IA Hubbub, Ep 2: Abundance

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The second episode of the IA Hubbub returns to the Tending and Gathering Garden, an eco-cultural site in the Yolo bioregion (where UC Davis is located) at the forefront of hands-on, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational learning that weaves together native and non-native communities, and university and community contexts. 

While the previous episode shone a spotlight on cultural fire, in this episode we follow stories of water. For Wintun/Maidu culture-bearer, naturalist, storyteller, and visual artist Diana Almendariz, fire and water are two sides of the same ecology. These are interwoven themes in her paintings and in her collaborations with other wetland knowledge keepers, scientists, and ecologists. Through these multiple strategies, she teaches about the interconnectedness of the wetland ecosystem in the Yolo bioregion.

Featuring interviews with Diana and with UC Davis entomologist Geoffrey Attardo, this episode takes us on a wide-ranging journey through Diana’s visual art practice, her collaboration with Geoffrey around wetland restoration, and how her image-making practice is informed by her work as a naturalist.

Special thanks to Ameen Lofti for providing oringinal music for this series, and to Mootens Productions for providing the image of Diana with her painting. This episode was edited and produced by Anuj Vaidya.

Further Resources:

My Traditional Use of Tule, by Diana Almendariz

The Articulated Creek, a painting by Diana Almendariz

Selection of paintings by Native California artists (including Frank Day’s Cycle of Life)

Frank Day: Memory and Imagination, by Abby Wasserman

The Attardo Lab at the Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis

Tule and Cattail: A Tale of the Marsh Economy, presentation by Diana Almendariz and Geoffrey Attardo