Reclaiming Indigenous Worldviews: Implementing the Rights of Nature in the Bay Area and Beyond
Join Indigenous culture bearers to explore ways that First Peoples’ worldviews can be adopted into law to protect natural systems for all peoples. Co-hosted by California Indian knowledge bearers, this one-day workshop offers a rare opportunity to learn about how Indigenous worldviews connect people to place. Engage in intimate discussion, cultural arts and hands-on activities. Hosts and special guests will share how Rights of Nature legal frameworks can be adopted in urban and rural ancestral territories, empowering participants with the know-how to organize for the “Rights of Nature” in their communities.
With Maui Solomon (Moriori); Sage LaPena (Nompitom Wintu); Vincent Medina, (Muwekma Ohlone); Dean Hoaglin (Coast Miwok/Pomo/Wailaki/Yuki); Edward Willie (Pomo/Wailaki/Wintu); Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF); and featuring the Tribal Youth Ambassadors (Pomo) from the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center.
Location: McNears Beach Park
Shuttle from Embassy Suites at 8:30 a.m.
Price: $195 (includes lunch), $5 Parking
Performance by Dallas Goldtooth (Diné/Dakota), co-founder of the 1491’s, a provocative Indigenous comedy crew.
Throughout time, stories have been peoples’ way of conveying wisdom and guidance through the generations. In this extraordinary cross-cultural session, we will be regaled by two legendary storytellers from very different traditions—Sunny Dooley, one of the greatest contemporary traditional Diné (Navajo) storytellers, who specializes in the Blessingway oral traditions of her people; and Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D., who is widely known for her scholarship in Kabbalah, depth psychology, and the re-integration of the feminine wisdom tradition within Judaism.
Introduction by Alexis Bunten, Bioneers Indigeneity Program Manager
This luminous 17-year-old Chiricahua Apache change-maker from San Carlos, AZ, co-leads the Apache Stronghold group to defend her people's sacred sites, tribal sovereignty, culture and language.
In 1851, California’s governor ordered a “war of extermination . . . until the Indian race becomes extinct.” Prior to genocides under Spanish and then American colonization, California was home to the most linguistically diverse and dense populations of First Peoples in North America. California Indian culture bearers come together to speak to California’s true history and to celebrate California Indian survivance, despite generations of relocation, kidnapping, slavery, and mass murder. Hosted by: Valentin Lopez (Mutsun/Awaswas/Chumash/Yokuts), Chairman, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. With: Loren Bommelyn (Tolowa) Chairperson, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation; Marshall McKay, Chairman, Yoche Dehe Wintun Nation; Corrina Gould (Chochenyo/Karkin Ohlone), founder, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust; Vincent Medina (Muwekma Ohlone).
Come experience the healing powers of storytelling first-hand in this rare opportunity to witness culture bearers perform traditional and contemporary stories from the heart of California Indian Country, followed by a discussion about the power of storytelling to restore balance to the world. Hosted by: Cara Romero. With: Calvin Hedrick (Mountain Maidu), Cultural Director, The Fifth Direction; Director of the Ti’at Society; L Frank Manriquez (Tongva-Acjachemen) artist and activist; Dean Hoaglin (Coast Miwok/Pomo/Wailaki/Yuki), Cultural Specialist, Graton Rancheria.
Introduction by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Associate Producer
As a primary architect of the globally significant 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Agreement, Jody dedicated 20+ years of her life to the insanely challenging, complex and ultimately successful struggle to protect the largest expanse of old-growth temperate rainforest in the world. This historic agreement formalizes a large-scale model for First Nations reconciliation and shared decision-making, ecologically responsible forestry, and absolute protection of 85% of the forest. Jody will explore how we can find durable solutions to our most “wicked” problems by examining the dynamics of power, gender, science and culture and by using tools drawn from whole systems thinking, innovative conflict resolution techniques and consensus decision-making.
Representatives from some of the most innovative initiatives working to create broad-based coalitions to protect large ecosystems and guarantee sustainable development share their successful strategies. With: Jody Holmes, Ph.D., Project Director of the Rainforest Solutions Project, which worked for 20+ years to bring together all the stakeholders, including many First Nations, to protect the Great Bear ecosystem, the world’s largest coastal temperate rainforest; Henry Izumizaki, Strategy Director for The Russell Family Foundation’s Puyallup Watershed Initiative, a bold new model of community centered change in a vast region of the Pacific Northwest; Deon Ben (Navajo), Native American Program Manager for the Grand Canyon Trust, working to protect and restore the Colorado Plateau. Hosted by Jason Mark, Editor-in-Chief of the Sierra Club's magazine, Sierra.
Hawaii’s Poet Laureate, Kealoha, presents a creation story in epic poem form that traces human origins from the Big Bang to the present day using a dazzling mix of science, poetry, storytelling, movement, music, visual art, and chanting. A multi-media feast for the soul, this performance explores life’s biggest questions—“Where do we come from?” “Where are we going?”—drawing from sources as diverse and yet interconnected as astrophysics, disco, biology, Michael Jackson, and the Kumulipo.