How gender plays into the devaluing of knowledge and its links to sustainable fashion & wellness with Megan Schnitker of Lakota Made and Niha Elety of Tega Collective

Episode 317 features guests Megan L. Schnitker, an Indigenous Traditional Herbalist and Niha Elety, a fashion advocate, designer, chef, and storyteller.

Megan is the owner of Lakota Made LLC, who offer plant medicinals and personal care products. Niha is the founder and CEO of fashion brand, Tega Collective, a brand that co-creates with Adivasi (Indigenous) communities celebrating their craft and knowledge with each collection.

“American herbalism was founded on Indigenous knowledge and use of all the plants that are in North America. And so, American herbalism is founded on Indigenous women’s knowledge, Indigenous storytellers’ knowledge. And we’re very rarely credited for giving colonizers that knowledge. I credit the herbalists that saved a lot of that knowledge and are using it and kept it alive, but it came from Indigenous people, it came from Indigenous women, it came from Indigenous medicine; it came from us.” -Megan

“The history of fashion production for centuries has been by women primarily. I’m from India, so in India, there’s large groups of artisans and garment workers and weavers, and a majority of the population that are in those kinds of professions are women. And over the years, I would say with the industrialization of textile production and all of that, men often became the heads of big fashion companies that we see today. So, a lot of them have profited from knowledge that a lot of female artisans and designers have been creating for a long time.” -Niha

MARCH THEME —
Acknowledging The Confines of Gender & The Folks Disrupting Stereotypes

One of the recurring themes our incredibly powerful guests shared this week is that for true sustainability to exist, we must go beyond commodification and capitalism to focus on consent, compensation, credit, collaboration and co-creation where the individual human is valued and respected, and where preserving culture is at the forefront. 

We question things like ownership and agency, and the power dynamics that play into who gets to decide what is deemed “fashion” or “medicine”. Who are the knowledge holders in fashion, wellness, herbalism & health spaces? Whose knowledge do we value? And what are the deep rooted reasons our society often doesn’t give credit to certain genders and their intersectionalities? 

We learn that craft and wellness are embedded into the wisdom and intuitive ways of life for Indigenous people and cultures, from the Adivasi communities in South Asia to Indigenous people like the Lakota here in the U.S. And that by design, the erasure and extraction of female knowledge, the matriarchs of so many cultures, is a constant struggle. 

The solution is more than just words, it’s the actions and uplifting and amplifying of Indigenous peoples, and the honoring of traditional ways that have real potential to impact systemic change. It’s also in slowing down our everyday interactions and the way we share information and knowledge, in a way where we actually respect and pay homage to the origins of ideas. 

NOTE: Megan had to jump off our call to make it to her child’s parent teacher conference, so we weren’t able to hear her thoughts on our last question during the episode. We were thankful that she was able to send through her ideas on “how to slow down when everything feels fast” so we can share them with you here:

I take time at least one day a week or one morning a week. I have nothing scheduled and I clean my house so I can sit in a clean house in silence.  I sit there and look at all my family pictures on the walls, family that's passed on, good times, and sad times and I practice gratitude. Gratitude for everything I have, everything I receive and for the moments that brought me this far. If it's warm out (my fibromyalgia doesn’t like cold), I'll go outside and drink a cup of tea or coffee in my backyard and listen to the sounds of nature, and just sit and practice gratitude for everything that brought me to that moment. I sit with the chaos of my kiddos and I smile and thank the universe / Tunkasila for sending me these amazing beings I get to mother, I thank my girls all the time for being who they are and teaching me so much and also bringing so much value to my life; without them, the motivation wouldn't be there. Before bedtime, I read my girls books, and as I read them this story, I cherish the moments before sleep and thank the universe for keeping me here and getting me here. -Megan

Quotes & links from the conversation:

• Lakota Made Website

• Niha’s Website

• Tega Collective’s Website

• Follow Lakota Made on Instagram

• Follow Niha on Instagram