Relationality, Reciprocity, and Gratitude, highlighting the work of Robin Wall Kimmerer with Leslie Jonas

Relationality, Reciprocity, and Gratitude explores the ideas at the heart of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing—ways of understanding our relationships with the natural world that emphasize connection, responsibility, and gratitude. Drawing on Kimmerer’s work, including Braiding Sweetgrass, Leslie Jonas will guide participants through reflections on how these principles shape how we live, learn, and care for the places we inhabit. This program invites thoughtful conversation about Indigenous knowledge, ecological awareness, and practices of reciprocity that can be carried into everyday life.

Leslie Jonas, Indigenous Land and Water Conservationist

Leslie Jonas is a native Cape Codder and Elder Eel Clan member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. She holds a BA in Mass Communications & Television Production from Emerson College, an MS in Community Economic Development, and is certified in DEI from Cornell University. Leslie is an experienced planning and development strategist with a demonstrated history of working in media, higher education, tribal governments, and non-profits. In almost every role she has served, her work has centered on environmental activism, Indigenous land and water conservation, climate change adaptation, cultural preservation of lifeways, and environmental justice. As a founding board officer, Leslie has spent the past 14 years helping to build the first Native-led land conservation trust east of the Mississippi, the Native Land Conservancy (NLC). She has served as Clerk, Treasurer, and Vice-chairwoman over the 14 years and is the current Treasurer.

 For many years, Leslie has been researching and focusing on climate change from the Indigenous perspective and produces and directs educational video tools, such as a “Connecting with the Natural Elements” video series on Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, and a “Climate Change – Indigenous Voices” video for audiences across many disciplines. For the past 6 years and currently, Leslie co-teaches and advises an Indigenous Environmental Planning course in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT, speaking publicly on climate change, re-wilding, cultural respect, traditional ecological knowledge, cultural burning, environmental justice and environmental self-determination. She was an Indigenous advisory board member for the state of MA Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) from 2020-2024, sits on the state’s Justice40 advisory board, and is the first Mashpee Wampanoag to sit on the Cape Cod National Seashore advisory commission under the former Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland. She is also a Keystone Cooperator on Cape Cod, trained in advising homeowners and municipalities on Forestry management.

Leslie holds a significant role as a Research Administrator and the first-ever Tribal Liaison for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) on Cape Cod. In these 2 capacities, she is crucial in providing Indigenous relationality and programmatic support to leading scientists, enabling them to implement their research work supporting our oceans and coastal communities. Her close collaboration with WHOI's PIs on building stronger relationships with the Wampanoag Nation and other northern Turtle Island Tribes is a testament to her dedication to fostering meaningful connections and promoting equitable and just environmental conservation. Currently, Leslie is MIT’s Martin Luther King Visiting Scholar/ Professor in Anthropology, and teaches a class in Indigenous studies in the Fall of 2025 and 2026.