Virtual Book Discussion

“Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge”

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST

Guest Speaker: Hartman Deetz (Mashpee Wampanoag) who is mentioned in the book.

Registration information below.

On Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM, MCNAA is hosting its first book discussion for 2025. It’s entitled “Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge” by Deidre Havrelock (a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Alberta, Canada) & Edward Kay. The book is suitable for middle school-aged participants as well as adults.

Corn. Chocolate. Fishing hooks. Boats that float. Insulated double-walled construction. Recorded history and folklore. Life-saving disinfectant. Forest fire management. Our lives would be unrecognizable without these, and countless other, scientific discoveries and technological inventions from Indigenous North Americans.

Spanning topics from transportation to civil engineering, hunting technologies, astronomy, brain surgery, architecture, and agriculture, Indigenous Ingenuity is a wide-ranging STEM offering that answers the call for Indigenous nonfiction by reappropriating hidden history. The book includes fun, simple activities and experiments that kids can do to better understand and enjoy the principles used by Indigenous inventors. Readers of all ages are invited to celebrate traditional North American Indigenous innovation, and to embrace the mindset of reciprocity, environmental responsibility, and the interconnectedness of all life.

This book will amaze readers and teachers. Completely unique and important.

Virtual Book Discussion

“We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth”

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST

Guest Speaker: Julia Marden (Aquinnah Wampanoag)

Registration information below.

On Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 4PM, MCNAA will hold its second book discussion. The group will examine the book entitled “We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth” edited by Stan Rushworth and Dahr Jamail.

A powerful, intimate collection of conversations with Indigenous Americans on the climate crisis and the Earth's future.

Although for a great many people, the human impact on the Earth--countless species becoming extinct, pandemics claiming millions of lives, and climate crisis causing worldwide social and environmental upheaval--was not apparent until recently, this is not the case for all people or cultures. For the Indigenous people of the world, radical alteration of the planet, and of life itself, is a story that is many generations long. They have had to adapt, to persevere, and to be courageous and resourceful in the face of genocide and destruction--and their experience has given them a unique understanding of civilizational devastation.

An innovative work of research and reportage, We Are the Middle of Forever places Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today's environmental crisis. The book draws on interviews with people from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities, generations, and geographic regions, who share their knowledge and experience, their questions, their observations, and their dreams of maintaining the best relationship possible to all of life. A welcome antidote to the despair arising from the climate crisis, We Are the Middle of Forever brings to the forefront the perspectives of those who have long been attuned to climate change and will be an indispensable aid to those looking for new and different ideas and responses to the challenges we face.