The Indigenous Seed Keepers Network (ISKN) is proud to be one of several groups that are helping to bring our traditional seeds home from the many places they have waited for us, outside our communities. (ISKN—an initiative of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, or NAFSA, a nonprofit aimed at leveraging resources to support tribal food sovereignty projects is part of an advisory group for seed rematriations taking place with the University of Michigan, Minnesota Museum of Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and potentially the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.)

A healing and hopeful trend is emerging at the cutting edge of the indigenous food/seed sovereignty/social justice movement, which is the rematriation of seeds. Within native communities, we are very familiar with the word “repatriation,” or the return of treasures, ancestral remains, and sacred objects of cultural heritage to their communities of origin and their descendants. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act describes the rights of Native American lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations with respect to the treatment, repatriation, and disposition of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony, referred to collectively in the statute as “cultural items which … show a relationship of lineal descent or cultural affiliation.”







In the indigenous seed-sovereignty movement, we have begun to use the word “rematriation” as it relates to bringing our seeds home again. In many communities, including my own Mohawk tradition, the responsibility of caring for the seeds over the generations is ultimately within the women’s realm. Both men and women farm and plant seeds, but their care and stewardship are part of the women’s bundle of responsibility. So the word “rematriation” reflects the restoration of the feminine seeds back into their communities of origin. It simply means back to Mother Earth, a return to our origins, to life and co-creation, a reclamation of the life-giving force of the Divine Feminine.

There’s no denying the powerful healing work of reconciliation that occurs when we work cross-culturally to bring these seeds home to their communities of origin.

There’s no denying the powerful healing work of reconciliation that occurs when we work cross-culturally to bring these seeds home to their communities of origin. Within the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, we are assisting communities that are working towards rematriation of their precious seed relatives. We are working cross-culturally with many stakeholders— including native farmers, gardeners, and representatives from tribal communities, institutions, and organizations who have such seed collections—to lay out how best to help these seeds find their way home. This complex, yet healing, work has deeply embedded cultural and spiritual aspects, as well as legal and political aspects that directly address seed justice.