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BEMIDJI — Erika Bailey-Johnson has always had a deep-rooted passion for sustainability.
She has spent the past 16 years living that passion out as the sustainability director at Bemidji State, a chapter that is now coming to a close.
Her relationship with the university began when she started her graduate coursework in environmental studies in 2004.
Then in August 2008, Bailey-Johnson was hired as Bemidji State’s first sustainability coordinator. After years of sustainability initiatives, environmental awareness and nature-centered education, she celebrated her last day at the university on June 20.
“I can’t believe my last day is on Thursday, the day of the summer solstice,” Bailey-Johnson remarked last week ahead of her last day. “This is a time of transition in my life and for my last day to be on the solstice is significant for me. I have many fond memories at Bemidji State but I feel ready to start my next chapter.”
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As Bailey-Johnson reminisced on her years at Bemidji State, there was one underlying theme in every story: the long-lasting friendships she made along the way.
“What I cherish most about my time at Bemidji State are the friendships I have made,” she shared. “I have met so many wonderful people that I will continue to keep in touch with. I have made some true friends here.”
Bailey-Johnson’s passion for sustainability and environmental advocacy goes beyond wanting to protect our natural resources. She sees the environment as a living resource of knowledge.
“If you look around us, nature knows what it is doing,” she said. “We are in a community of living with everything around us and we need to learn from, protect and support our resources.”
After a long, contending list of favorite career highlights in her time at BSU, Bailey-Johnson narrowed it down to three: the Niizhoo-gwayakochigewin degree program, the new community rain garden and the People and the Environment program.
Bemidji State offers a major and minor for its Indigenous sustainability studies program called Niizhoo-gwayakochigewin, which integrates the values of Ojibwe culture and sustainability. This Ojibwe phrase translates to “two ways of doing the right thing in the right way.”
As the director of Niizhoo-gwayakochigewin, Bailey-Johnson has loved being able to pour into the program and watch it grow. She feels the program has helped bring a wave of other sustainable implementations and Indigenous inclusion that was much-needed on campus.
“The Niizhoo-gwayakochigewin program has been able to lead to so many other conversations on campus, which has led to more action,” she explained. “Integrating Indigenous culture into learning is something that I have wanted to see for a long time. This program is where I started to really see that happen and I got to be a part of that change.”
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Bailey-Johnson and other faculty advocated for a land acknowledgment with a proposal in the fall of 2019. In February 2020, Bailey-Johnson was part of the work group tasked with creating a land acknowledgment that was inclusive, respectful, honoring to Indigenous communities and transparent about the history of the land Bemidji State is on. The land acknowledgment was implemented in Spring 2021.
“Several mindful conversations were had about the history and culture of Bemidji, the intent and meaning behind specific concepts and phrases, and whether or not to connect to spiritual concepts of the land and land loss,” Bailey-Johnson said in a BSU article done at the time. “It is our responsibility to know and act on this acknowledgment. This is just a first step to begin the healing that needs to happen to create just communities where we all thrive.”
The Bemidji State student senate passed the bill of support for the Nisidotaading program, which will add an Indigenous course graduation requirement to every student starting fall 2024. In Ojibwe, Nisidotaading means “mutual understanding” and this program is intended to elevate mutuality, increase understanding about Indigenous culture and languages and create a more inclusive community on campus.
“With the creation of the land acknowledgment and Nisidotaading in the fall, I am glad to see Bemidji State taking steps in the right direction,” Bailey-Johnson said. “I would love to see grades K-12 implement Indigenous learning and perspectives too. Education at all levels should aim to integrate nature-centered learning.”
With initiatives such as these, Bailey-Johnson is proud of how she has used her voice and ability to put ideas into action to help make Bemidji State a better place for everyone.
Another of Bailey-Johnson’s highlights from her career at Bemidji State is the community rain garden on campus just installed along State Highway 197. The garden offers a more sustainable alternative to filter rainwater that would otherwise pool up in the nearby parking lot and grass.
Native plants with strong filtration roots were chosen to get the job done. These plants will attract pollinators and promote the use of native landscaping in the community.
“When I first learned about the importance of native landscaping I began to implement it wherever I could and educate others,” Bailey-Johnson shared. “You can find them all over campus now. There has been a lot of work behind-the-scenes for the garden and to plant that last week was an incredible milestone.”
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Bailey-Johnson is co-founder of the group “Birds, Bees and Butterflies – Bemidji,” which promotes the use of native trees, shrubs and wildflowers in the community to benefit birds and pollinators.
A strong, underlying connection between birds, bees and butterflies is their dependency on native plants, their important role in pollination, loss of habitat, diseases and non-native invasive competitors. The addition of native plants to Bemidji’s gardens and landscapes can help support, restore and repair our ecosystems, which leads to more pollinators in our area.
“My Objibwe name is Butterfly Woman, and because of that, I have a certain responsibility and a deeper connection to butterflies,” Bailey-Johnson shared. “That means I should be responsible, help protect, provide habitat, elevate and uplift them in any way I can. They’re like brothers and sisters to me, so just like anybody’s brother or sister, I’m thinking about how I can support them.”
People and the Environment is a whole lot more than a liberal education goal area at Bemidji State for Bailey-Johnson.
The purpose of the academic requirement is to improve students’ understanding of environmental challenges, stimulate critical thinking about environmental issues and examine the interrelatedness of human society and the natural environment.
In her time at BSU, Bailey-Johnson taught the People and the Environment course for the Environment Studies Department, the Geology Department and the Physical Education and Health Department.
“I mostly taught Environmental Studies and loved all of the courses for different reasons,” she shared.
Although Bailey-Johnson was the sustainability director, she explained how through her role in educating students she was able to combine many of her passions in a new context.
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“My views were challenged during my graduate coursework in a good way,” Bailey-Johnson added. “I remember this one class in particular where I learned about mowing, native landscapes and topics about society’s role in how we maintain our environment. I am now a huge promoter of native landscapes and you can see them all over campus because of topics I learned in that class.”
As Bailey-Johnson closes the door on one chapter, she has been exploring several opportunities for her next steps and is waiting to find the right path forward.
For now, she said she will be recharging, spending some much-needed time with friends and family and enjoying Bemidji in the summertime.
When Bailey-Johnson looks back on her time at BSU she can know with confidence that through her environmental advocacy and educational impacts she made great strides toward a more sustainable Bemidji State and community. By creating a culture of change and a presence of environmental awareness, her influence will linger long after her time on campus ends.
“I never understood people who had a boundary between work and life,” Bailey-Johnson left off. “I don’t have a work-life balance because my work is my vocation. It is my reason for being and my way of giving back – it is what I was made to do.”
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