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Across the Great Lakes region, Manoomin (wild rice) provides sustenance for Indigenous Peoples, yet has been in decline since the onset of Euro-American colonization. The Anishinaabe (a large group of Indigenous peoples, Great Lakes, North America) collaborate with Manoomin, university scientists, and others to inform research, restoration, and education to protect this sacred relative. We engaged Anishinaabe Ecological Knowledge to conceptualize these interspecies collaborations through an Ojibwe (an Anishinaabe people) Medicine Wheel: four foundational directions that begin in the east where the sun rises and moving-clockwise around the circle—Anishinaabeg (original people), Gidinawemaaganimin (all our relations), Aki (earth, land, and ground), and Manoomin—each with a role in Manoomin’s Mino-bimaadiziwin (wild rice’s good life). The Manoomin Medicine Wheel framework serves as a guiding example of how Indigenous worldviews can offer pathways for repairing our relationships with our relatives by partnering with plants in the face of climate change and biocultural loss.
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This content will become publicly available on July 21, 2026
Makak: Co-designing Environmental Sensors to Protect Manoomin (Wild Rice)
Manoomin, the Ojibwe word for Northern Wild Rice, is a culturally significant food source native to the Western Great Lakes region of North America. For generations, Manoomin stewardship has been central to Ojibwe culture and identity, harvested using traditional methods which respect and enrich its growth. Recent years have shown a decline in Manoomin’s natural occurrence due to land-use change and global warming. As part of a broader conservation effort, our team has collaborated with Tribal partners to build Makak, a low-cost microclimate sensor that monitors factors affecting wild rice to support Tribal sovereignty. This article details our co-design and pilot deployment in collaboration with four partner organizations. Through this work, we share our experiences, and lessons learned from the co-design process with Tribal partners. With this work, we aim to provide insights to other projects that promote Indigenous-centric participatory, collaborative design methods for conservation and environmental sustainability.
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- PAR ID:
- 10634523
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 9798400714849
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 115 to 130
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Toronto ON Canada
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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