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Walking Alongside Martu: A journey with one of the world’s oldest living cultures

Pura’s inaugural impact collection honors both sacred traditions and sustainable futures.

James Roh
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In a world driven by speed, efficiency, and immediate results, it’s easy to forget that lasting change is built on trust. Real impact doesn’t come from rushing toward an end goal or measuring success through lofty metrics. It comes from falling in love with the problem, building a community around it, and sharing a vision for lasting transformation.

Pura, the smart home fragrance company that marries premium fragrance with innovative technology, recently launched its inaugural impact collection with K Farmer Dutjahn Foundation (KFDF) and Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils (DSO). The Pura x Dutjahn partnership began with a clear purpose: to source a sacred ingredient directly from its origin while honoring the land and the people who’ve cared for it. Our goal wasn’t simply to find sandalwood — it was to find a community and an ingredient that embody exceptional land stewardship, ethical harvesting, and transformative, community-led impact. After careful research and over three years of development, we saw an opportunity to secure a premium, luxurious ingredient while supporting a regenerative supply chain that invests in Indigenous-led education, economic opportunity, and land stewardship.

James Roh

Over the past several years, we’ve walked alongside Martu, an Indigenous tribe from the vast Western Australian desert. Martu are one of the oldest living cultures in the world, with a history spanning 60,000 years. As nomadic hunter-gatherers, they have unparalleled ecological knowledge, passed down through generations, making them the traditional custodians of the land. Their approach to sandalwood harvesting isn’t driven by market demand but by a deep respect for seasonal rhythms, land health, and cultural law. Their work adapts to the environment—whether it’s “sorry time,” when mourning pauses activities, or the harsh desert conditions that make travel and communication difficult. Martu operate on Martu time, a deliberate rhythm shaped by millennia of experience, far removed from the rapid-swipe, hyper-productive pace of Western systems.

Martu’s ecological knowledge isn’t documented in baseline reports. It’s lived, carried in stories, and practiced with rigor and respect for the changing needs of the ecosystems. True partnership means unlearning the typical approach. It means standing beside—not in front—and recognizing that the wisdom and leadership we need already exist within these communities. Our role isn’t to define the work, but to support it, protect it, and learn from it.

James Roh

Tonight, as I spoke with Chairman Clinton Farmer and the KFDF team about our focus for this piece, I learned that Clinton’s truck had broken down (again), leaving him to “limp” back to town from the desert at low speeds for hours and hours. He had been awake since 3:00 a.m. This is a common and costly setback, one that disrupts the harvest, demands days of driving, and brings real financial and emotional strain. These barriers are relentless and persistent, part of the harsh reality Clinton and his community face daily. It's easy for outsiders, detached from the reality on the ground, to impose rules, regulations, and demands from afar. Rather than continuing to impose, we need to truly partner with communities — equipping them with the resources to operate sustainably, avoid burnout, and protect the very land they love and care for. All while they endeavor to share these incredible, sacred ingredients with the world and build an economic engine for their people.

There is much to learn, but we are here to listen, adapt, and stay the course. The future we need will not be built in quarterly cycles. It will be built in trust, over time, together.

To learn more about the partnership and fragrances, visit Pura x Dutjahn.

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Maori lawmaker kicked out of parliament for wearing a cultural pendant instead of a tie

1 News/YouTube

People love to point to "identity politics" as if it's a new, progressive phenomenon, but there is no shortage of examples of how racial and cultural identity has always played a role in politics. It's just that up until recently, the identity in identity politics was white.

This has not only been the case in the U.S., where white, male identity politics kept women and racial minorities out of power for most of our history, but in other Western nations as well. Case in point: A story from New Zealand of a Maori lawmaker who was ejected from parliament proceedings because he was not wearing a necktie—or at least not a necktie that fit Western standards of "business attire."

The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, and Maori representatives make up nearly a quarter of the country's parliament. Rawiri Waititi, a Maori MP, was kicked off the parliament floor after the Speaker Trevor Mallard twice refused to recognize him due to his attire. Instead of a necktie, which male parliament members are required to wear, Waititi wore a hei tiki—a traditional Māori greenstone pendant—tied around his neck.

"It's not about ties, it's about cultural identity, mate," Waititi said as he was leaving.

Watch the parliament exchanges here:

Māori MP ejected from New Zealand parliament in necktie rowwww.youtube.com

Waititi had argued in the parliament's recent "business attire" debates that the Western necktie was like a "colonial noose." Mallard pointed out that he himself wished to eliminate the tie requirement, but that the consensus had disagreed.

In an interview following his ejection from parliament, he said, "As you can clearly see, this is a tie, as far as I'm concerned...this is a tie to my people."

Speaking to Reuters, Waititi said, "Māori have not been treated equal in its own country and indigenous people all over the world have been subjected to discrimination due to racist systems that keep our peoples in second place. For us to stand up against subjugation, to stand up again assimilation, to stand up against those who try and make us look, feel, make us think like they want us to think ... this was standing up against that."

Māori Party co-leader kicked out of Parliament for not wearing a tiewww.youtube.com

Waititi showed up to parliament with the same attire the next day, but this time he was allowed to remain. According to Radio New Zealand, the male necktie rule has now been dropped after the Standing Orders committee met and decided it should be optional.

"The noose has been taken off our necks, and we are now able to sing our songs," Waititi told Reuters.

If kicking a lawmaker out because their cultural dress attire doesn't line up with an arbitrary perception of what makes up business attire seems silly to you, you're not alone. Dress codes are meant to keep a sense of professionalism in a proceeding, to say, "This is serious work we are doing, so showing up in your workout gear or loungewear isn't appropriate." They should not be used as an excuse for upholding white Western standards of dress and keep people from diverse cultures from wearing something appropriately formal.

Not to mention, how much of a waste of time and energy is this when there are important issues to discuss and problems to solve? Maybe this is what happens when your country manages to control a pandemic and isn't dealing with an insurrection and impeachment trial. You find ridiculous things to argue about.

In all seriousness, though, good for Waititi for illustrating how racism and white supremacy can be reinforced through something as simple as a dress code. And good for the members of parliament who stood up for his right to wear traditional attire from his culture.

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Indigenous woman dies in Canadian hospital after filming racist taunts  from nurses

via CBC / Radio Canada

A disturbing video out of Quebec has brought attention to the issue of systemic racism against Indigenous people in Canada's healthcare system.

Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman and mother of seven, was admitted to a hospital in the Quebec city of Joliette for severe stomach pain on September 26. Two days after being admitted, she posted a live video on Facebook of the nurses taunting her with racial jibes.

In the video, nurses can be heard calling her "stupid as hell" in French and asking "What are your children going to think, seeing you like this?"

"She's good at having sex, more than anything else," another nurse says.

The comments are heard while Echaquan moans in pain. She died shortly after posting the live video.

The actions of the staff were condemned by Quebec premier, François Legault. At least one of the nurses has been fired for their behavior and the province has launched an investigation into the circumstances of Echaquan's death.

Marc Miller, federal Indigenous services minister, has called the video "gut-wrenching" and gave his condolences to the victim's family.

"This is the worst face of racism," Miller told reporters. "This is someone who is at their most vulnerable. And they are dying, having heard racist words expressed towards them."

"Discrimination against First Nations people remains prevalent in the healthcare system and this needs to stop," the Assembly of First Nations national chief, Perry Bellegarde, said in a statement.

Lorraine Whitman, the president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, also spoke out against the horrifying incident.

"It was with disgust that we heard a nurse, a woman who was supposed to care for her, utter racial slurs rather than come to her aid," she said. Whitman also wondered whether other Indigenous women have suffered the same treatment but didn't have the "courage or ability to film their own distress."

A study from 2015 called "First Peoples, Second Class Treatment" by the Wellesley Institute found there is a deep-seeded racial bias in Canada's healthcare system and much of it stems from country's colonial past.

The inequity faced by indigenous people is rooted in government policies that encouraged segregation. Further, negative stereotypes about Indigenous people have created an "unconscious, pro-white bias" among healthcare workers.

The study also found that Indigenous people experience racism in healthcare settings so regularly they often strategize about how to deal with it before admitting themselves to the hospital. The prejudice has also forced some to avoid the healthcare system altogether.

via GoFundMe

This isn't the first incident of its kind to make headlines in Canada this year.

Staff at a hospital in British Columbia allegedly bet on the blood alcohol content of the Indigenous people admitted to the hospital.

"The allegation is that a game was being played to investigate the blood alcohol level of patients in the emergency rooms, in particular with Indigenous people and perhaps others," Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a statement.

"And if true, it is intolerable and racist and of course (has) affected profoundly patient care," Dix continued.

Echaquan's death has inspired people to join the Justice Pour Joyce moment which seeks to end systemic racism in Canada's healthcare system.

Nakuset, the executive director of the Native Women's Shelter and organizer of a Justice Pour Joyce march in downtown Montreal, is hopeful that Echaquan's death will inspire systemic change in healthcare.

However, that'll only happen if Canadians from all backgrounds come together to support Indigenous people.

"The only way that we can make changes as a society is to show up," she said, "because actions speak louder than words."

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Culture

A viral reminder that Native people are the historical experts on sustainability

Photo by Anthony Gotter on Unsplash, Screenshot from tumbler

Environmental catastrophes like the recent Australian bushfires and ecological travesties like plastic-filled whale stomachs serve as stark reminders of our precarious relationship with our planet. While many of us call for greater sustainability in all areas of life, we don't really know what that looks like—which is why we should listen to those who do.

Unfortunately, ignorance about Native cultures and history prevents many people from looking toward indigenous wisdom when it comes to environmental issues. Many of us tend to think of sustainability as something new and innovative rather than a way of life that has already been accomplished in multiple places by multiple peoples.

A viral Facebook post from The Audacity of the Caucasity illustrates this point beautifully. A screenshot of a post on tumblr shows three people's posts about how Native people didn't just live in harmony with nature, but actively and purposefully managed the land to meet their own needs while also maintaining healthy ecosystems.

RELATED: Still don't think climate change matters? Here's how it's hitting people where it hurts.

The first, from @downhomesophisticate, reads:

"I don't think a lot of people really understand that ecosystems in North America were purposefully maintained and altered by Native people.

Like, we used to purposefully set fires in order to clear underbrush in forests, and to inhibit the growth of trees on the prairies. This land hasn't existed in some primeval state for thousands of years. What Europeans saw when they came here was the result of -work-"

Then @feministdragon explained in more detail what that work entailed:

"The east coast was all mature and maintained food forests. Decades if not centuries of nurturing and maintenance. When the British arrived, they were amazed that there were paths through the forest just 'naturally' lined with berries and edible plants, like a Garden of Eden. Then they tore that shit down to grow wheat."

Finally, @worriedaboutmyfern shared what they'd learned from their mom, who happens to be an ethnobotanist.

"My mom is an ethnobotanist and getting people to understand this is literally her life's work. A lot of native tribes just had a whole different way of looking at agriculture. Instead of planting orchards in tidy rows near their villages, they went to where the trees were already growing and tended them there. They would girdle trees by stripping the bark in order to stop the spread of disease or thin out badly placed saplings. And they would encourage the companion plants they wanted and weed out the ones they didn't, so that in the end the whole forest would be productive while remaining an ecosystem and not a monoculture. It is still agriculture, but it is a form of agriculture that is so much gentler on the landscape that, as the OP says, the European settlers could not recognize what they were seeing. To them the natives must have seemed to magically live in abundance while they starved."

(The tumblr post also includes many more details about how Native peoples managed the land.)

While it's clear that modern life makes a total return to Native land management practices impractical, that doesn't mean we can't learn from indigenous wisdom. All of us will be impacted by an unhealthy planet, and it only makes sense to consult the historical experts on sustainable living to find solutions.

At the same time, we need to acknowledge that Native communities are disproportionally impacted by environmental issues. Oil pipelines are being built through Native lands. Indigenous people in the Pacific islands are having to navigate rising sea levels. Inuit communities are having to figure out how to move entire villages due to melting Arctic ice. Native environmental leaders not only have generational wisdom to offer, but an urgent need for all of us to take meaningful action.

RELATED: Laws and climate change are harming this tribe's foodways. Here's how they survive.

When prominent activists like Greta Thunberg tell the world to listen to indigenous leaders, we should share and heed that advice. We can learn about and support young indigenous activists on the front line of environmental issues. We can check out the initiatives of organizations like Indigenous Environmental Network and their allies like Climate Justice Alliance.

When we have a collective problem, we look to experts to help solve it. And when it comes to protecting the environment and maintaining a sustainable relationship with the earth, indigenous people are some of the most experienced experts we have.

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