AUNTIE: Wa’tkwanonhweráton Sewakwékon. On this edition of The Aunties Dandelion we visit with Dr. Theodore Jojola – Distinguished and Regents Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico and head of the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute. Ted has spent his lifetime developing articulation and action around the ways Indigenous values contribute to the growth and revitalization of communities. His work emerged from the worldview embedded in his adobe childhood home in Isleta Pueblo - where he still lives. TED: Our houses are essentially built from the Earth. There is a connection there – a spiritual connection to where the trees and the Earth are brought forth to support the family in their life. How does that building represent the stories of our people and the stories of our places? AUNTIE: In recent years, Ted’s organization partnered with arts groups and Environmental Protection Agency through what is called Tribal Technical Assistance to Brownfields to develop methods that help communities recognize their strengths and heal abused and neglected lands. What emerged is a dynamic path to the discipline of Indigenous Planning. TED: Beginning to actually train our own planners and architects in order to begin to assume their roles and their responsibilities of bringing these spaces back in our own traditional ways into our communities. If we do not walk the land with our children it does not help us sustain our language, our meaning of the land, our stories, all of these things which are at the core of what is our cultural identity. AUNTIE: Ted is also my Aktsikehtha – or – my sweetie in Mohawk. Part of the strength of our partnership is that both of our organizations focus on supporting our communities in how they envision their past, present, and future. I’m Kahstoserakwathe and we are Yéthi Nihsténha ne Tekarónyakénare. The Aunties Dandelion. We’re focused on revitalizing our communities through stories of land, language, and relationships. And we want to say Nyá:wenkò:wa – or big thanks – to Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office – teyonhkiwihstekénha – for making this podcast possible through their New Media fund. We make space here for real conversations to unfold – similar to how we visit in our communities. So take a breath, make some tea – and listen to your Aunties and your Uncles. END: Nyá:wen for listening! This podcast episode is the spring board for a limited podcast series that The Aunties Dandelion will be developing in 2024 with Indigenous Design and Planning Institute and Kansas State University/Tribal Technical Assistance for Brownfields. In that series, Ted and his colleagues take deep dives into case studies of communities that are reclaiming and restoring land that has been neglected, contaminated, or ignored. So stand by for that series. And listen to your Aunties.