11/4/24 Update: This conversation has been postponed. Please check back for an update.

My name is Ayanna Maynard, and my Lakota name is Ilewin Mani “On Her Journey She Burns”. I’m a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation. I’m an avid gardener, caretaker of seeds, and a business owner. I travel to surrounding indigenous communities to assist on garden projects and ideas. One of my projects involves growing prairie turnip, echinacea, blanket flower, sweet grass, sage, and wild mint, with a goal of getting these medicines transplanted throughout North Dakota, South Dakota and back into our communities so elders have better access to them. I’m a graduate of United Tribes Technical College’s Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems program and the Business Management program. I work on seed-saving projects and seed “rematriation” for indigenous communities, so Tribes have more access to traditional foods and medicines. In my spare time, I love to socialize and spend time with my 3 beautiful daughters while decolonizing healing through indigenous ways of knowing: healing through a strength-based process, with focus on shifts to relationships – relationships with myself, community, more-than-human, and mother earth.