Rooted: Ancestral Knowledge & Ecological Futures
A TEK Summit Led by Native and Black Communities
Saturday, July 19, 2025 • Chicago, IL
We come from people who listened to the land—who moved with the seasons, planted by the moon, and carried seeds through forced displacement. Before conservation had a name, our ancestors were practicing it. That is Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK): not folklore, but memory. Not myth, but methodology. Not a tool, but a responsibility.
Rooted: Ancestral Knowledge & Ecological Futures is more than a summit. It is a return. A gathering created by and for Black and Native communities who have always known how to live in balance with the land—and who are ready to lead.
This one-day gathering centers the voices, knowledge, and leadership of those too often excluded from environmental and conservation spaces. Through intergenerational panels, hands-on workshops, storytelling, and shared meals, we’ll explore how TEK lives today—and how it continues to guide the way forward.
Rooted is a space for truth, relationship, and responsibility. It’s not about inclusion—it’s about centering what has always been here.
What Is Rooted?
A Gathering of Land, Memory, and Future
Rooted: Ancestral Knowledge & Ecological Futures is not a typical summit. It’s not a networking event or a professional development opportunity. It’s something deeper—a space created by and for Black and Native communities to gather, to lead, and to reconnect with knowledge we’ve carried all along.
Rooted was born out of necessity. Too many conservation and climate spaces continue to operate on frameworks that exclude us. Our knowledge—Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)—is often invited in only after decisions are made, reduced to folklore, or repackaged in language that erases its origins.
Rooted is a different kind of space.
It centers the voices, stories, and leadership of those who have always known how to live in relationship with the land. Not as a resource, but as a relative. Not through extraction, but through care, memory, and responsibility.
Rooted is where we gather to:
Speak in our own voices without translation or permission
Share knowledge that lives in practice, not theory
Connect across generations, geographies, and lineages
Build a shared future that is grounded, just, and led by us
This summit is a return. A return to ways of understanding shaped by observation, experience, and relationship. A return to land-based knowledge that has endured removal, redlining, boarding schools, incarceration, and displacement. A return to community-defined leadership and truth-telling.
We’re not asking to be included in someone else’s vision—we’re shaping our own.
Rooted is for those doing the daily work of tending to land and community, whether in cities or on ancestral ground. For those planting seeds and protecting water. For those working with youth, feeding families, making art, telling stories, and healing wounds. For those carrying knowledge not in credentials, but in hands, hearts, and memory.
This is not about visibility. It’s about grounding.
Not about representation. But relationship.
Not about being seen. But about building something that lasts.
Rooted is where we begin again—but this time, on our own terms.
Why We're Doing This
Because the knowledge we carry has always mattered. And right now, the world needs it more than ever.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK, has guided Native and Black communities for generations. It is a way of living in relationship with the land—based not on ownership or control, but on observation, reciprocity and responsibility. This knowledge has helped our communities survive forced removal, enslavement, redlining, environmental violence and cultural erasure. It is not lost. It is living knowledge, and we are still carrying it.
Yet even now, the spaces that claim to care about land and climate rarely center the people who know it best. Conservation and environmental systems continue to rely on Western frameworks that view land as a resource to manage, not a relationship to honor. Our knowledge is often treated as symbolic or invited in only after key decisions are already made.
We created Rooted because we are no longer willing to be included as an afterthought. We are building a space where Native and Black leadership is not just present—it is the foundation. We are doing this now because the crises we face are no longer distant or theoretical. Climate disasters, collapsing food systems and environmental harm are already here. And the institutions that caused this crisis are still being allowed to define the solutions.
Rooted is a response to that. It brings together the people who have always known how to care for the land—farmers, healers, artists, youth leaders, land stewards and knowledge keepers. TEK is not theoretical. It lives in gardens, kitchens, classrooms, watersheds and neighborhoods. It is being practiced every day in ways that are grounded, personal and powerful.
This moment requires more than representation. It requires relationship. Rooted is how we meet this moment on our own terms—with clarity, connection and care. We are not asking for a seat at the table. We are planting something of our own.
What Your Ticket Includes
Your $35 ticket includes a full day of panels, a shared meal, hands-on learning and cultural connection. The day begins with three panel conversations that explore Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) across time. The first panel looks to the past, highlighting storytelling as methodology and exploring how land-based knowledge is carried through narrative. The second centers the present, featuring speakers who are actively using TEK in gardens, ceremonies, community care and environmental work. The third looks toward the future, focusing on intergenerational knowledge and how youth are shaping new ecological paths.
After the panels, attendees will share a meal prepared by Native chef Jessica Walks First. Lunch is included in your ticket and is designed to nourish both body and community. Following the meal, participants will take part in the Knowledge Keeper Workshop Series. Each person will choose one of five hands-on workshops led by Black and Native facilitators. These workshops offer an opportunity to go deeper, connect with ancestral knowledge and engage directly in a specific TEK practice. All materials for the workshops are provided.
Throughout the day, a pop-up exhibit will feature the work of Black and Native artists who use visual storytelling to explore themes of land, memory and ecological justice.
Your ticket includes admission to all three panels, lunch, your selected workshop and full access to the art exhibit. All ages are welcome, but space is limited and advance registration is highly recommended.
Knowledge Keeper Series Workshops
In the afternoon, each participant will take part in one of five workshops as part of the Knowledge Keeper Series. These sessions are led by Black and Native facilitators and offer hands-on experiences rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Each workshop reflects a different way of knowing and connecting with land, culture and community. Participants will choose their workshop during registration. All materials are included in the cost of the ticket.
The five workshops are:
Face Jugs
Participants will sculpt a ceramic face jug while learning about the history and cultural significance of this African American tradition. Face jugs have long served as vessels of memory, resistance and spiritual protection, especially in the context of slavery and its aftermath.Gourd Birdhouses
Using dried gourds, participants will build traditional birdhouses while exploring the deep cultural ties both Native and African American communities have to gourd plants. The session includes hands-on creation and storytelling about how gourds have been used in ceremony, daily life and ecological care.Ethnobotany and Herbalism
Participants will engage with local plants and ancestral healing practices, learning how different herbs have been used for medicine, ceremony and everyday wellness across generations.Natural Dyes
This session uses roots, berries, flowers and other plant-based materials to create natural dyes. Participants will learn how dye-making reflects seasonal cycles, cultural identity and reciprocal relationships with the land.Birch Bark Basketmaking
Participants will use harvested birch bark to hand-form small containers using traditional methods. This practice emphasizes respect for materials, ecological timing and cultural memory. It is not weaving—it is shaping, folding and holding knowledge in your hands.
Each workshop offers more than a skill. It offers a connection to story, place and cultural continuity.
Who Should Attend Rooted?
Rooted is open to everyone, but it was created first and foremost for Native and Black communities who carry Traditional Ecological Knowledge. This summit centers the people whose knowledge has too often been left out of conservation, environmental and land stewardship conversations—elders, youth, land workers, healers, artists, farmers, cultural practitioners and those who hold these responsibilities in their everyday lives.
If you are Native or Black and your work—formal or informal—is rooted in relationship with land, this space was built with you in mind. Whether you carry that knowledge through growing food, tending plants, storytelling, healing practices, youth mentorship or everyday community care, your experience belongs here. You do not need to be a professional or have a title. If you’ve been doing the work, this is your space.
If you are not Native or Black but you support this work, and you come with humility, respect and a genuine willingness to listen, there is space for you here. Rooted is an opportunity to learn directly from the communities who carry this knowledge—not to take it and teach it elsewhere in isolation, but to build real relationships, deepen your understanding and consider how your work might shift in response. This space is not about extraction. It’s about connection, accountability and the possibility of long-term partnerships rooted in trust, reciprocity and shared responsibility.
Rooted is not about visibility or performance. It is about building something real, with clarity and care for who is leading and why.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Rooted is led by Native and Black communities, but it is sustained by collective support. Sponsorship doesn’t create this space—it helps carry it.
Your support ensures that speakers are honored, workshop materials are covered and participation remains accessible to all. It removes the expectation that our communities should build for free what others are often paid to manage. Sponsorship allows Rooted to remain grounded, welcoming and deeply community-led.
We are not asking for attention—we are asking for commitment. Our sponsorship levels are named after trees because trees create the conditions for life without demanding recognition. That is the kind of support we’re seeking: steady, rooted and intentional.
If you or your organization believe in climate justice, equity and community-led leadership, we invite you to stand with us. This is not about visibility. It is about relationship—about supporting the work already in motion, and the future being built from it.
To learn more or become a sponsor, you can:
For more information or questions, please contact Jay Young, jay.young@chicagoaic.org.
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2025
Time: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: American Indian Center—3401 W Ainslie Ave, Chicago
Cost: $35 (includes panels, lunch, and workshop)
Thank You To Our Sponsors
We’re deeply grateful to the sponsors of Rooted: Ancestral Knowledge & Ecological Futures. Your support helps us bring Native and Black knowledge holders together to share stories, teachings, and traditions that connect us more deeply to the land and to each other. Because of you, Rooted isn’t just an event—it’s a space for learning, healing, and building relationships that honor ancestral knowledge and point us toward a more just, sustainable future. Thank you for standing with us in this important work.
Maple Level
Pine Level
Willow Level
