Indigenous Knowledge/Cultures

"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are...there is nothing in nature that can't be taken as a sign of both morality and invigoration." — Gretel Ehrlich

Writer, Explorer

Born: 1946-01-21

Hometown: Santa Barbara, California

Education: Bennington College, UCLA Film School

Achievements

Expeditions: Throughout a 20 year period, Ehrlich has explored and lived in the Himalayas, Western China, Greenland and the Arctic. Her permanent home is in Wyoming.

Biography

Considered one of the great environmental writers of our time, Gretel Ehrlich is the author of 11 books, including This Cold Heaven and The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold, which focus on life in the Arctic in a time of global warming, and A Match to the Heart, which chronicles her ordeal and recovery after having been struck by lightning in 1991. Ehrlich received a National Geographic Expeditions Grant for the 2007 International Polar Year, and traveled the Arctic by skin boat, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopter, reindeer, and dogsled. She lived among the Inuit people who, as the Arctic warms and melts, are witnessing the destruction of their ecosystem and their way of life. In addition to educating readers with her scientific and cultural expertise, she probes the spiritual qualities of her subject with a pen that is both lyric and mystical. She has been awarded Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, etc.  

Read full bio on Gretel's website

"The thawing edge, Gretel Ehrlich’s Empire of Ice" NATGEO NewsWatch interview with Ford Cochran

Empire of Ice Video Interview on YouTube:

Fun Facts

Awards and Recognition

2010 PEN Henry David Thoreau Prize, Bellagio Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Whiting Award, Harold B. Vurcell Award, grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and two Expedition Council Grants from the National Geographic Sociey.

Publications

In the Empire of Ice: Encounters in a Changing Landscape, 2010; The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold, 2004; This Cole Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland, 2001; John Muir: Nature's Visionary, 2000; A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightening; Arctic Heart: A Poem Cycle, 1992; Islands, the Universe, Home, 1991; Drinking Dry Clouds: Stories from Wyoming, 1991; Heart Mountain, 1988; The Solace of Open Spaces, 1985

"Respect opens all doors." — Pauline (Polly) Wiessner

Anthropologist

Born: 1947-12-21

Hometown: Stowe, Vermont

Education: Ph.D., Anthropology

Achievements

Discoveries: Uncovered far ranging social security networks among the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Traveled widely to record the oral historical traditions of 110 tribes among the Enga of Papua New Guinea. Built the Enga Tradition and Transition Centre in Papua New Guinea to return the results of research to the people.

Expeditions: For the past 30 years, field trips to the Kalahari Bushmen and Enga of Papua, New Guinea.

Biography

For over 30 years, Wiessner has carried out studies of the !Kung (Ju/’hoansi) Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, documenting what happens to Bushman populations when inherited social systems of reciprocity become eroded by modernity and must confront participation in a cash economy. She advocates for necessities as wide-ranging as food, water, and educational opportunity. Wiessner’s other area of research has been among the Enga of Highland, New Guinea, where she has studied change in Enga society over 350 years via oral historical traditions as well as researched recent change. She has  struggled to understand and help counter the devastation caused by the use of high-powered automatic weapons in tribal warfare. As an anthropologist, her work has concentrated on hunter/gatherers, reciprocity and social networks for reducing risk, medical anthropology, ethnoarchaeology, ethology, ecology, warfare, ritual, exchange and oral history in populations of Highland Papua New Guinea and Southern Africa. She has worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Ethology in Germany for 15 years, and is currently a professor at the University of Utah. She has organized and participated in numerous international conferences with a focus on Hunting Gathering societies, and has lectured extensively. Wiessner worked with the Enga Province to build the Enga Take Anda, a vital education center for Enga culture, history, and continuing social networks. She characterizes Facebook as a modern version of the same, saying “The videos and snapshots that people post echo the exchange gifts of the !Kung.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Salt, Tang, and a hot water bottle

Heroes: John Marshall

Awards and Recognition

University of Utah Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award, 2009; Enga Provincial Government funding for research on Enga oral history and Max Planck society funding for her work in Enga and among the Bushmen.

Publications

Wiessner, P. and A. Tumu, "Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual and Warfare in Papua, New Guinea," Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, D.C., 1998.

Wiessner, P. and Wulf Schiefenhovel (eds.) Food and the Status Quest. Berghahn Books, Oxford, 1996.

Wiessner, P. From Inside the Women's House: The lives and traditions of Enga women. A. Kyakas and P. Wiessner, Robert Brown, Brisbane. 1992

Lake Baikal is a long, thin, slightly curved lake situated close to the Russia-Mongolia border in the far east of Siberia. Some 700km long, Baikal is never wider than 80km wide and is as much as 1600m deep in places, making it the deepest lake in the World.

The lake lies on the border between the Irkutsk Region of Russia and the Republic of Buryatia with Irkutsk (the capital of Irkutsk Region) lying a few hours drive to the west and Ulan-Ude (the capital of Buryatia) a day’s drive to the east. The expedition took place between Kultuk (N 51° 43.49’, E 103° 43.60’), a Buryat village at the southern tip of Lake Baikal and Nizhneangarsk (N 55° 48’, E109° 32’), a small airport town at the lake’s northern end.

One of Baikal’s most striking features is Olkhon Island (N 53° 10’, E 107° 20’), which juts into the lake roughly half-way along its length. Olkhon is the largest of Baikal’s islands and a place considered sacred by the Buryat people. Opposite Olkhon is the distinctively shaped Holy Nose Peninsula and Ust-Barguzin (N 53° 25’, E 109° 01’), the largest town on the eastern shore. Ust-Barguzin is situated at the entrance to the Barguzin valley which runs parallel to Lake Baikal for more than 200km, separated from the lake by the Barguzin mountain range. North of Ust-Barguzin the shores of Lake Baikal are mostly uninhabited apart from a few ranger huts and one or two small villages. At the northern end of the lake Severobaykalsk (N 55° 40’ ; E 109° 20’) is a large railway town with a population of around 25,000 people and 30km beyond it the village of Nizhneangarsk which has a small airport.

" No borders for the blind!" — Sabriye Tenberken

Co-Founder, Program Director of Braille Without Borders

Born: 1970-01-01

Hometown: Cologne, Germany

Education: Central Asian Studies at Bonn University, Germany

Achievements

Discoveries: Braille script for the Tibetan Language

Expeditions: Climbing Blind expedition in 2004, Blindsight Student Expedition on Mt Everest, 2006.

Biography

Sabriye Tenberken was born in Cologne, Germany. At age 12 she became blind. She studied Central Asian Sciences at Bonn University. In addition to Mongolian and modern Chinese, she studied modern and classical Tibetan in combination with sociology and philosophy. As no blind student had ever before ventured to enroll in these kind of studies, she could not fall back on the experiences of anyone else - and had to develop her own methods in order to follow her course of studies. Out of this need, Sabriye developed the Tibetan Braille Script, translating Tibetan into Braille and then traveled to Tibet where she established Tibet's only school for the blind in Lhasa. Traveling on horseback throughout Tibet, looking for blind children to bring to her school, she realized how sightless children, because of their blindness, suffered from unhealthy living conditions. Together with Paul Kronenberg, Sabriye founded Braille Without Borders to empower the blind and visually impaired throughout the world by providing access to education and a better future. Sabriye is also the author of three books:  "My path leads to Tibet," published in 12 languages, which tells the history of the project and about the way Sabriye dealt with becoming blind, "Tashis neue Welt," and  "Das siebte Jahr" ("The Seventh Year"), which tells the story of Sabriye and Paul's seventh year in Tibet.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Pronto Braille computer

Heroes: Jacques Lusseyran, blind hero of the French resistance, WWII

""Dreaming is great--but act on your dreams. They will be tomorrow's reality."" — Sveva Gallmann

Anthropologist, oral historian, educator, project coordinator

Born: 1980-01-01

Hometown: Near Nairobi, Kenya

Education: MA Medical Anthropology, New College, Oxford, England

Achievements

Discoveries: The Samburu spiritual healer Mzee Lemarkat and a Pokot herbalist Mama Langeta. Through them, I have uncovered many secrets of life.

Expeditions: Researching how native plants are used for healing by working with indigenous peoples in the Rift Valley region; expeditions with camels through East Africa exploring the secrets of life through spiritual and herbal healing.

Biography

Sveva Gallmann, a Kenyan ethnobotanist, has been honored for her field research on how native plants are used for healing. A native speaker of several Kenyan tribal languages, Ms. Gallmann currently coordinates the 4th Generation Project, an African heritage initiative that reinforces relationships among younger and elder tribe members and helps keep alive traditional wisdom through oral history. Ms. Gallmann lives in the Laikipia district of northern Kenya among the Pokot, a pastoral tribe of practitioners in the ancient use of herbs. Ms. Gallmann's interest in preserving knowledge of healing traditions has inspired her to develop a project to safeguard the knowledge of medicinal plants through oral history. The Four Generations Project is aimed at staunching the gradual loss of traditional tribal knowledge and encouraging a reconnection with, and respect for, the natural environment. The project inspires youth to share the wisdom of their elders. Sveva Gallmann graduated in Human Sciences at New College, Oxford, in 2002, winning the Wilmer Crowther award for best overall achievement in the Honour School. She has now returned to Ol ari Nyiro to help her mother in their shared pledge to protect and preserve the conservancy for the future. She divides her time between Kenya and the UK and has recently been busy initiating the Great Rift Valley Music Festival. Ms. Gallmann has had wide ranging experience all over the world, from a year spent volunteerig in a leprosarium in India, to dolphin rehabilitation in the Red Sea.  She has addressed the State of the World Forum in Belfast, and the Conference of Spiritual and Religious Leaders in Geneva. Her most recent undertaking, the Four Generations Project, researches and preserves rituals, songs and traditions of the local tribes, encouraging children to re-discover and revere their heritage.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Head lamp, dictaphone, cameras, sparklers, colored pens.

Heroes: Elie Cross

"If you find yourself stuck, know that there's always a way around a problem or another way to achieve your goals. Look for alternative solutions and don't be afraid to consider the wildest, most impossible idea, those are the ideas that can lead you to places you never imagined." — Andrea Polli

Artist and Teacher

Born: 1968-11-13

Hometown: Albuquerque, NM

Education: Master of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Achievements

Discoveries: That 'listening' to data is another way to gain insight into natural phenomena.

Expeditions: The Dry Valleys and the South Pole of Antarctica; hundreds of cities and towns around the world.

Biography

Andrea Polli is a digital media artist, Associate Professor in Fine Arts and Engineering and Director of the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program and ARTS Lab at The University of New Mexico. Polli's work with science, technology and media has been presented widely in over 100 presentations, exhibitions and performances internationally including the Whitney Museum of American Art Artport and The Field Museum of Natural History, and has been recognized by numerous grants, residencies and awards including UNESCO. Her work has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art News, NY Arts and others. She has published several audio CDs, DVDs two book chapters and many papers with MIT Press, Cambridge University Press and others.

She currently works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate through sound (called sonification). Recent projects include: a spatialized sonification of highly detailed models of storms that devastated the New York area; a series of sonifications of climate in Central Park; and a real-time multi-channel sonification and visualization of weather in the Arctic. In 2007/2008, she spent seven weeks in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation funded project. http://www.90degreessouth.org

As a member of the steering committee for New York 2050, a wide-reaching project envisioning the future of the New York City region, she worked with city planners, environmental scientists, historians and other experts to look at the impact of climate on the future of human life both locally and globally.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Binaural microphones to record the most realistic soundscape experience

Heroes: Electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros

"As Thoreau advised, "Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still. " — Kate Harris

Exploring, conserving, and writing about the wildest places in the world

Born: 1982-01-01

Hometown: Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Education: M.Phil. History of Science, M.Sc. Earth and Planetary Sciences

Achievements

Discoveries: Science can be a peacekeeping tool in contested wildernesses, from Kashmir to Antarctica to outer space

Expeditions: Traveled to all seven continents for the sake of science, adventure, research and writing. Biked the Silk Road through Xinjiang and Tibet.

Biography

Kate Harris is a young scientist, wilderness conservationist, adventurer, and writer. From living in a yurt in outer Mongolia to cycling the Silk Road to conducting field research in Antarctica, Kate is a nomad most in her element when, by all measures, she should feel most out of it. By the age of 25, she had already called all seven continents home. Today, at 27, she translates her passion for all things unfamiliar and extreme into a life devoted to wilderness exploration, conservation, and writing.

Kate spends most of her time and energy on scientific peacekeeping, which engages collaborative science and environmental conservation to foster better relations across boundaries and borders. She first became intrigued by the concept during a long-distance cycling adventure -- a Wings WorldQuest Flag Expedition she conceived and led in 2006 -- that retraced Marco Polo's travels along China's Silk Road. On this trip, she and two friends traversed the Aksai Chin in western Tibet, a contested territory between India and China, and in the process biked near the Siachen glacier on the Indian-Pakistan Line of Control. The notion that these sublime wildernesses were venues for military occupation and violence, because of arbitrary human borders, was shocking. This experience sparked her interest in the geopolitics of transboundary wilderness conservation.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: A stack of good books, my notebook, my camera, and my red bandana

Heroes: Fridtjof Nansen, Alexandra David-Neel, Henry David Thoreau, and Greg Mortensen

"All things are possible, follow your dreams, realize your vision" — Carol Beckwith

Photographer, Author, and Artist

Born: 1945-11-12

Hometown: Boston, MA

Education: Degree in Painting and Photography, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Goucher College, Maryland

Achievements

Discoveries: 900 Masaai Warriors gathering for a once-every 14 year passage to elderhood, Tanzania

Expeditions: 30 years of African expeditions covering 27,000 miles in 40 countries

Biography

Thirty years ago American-born Carol Beckwith and Australian Angela Fisher met in Kenya and began a relationship with the African continent that would profoundly alter and shape their lives. Their journeys would take them over 270,000 miles, through remote corners of 40 countries, and to more than 150 African cultures.

During this time the two photographers would produce 14 universally acclaimed books, including "Maasai" (1980), "Nomads of the Niger" (1983), "Africa Adorned" (1984), "African Ark" (1990), "African Ceremonies" (1999), "Passages" (2000), "Faces of Africa" (2004), "Lamu: Kenya's Enchanted Island" (2009), and "Dinka" (2010). Their defining body of work, the double volume "African Ceremonies" (1999), a pan-African study of rituals and rites of passage from birth to death covering ninety-three ceremonies from twenty six countries, won the United Nations Award for Excellence for its vision and understanding of the role of cultural traditions in the pursuit of world peace. Angela and Carol have also been twice honoured with the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award in race relations for outstanding contributions to the understanding of cultural diversity and prejudice, and the Royal Geographical Society of London Cherry Kearton Medal for their contribution to the photographic recording of African ethnography and ritual.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Polaroid camera for giving gifts of images; drawing pad and journal for recording experiences; and clean water

Heroes: Kathy Eldon, founder of Creative Visions, Katjamba-renowned Himba Healer; Nelson Mandela, freedom fighter and world leader; Salbastio Salgado, photographer of the plight of world peoples

"All things are possible, follow your dreams, realize your vision" — Angela Fisher

Photographer, author, and jewelry designer

Born: 1947-11-01

Hometown: Adelaide, Australia

Education: Degree in Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia

Achievements

Discoveries: Dinka Cattle Camp in the Nile swamplands filled with 2,000 head of cattle with long, lyre-shaped horns, Southern Sudan.

Expeditions: Thirty years of African exploration covering 27,000 miles in 40 countries

Biography

Thirty years ago American-born Carol Beckwith and Australian Angela Fisher met in Kenya and began a relationship with the African continent that would profoundly alter and shape their lives. Their journeys would take them over 270,000 miles, through remote corners of 40 countries, and to more than 150 African cultures.

During this time the two photographers would produce 14 universally acclaimed books, including "Maasai" (1980), "Nomads of the Niger" (1983), "Africa Adorned" (1984), "African Ark" (1990), "African Ceremonies" (1999), "Passages" (2000), "Faces of Africa" (2004), "Lamu: Kenya's Enchanted Island" (2009), and "Dinka" (2010). Their defining body of work, the double volume "African Ceremonies" (1999), a pan-African study of rituals and rites of passage from birth to death covering ninety-three ceremonies from twenty six countries, won the United Nations Award for Excellence for its vision and understanding of the role of cultural traditions in the pursuit of world peace. Angela and Carol have also been twice honoured with the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award in race relations for outstanding contributions to the understanding of cultural diversity and prejudice, and the Royal Geographical Society of London Cherry Kearton Medal for their contribution to the photographic recording of African ethnography and ritual.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Polaroid camera for giving gifts of images; journal for recording experiences; and clean water

Heroes: Kathy Eldon, founder of Creative Visions, Katjamba-renowned Himba Healer; Nelson Mandela, freedom fighter and world leader; Salbastiao Salgado, photographer of the plight of world peoples

"Believe that you can do anything you set your mind to. Your passion should be your path and your path should be your passion." — Rosita Arvigo

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Ethnobotanist, Traditional Healer, Teacher, Author

Born: 1941-01-01

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Education: Doctor of Naprapathy

Achievements

Discoveries: Several previously unknown plants once used by the ancient Mayan people.

Expeditions: More than 200 expeditions in the jungles of Central America.

Biography

Dr. Rosita Arvigo was born in the early 1940's on the north side of Chicago.  She earned her degree in Naprapathy from The Chicago College of Naprapathy in 1981, graduating with high honors.  In addition to her work as a naprapathic physician, Dr. Arvigo is a master herbalist with over 20 years of field and laboratory research experience.  In 1981, Dr. Arvigo moved to Belize to practice natural medicine and learn more about the countries healing plants.  There, she studied and learned from  dozens of traditional healers and midwives, the most notable of whom was Don Elijio Panti, the renowned Maya shaman of Belize.  As Don Elijio's students, she also mastered the spiritual healing practices that are an integral part of traditional Mayan medicine. Today, Dr. Arvigo is a recognized authority on Maya healing techniques and medicinal plants, and has been teaching these techniques in the United States and Europe for over ten years.  She has been on more that 200 expeditions into the jungles of Central America to discover plants once used by ancient Mayan people and bring them to the world.  She is the founder and director of Ix Chel Tropical Research Foundation in San Ignacio, Belize, an organization dedicated to the preservation and study of medicinal rainforest plants and founder and President of The Traditional Healers' Foundation in Belize, which works to support traditional healers.  Additionally, Dr. Arvigo worked for nine years with Dr. Michael Balick of The New York Botanical Garden to collect medicinal plants for research at The National Cancer Institute. Dr. Arvigo maintains her private healing practice in Belize and spends most of her time teaching The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage in Belize, the United States and around the world.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Compass, magnifying glass, good shoes, hat, and vest...good machettee.

Heroes: Elijio Panti, Maya shaman

Publications

SPIRITUAL BATHING: Healing Rituals & Traditions from Around the World; with Nadine Epstein (Ten Speed Press, 2003)
SASTUN: My Apprenticeship With a Maya Healer (Harper Collins, 1994)
RAINFOREST REMEDIES: 100 Healing Plants of Belize; with Michael Balick (Lotus Press, 1994)
RAINFOREST HOME REMEDIES: The Maya Way to Heal Your Body and Replenish Your Soul; with Nadine Epstein (Harper Collins, 2001)