The question, “What is Regeneration?” cannot be expressed as a single definition, framework or explanation. It is an embodied way of being, deeply tied to the land it co-evolved with over millennia. There are manifold ways of ‘being regenerative’. Regeneration holds memories of abundance, survival, hope and trauma. It is composed of a kaleidoscope of ‘ways’ – ways of knowing, of being, of living and of evolving.
Folklore, art, poetry, tools, beliefs, practices, livelihood skills and more hold tremendous amounts of ancestral wisdom and key information that express the ideas and meanings of ‘regeneration as a living experience’. These reveal the various ways that the concept of regeneration has been understood and practised.
Lua Couto and I envisioned that, by opening windows into different worldviews and perspectives, we could offer glimpses of the details without losing sight of the larger weave. So we conceptualised a structure where we begin with a curation of ways of living and being that showcases regeneration as a practice. We wrote a brief that invited the authors to consider the beliefs, actions and instruments of everyday life and uncover the history and principles of regeneration. Our prompt was to go beyond the Eurocentric origins of the word and look to routine practices and emerging patterns rooted in the context of place.
I invite the intuitive parts of you to explore beyond what has been taught and told in the mainstream, to seek out nuances, to observe the ties between practice and place, and to find the threads that weave the past, present and future.
Acknowledgement: Nisha Mary Poulose and Lua Couto contributed as early project co-leads during the initial phases of the Anthology's journey. We honour their foundational involvement and vision in shaping its beginnings.
As a researcher and practitioner, my role is to cultivate connections, learning from various contexts and ideas to generate new and evolving meanings and ways of understanding.
As a white woman and a scientist trained within Western academic traditions, I acknowledge the privileges and epistemological foundations that shape my understanding of regeneration.
I come to this work as an American from a settler background and as a professional linguist with over a decade of collaborative research on language diversity, ethnobiology and conservation within an academic context.
It is crucial to acknowledge that our investigation of regeneration will not be able to provide a comprehensive account of the concept's various expressions.
As a researcher and practitioner, my role is to cultivate connections, learning from various contexts and ideas to generate new and evolving meanings and ways of understanding. Indian philosopher Sundar Sarukkai speaks to the meaning-bearing capacity of ideas and the use of translation as a methodology to create fresh meanings by situating them in new contexts. In this light, I see myself as a translator bringing diverse thoughts, ideas and ways of seeing into the knowledge landscape of regeneration.
As a white woman and a scientist trained within Western academic traditions, I acknowledge the privileges and epistemological foundations that shape my understanding of regeneration. My perspective is rooted in a Western scientific worldview. At the same time, I recognise the limitations of this lens, especially when engaging with regeneration, which is deeply relational, sense- and place-based, experiential and best captured by Indigenous and non-Western knowledge systems and ways of knowing. This anthology is also the result of my own ongoing struggle to understand what regeneration truly means – an inquiry that begins with deep learning and unlearning, and a willingness to sit with complexity and uncertainty. My engagement with alternative ways of knowing is necessarily partial and shaped by my positionality; I approach them with deep respect, curiosity and humility. I have strived to listen, learn and build bridges. The purpose of this paper is also to suggest that the emerging relational turn within Western regenerative science, which moves away from the dualistic human-nature and considers humans and the more-that-human world as one, may offer a meaningful opportunity to move closer to the regenerative understandings held by thousands of Indigenous peoples across the world, with a more fluid perspective of time and space, and of people as nature.
I come to this work as an American from a settler background and as a professional linguist with over a decade of collaborative research on language diversity, ethnobiology and conservation within an academic context. In the work I bring to this project, I hope to facilitate, be led by and represent aspects of the long history and the extraordinary diversity of regenerative ways of being that are practised on our shared Earth. My contributions include aspects of my own academic research and representations of regenerative perspectives from members of local and Indigenous communities who have shared their histories, cultures and knowledge systems through publication, art and past collaborations. In this endeavour, I have aimed to adopt the triple identity of translator, weaver and window builder.
It is crucial to acknowledge that our investigation of regeneration will not be able to provide a comprehensive account of the concept's various expressions. Our own knowledge (and, consequently, the knowledge systems that inform us) and biases inevitably limit our ability to fully comprehend regeneration. Nonetheless, we recognise that all its expressions deserve equal recognition, respect and curiosity from us and hope that, throughout the pieces in this chapter, we come closer to answering the question, ‘What is regeneration?’ drawing on our unique perspectives, privileges, blindspots and biases to inform us.
In this exploration, I am conscious of the interpretive role I take when discussing practices of communities that are not my own. Even though I see regeneration woven into Inuit hunting practices, in Mapuche textile weaving and in placenta rituals, I recognise that these practices carry meanings and purposes specific to those who carry them forward, which I am unable to portray here. This work is, therefore, less about claiming universal definitions and more about exploring what regeneration can be from my point of view and where I see it expressed.