Have you thought of learning about and perhaps owning a business which can include gardening and growing native plants in a nursery, a native plant farm or native plant habitat restoration? The non-profit, Elderberry Wisdom Farm, has a Traditional Ecological Knowledge internship that is teamed up with the Native Agriculture Biodiversity Accelerator. It is designed to provide support and microenterprise training for adult Native American interns who are preparing to serve as owners/operators of Native owned businesses being created by Elderberry Wisdom Farm. These businesses include; Indigenous Native Plant Nursery LLC, Native American Habitat Restoration LLC, Blue Elderberry Farm LLC and Native American Farmers Cooperative & Farmers Market.
My name is CarlaDean Caldera, I share knowledge of the Native American Biodiversity Accelerator part of the internship. This is a hybridized business development model that provides culturally-tailored business support that is compatible with Native Americans’ learning styles and cultural values that supports the concept of service to community. Although the class is located in rural Marion County, services may be extended to tribal members living near Oregon’s federally recognized tribes. This strengthens opportunities for participating Native Americans who can successfully gain jobs in habitat restoration, horticulture, agriculture or related conservation fields. It strengthens their opportunities for inter-generational prosperity as business owners who successfully accomplish transition to owner-operator.
If this sounds interesting and you would like more information about the internship, please contact CarlaDean Caldera at carladean@elderberrywidom.org
CarlaDean Caldera is from the Tuhudyatuka Numu – Deer-Eater Band of Northern Paiute, Watah Family-Silver Lake, Oregon. CarlaDean is a culture bearer and advocate of the Northern Paiute. As a scholar and teacher since 2000, she has shared her love and knowledge of Northern Paiute Bands cultural legacies. Her work is dedicated to our Elders who came before and who are here now so that our ways will live on through futuristic learning and teaching. She is a Fields Fellow which is funded by the Building Community Through Arts and Culture initiative at the Oregon Community Foundation. She is developing a language app and in her spare time, she builds interactive educational apps at her home in Salem so she can pass on to young people the Northern Paiute language she learned from her mother.