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The opportunity to absorb Indigenous wisdom and share that knowledge with the community is what attracted 20-year-old Nyomi Oliver (Navajo/Chicana) to the Denver nonprofit, which offers a wide variety of cultural, culinary, and wellness programming. “I am a reconnecting Native and had lost my ways,” she says. “But Spirit of the Sun has shown me how important our Indigenous perspectives are and how our history has laid out a blueprint for us to follow in order to align with Mother Nature.”
Oliver got involved in Spirit of the Sun’s Indigenous science and foodways program in 2022, then joined the organization’s newest initiative, the mycelium healing project, which taps into the bioremediation properties of fungi to restore the land and feed the local community.
Mycelium—fungi’s web-like inner network structure—has been shown to remove toxins from the soil while improving its overall health. Last summer, for instance, the organization’s mycelium-inoculated foodscapes demonstration garden yielded more than 1,000 pounds of produce for the elder food share program.
Participants in Spirit of the Sun’s Mycelium Healing Project (MHP) prepare mushrooms. (Photo courtesy of Spirit of the Sun)
These experiences prompted Oliver to pursue a nutrition degree and inspired her 14-year-old sister, Mia Madalena (Navajo/Pueblo/Chicana), to join Spirit of the Sun, too. “I was intrigued when Nyomi brought home mushrooms and was explaining how mycelium can help heal the world,” Madalena explains. She is now part of the organization’s youth leadership program and is interested in, quite literally, illustrating our world’s interconnectedness through her passion for painting.
At the helm of Spirit of the Sun is executive director and permaculture educator Shannon Francis (Diné/Hopi). She developed the mycelium healing project in 2021 to address the environmental injustice caused by known polluter Suncor Oil Refinery, located in nearby Commerce City. Since then, dozens of Native youth have participated in the program.
“I was a teen in the 1980s when the Exxon spill in the Gulf [of Alaska] happened, and I remember all the amazing things mycelium can do,” says Francis. “We wanted to share that knowledge in order to address the negative health impacts for the community around Suncor, which is primarily Chicano and Indigenous, including a lot of elders.”
Shannon Francis. (Photo courtesy of Spirit of the Sun)
Under the guidance of local mycology expert James Weiser, youth leaders have built out two mycelial mother patches—starter gardens full of fungi that can then be transplanted to create satellite colonies—and regularly host training sessions to teach their younger counterparts and community elders how to grow mushrooms. For the next phase of the initiative, they hope to develop additional mother patches and inoculate homeowners’ gardens to magnify the fungi’s positive impacts, which they are measuring through ongoing soil testing.
“When we’re healing the soil, we’re healing ourselves,” says Francis. “Our genetic makeup comes directly from the water we drink and the soil we eat from. Most of the soil in the Denver area is depleted of nutrients, so we have to constantly add nutrients back in. Mycelium is like a nervous system that does its job in conjunction with nutrients in the soil. There are so many positive benefits to soil that is healthy and alive; it is connected to our food, our ceremonies, our language, and our stories.”
Participants in the Spirit of the Sun’s toddler program. (Photo courtesy of Spirit of the Sun)
At Spirit of the Sun, education starts early on, beginning with the Indigenous toddlers and teachings program for children aged 2 and up. “If we can teach our youth to observe the world through an Indigenous lens, they are better able to hold respect for the natural world, for the animals, for the elements, and for each other,” she notes. “Most adults have forgotten how to do that. But we know that everything is in kinship, with a function and a purpose.”
Francis is proud to have her 23-year-old daughter, Chenoa, closely involved as Spirit of the Sun’s youth outreach and agricultural support coordinator. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Chenoa has been an outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights since childhood.
