michigan, Anishinaabe (Tribal), and USDA plant specialists to identify key issues and develop protocols to enable sharing of heritage seeds and associated archival information currently curated in University collections.

The goal of the two-day meeting was to determine how collections can be innovatively used in partnership with the Anishinaabe, and how and when to assess the viability of archived seeds. Participants focused on identifying key challenges and sharing ideas and information. The group also addressed essential questions of how museums can aid in promoting sustainable lifeway initiatives in indigenous communities, like seed sharing and teaching native foodways.

At the meeting, participants agreed to implement the collaborative framework they were developing though a pilot project focused on a single cultigen collected from a specific community of origin—metaphorically described as the “return of one seed to one Nation.” Since the catalyst grant project ended, continued discussions with representatives of the Bkejwanong Walpole Island First Nation and UM teams has led to a project-specific memorandum of understanding and implementation of the pilot project at the Matthaei Botanical gardens.

An over-arching theme of the Heritage Seed project was the importance of framing respectful collaborations between First Nations/Tribes, UM, and other specialists that will be of mutual interest and related to the botanical collections curated at the university. The project created a foundation for sustainable-lifeways collaborative research using museum collections and can be used as a model for ways to create partnerships between universities and tribal communities.