Rick Williams (left) and Sid Whiting (right), members of the Nature Library Indigenous Advisory Council, spoke at the Nature Library ground blessing ceremony.
As the Anythink Nature Library prepares to open its doors to the public this August, we wish to thank a group instrumental to this project: the Nature Library Indigenous Advisory Council.
While developing the library, Anythink leadership realized it was important to “tap into local expertise in the metro area to help us bring Native American and Indigenous wisdom to the project,” Anythink Executive Director Mark Fink said.
“Our Indigenous population has a much more harmonious relationship to nature and one that is thousands of years old, so we had a great opportunity to learn with folks,” he said.
The council helped direct the project’s ultimate design, fostering a building design that respects the land, rather than dominating it.
“They gave us really, really meaningful feedback,” Nature Library Branch Supervisor Justina Wooten said.
The council’s input helped inform many interior and exterior Nature Library features. Council conversations developed the idea of including a sun room and a dark room. Their advice also resulted in a medicine wheel and inspired the design of a circular storytelling space outdoors, the Kinship Garden and an Indigenous garden, which will feature ceremonial and medicinal plants important to Indigenous cultures.
The library will house an “Indigenous Voices” collection to highlight Native American authors, regionally and beyond.
“We were deliberate about this, and we really built this with their voice,” Wooten said. “It was important because you can’t authentically develop a nature library and not acknowledge the people who were here first, living with nature and doing it well, and who have a wealth of knowledge.”
