Bwog Internal Editor Manaia Taula-Lieras attends the 2026 Ivy Native Conference (INC), entitled “Plants and Our People: Rooted in Indigenous Community.”

The Ivy Native Conference is a four-day event that brings together Indigenous students from throughout the eight Ivy League universities, as well as others in the surrounding New York area. Students, faculty, and community members join to share a variety of perspectives and wisdom on topics ranging from indigeneity and cultural sovereignty to academic and professional advice. At its core, however, INC is meant to be a place for Indigenous students to connect with one another and find community amid the predominantly white bubble of the Ivy League. 

As one of the nine students from Columbia who traveled to Ithaca, New York, for this conference, I couldn’t help but feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to represent Columbia’s Native American Council. I also found myself reflecting on how beautifully full circle it felt to attend INC for the first time, just as my mother had attended its inaugural event in 2004. I’d looked forward to this event for years, but the wonderful hospitality and thoughtful planning of Cornell’s Indigenous community surpassed my expectations.

Our first full day of the conference kicked off with a keynote presentation from Oren Lyons, known for his work on the Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations. He contextualized the Iroquois Nationals, an Indigenous lacrosse team that competes on a global stage, reclaiming what the Haudenosaunee people call “Creator’s game.” Like the Iroquois Nationals, native Ivy League students experience many forms of discrimination and isolation when we are not expected to take up space; Lyons, accompanied by his son, Rex, offered specific advice to help us combat this impostor syndrome. “Look straight ahead,” Lyons said, acknowledging how difficult it can be to gain motivation when we are stuck in the past. Drawing from the Haudenosaunee value of sharing, Lyons also reminded us to rely on and learn from our peers to maintain our strength.

Following our breakfast during this motivating presentation, we were released to explore the surrounding college town before the next workshop sessions. I attended the faculty panel featuring Stephen Henhawk, Dr. Michael Charles, and Ben Maracle, who shed some light on the theme of “Plants and Our People” with their experiences working as Indigenous professionals in their respective fields. Henhawk’s engagement in the idea of language revitalization resonated with me, as someone who comes from a tribe with very few fluent speakers of our native language. He also spoke about the diversity of geographical backgrounds among Indigenous people and how the ways we experience culture can vary. For example, I grew up in an urban environment, not near the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation that my family is affiliated with. It was incredibly moving to hear him reframe the idea of culture based on a specific location, instead of considering language as the foundation and advocating for aggressive revitalization techniques.

In terms of relationships between Indigenous people and plants, the panelists talked about how native scholars like them are often left out of conversations surrounding community solutions. Because of this, they noted that it is all the more necessary to “push through in institutions you might not feel welcome.” This resistance is mirrored by the efforts to create a physical presence of native plants. Maracle worked on a project to reconnect the ecology of the Hudson River with its traditional plants, demonstrating a form of the Land Back movement by exhibiting a physical Lenape presence in the space. Building on the subject of Land Back, Dr. Charles also expressed the necessity of understanding the movement as a bridge between modern STEM and traditional knowledge systems. He stressed the importance of humility in this process, recognizing that one set of knowledge does not necessarily represent a sole solution.

These fruitful conversations left many attendees anxious to socialize and discuss what we learned among our peers. Luckily, we were sorted into breakout groups to share what we learned and get to know the other attending schools. Although we represented many schools, hometowns, and Indigenous affiliations, the Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell (NAISAC) treated us to a dinner that many found refreshingly familiar—bison stew, frybread, and Three Sisters vegetable medley. The events of Friday concluded with a Haudenosaunee social gathering, where community members from the surrounding area shared a few of their traditional group dances with us. The room was buzzing with laughter and excitement to dance with new friends that we’d made throughout the day.

On Saturday, our keynote speaker was Giiwedin, an Ojibwe advocate for cultural foods who uses social media as a tool to share stories and facilitate meaningful conversation about nature, culture, and queer Indigenous identity. Giiwedin is Two-Spirit, which is a term that many Indigenous people use to describe gender identity outside of a colonial binary. In their presentation, they introduced the idea that plants are our Two-Spirit relatives because of their fluidity, mainly discussing the properties of Manoomin, or wild rice, primarily found in the Great Lakes region. We learned about queer ecology and became familiar with the traditional harvesting processes of Manoomin, furthering our understanding of the interconnectedness between land, water, plants, other non-human entities, and ourselves as cultural defenders.

In line with our discussions of plants and indigeneity, I attended a workshop after the keynote and Cornell-provided lunch, where I was able to tour the university’s large botanical gardens. Led by students who were well-equipped to engage in conversations about plants we might recognize from our respective cultures, the tour was particularly grounding during the warm and windy afternoon. We were shown plants that were both foreign and native to the area, such as the massive Eastern white pines that are seen as the symbol for the peaceful alliance between the five original nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. These would be the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca people, represented by the five pine needles in each cluster. The student giving us the tour explained that a sixth nation has since joined the confederacy, leading many to believe that the pine will soon gain a sixth needle in each cluster.

With one more breakout discussion session about our personal connection to plants as Indigenous relatives, followed by time to socialize with delicious arepas by a bonfire, the 2026 Ivy Native Conference came to a close. We ended the official festivities with a moment of personal reflection, putting tobacco into the fire with intentions close to our hearts. It was a fulfilling last experience, allowing me to slow down and consider which lessons had resonated most with me throughout my time in Ithaca. On the journey back to Columbia, I took some white sage, which was bundled for us by Cornell students. This small and thoughtful gift felt like a physical representation of all of the memories and wisdom that would be coming home with us as well.

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