{"id":73345,"date":"2024-11-07T10:25:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=73345"},"modified":"2024-11-07T10:26:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:26:12","slug":"nakai-plaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nakai-plaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit NAU\u2019s new indigenous plant haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do nature and music have in common? Everything, according to <\/span>R. Carlos Nakai<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Navajo-Ute musician and NAU alumnus recently worked with NAU to give a small campus plaza a new lease on life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sahale<\/a>
At a dedication ceremony for Nakai Plaza, forestry and fire ecology student Sahale James blessed the space and shared knowledge about each plant species.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thanks to a donation from Nakai and his spouse, Pamela Hyde-Nakai, the space between Kitt Recital Hall and the Clifford E. White Theater has now transformed into Nakai Plaza, a relaxing space bursting with native plants. For Nakai, the plaza symbolizes the importance of having spaces on campus that both educate and enhance cultural engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis area is in the heart of music, and we want to encourage connections to native plants and provide a space for Indigenous people to be at the center of music and nature,\u201d Nakai said. \u201cWhen we demonstrate our belonging to culture and invite students to join, we create a space that connects us all.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Often considered the premier Native American flutist alive today, Nakai is best known for his album \u201cCanyon Trilogy,\u201d which was certified platinum in 2014. Over the course of a 40-year career, Nakai has released upwards of 50 albums, which have together sold more than 4.3 million copies. He has been nominated for a Grammy 11 times across four categories. He earned a degree from NAU in 1979 and received an honorary doctorate in 1994.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Closeup<\/a>
Nakai Plaza is filled with plants native to the area, including golden columbine and blue catmint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a musician and lecturer, Nakai advocates preserving and sharing cultural traditions through his music. Nakai’s inclination toward education became deeply embedded in his approach to music, sharing his cultural traditions with artists and industry experts worldwide<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the spirit of sharing precious cultural traditions, Nakai and Hyde-Nakai worked with local master gardener Laura Davis, long-time friend Phyllis Hogan and NAU Greenhouse manager <\/span>Adair Patterson<\/span><\/b> to hand-select Indigenous plants grown at the Museum of Northern Arizona to beautify the central campus space on S. Knoles Drive. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At a recent dedication ceremony with Nakai, Hyde-Nakai and staff from NAU, forestry and fire ecology student <\/span>Sahale James<\/span><\/b> blessed the space and shared knowledge about each plant species, from golden columbine to blue catmint.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>As a Navajo student and a student of forestry, researching helped me feel more connected with the plants themselves, learning their medicinal purposes both from the Western side and for my cultural and traditional use,<\/span>\u201d James said. \u201c<\/span>I took the initiative to advocate for myself and extend a hand to teach what I know to other Native American students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do nature and music have in common? Everything, according to R. Carlos Nakai.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Navajo-Ute musician and NAU alumnus recently worked with NAU to give a small campus plaza a new lease on life.\u00a0 Thanks to a donation from Nakai and his spouse, Pamela Hyde-Nakai, the space between Kitt Recital Hall and…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":73346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}