The approach and scripts mentioned above from @ctrahey worked to resolve the inability to import tensorflow into python. However, I still encountered a runtime error during model.fit() due to incompatibility in pandas. I noticed that my python and numpy were installed by conda-forge, while pandas was installed by pip. I uninstalled pandas using pip, reinstalled it using conda-forge, and the runtime error was resolved. Back to working on my loss function and training my model (where I was 2 weeks ago before deciding to try to get all this running natively instead of under the emulator).

I am successfully training a YOLO v2 CNN on M1 using the approach and script provided by @ctrahey above. That resolved the import tensorflow crashing python, but my neural net uses pandas under the covers during training and that threw a runtime error. Resolved by uninstalling pandas, which had initially been installed using pip, and reinstalling it using Conda. My model is training as I write this. Hope it helps.