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Stopping Violence Against Native Women

March 29, 2017 @ 12:30 pm
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The First Nations and Indigenous Studies Speakers Series presents a videoconference with longtime activist, economist, and author Winona LaDuke titled “Stopping Violence Against Native Women.” This event will take place from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, in the de Witt Lecture Room (106) of Zabriskie Hall.

Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist and author working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy, and food systems. LaDuke’s work is primarily in the area of Indigenous economics, food and energy policy. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota and is a two time vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party.

As executive director of Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on the issues of climate change, renewable energy and environmental justice alongside Indigenous communities. In her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation-based non-profit organizations in the country. She is also the co-founder (along with the Indigo Girls) of Honor the Earth, a grassroots environmental organization focused on Indigenous issues and environmental justice. Globally and nationally, Winona is known as a leader in the issues of cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, and sustainable food systems. She is one of the leaders in the work of protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering.

LaDuke’s on the ground work includes the creation of Native Harvest, protection of wild rice and the restoration of traditional crop varieties. This work is documented in part in a book “Food is Medicine,” available from Honor the Earth. Work on restoration of traditional corn varieties received significant support from the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education and a number of private foundations. In 2015-2016, LaDuke and Honor the Earth completed a Mille Lacs Band Tribal Food Plan including policy and implementation plans for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

LaDuke’s work in renewable energy includes the completion of the White Earth Tribal Energy Plan and coordination of implementation work for solar and wind on the White Earth reservation, and with Honor the Earth and Solar Energy International installs on the Navajo and Western Shoshone reservations and territories.

In 2007, LaDuke was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, recognizing her leadership and community commitment. In 1994​, LaDuke was nominated by T​ime magazine as one of America’s fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age. She has been awarded the Thomas Merton Award in 1996, Ms. Woman of the Year (with the Indigo Girls in 1997), and the Reebok Human Rights Award, with which in part she began the White Earth Land Recovery Project. The White Earth Land Recovery Project has won many awards-including the prestigious 2003 International Slow Food Award for Biodiversity, recognizing the organization’s work to protect wild rice from patenting and genetic engineering. LaDuke was a cofounder, and board cochair of the Indigenous Women’s Network for fifteen years and maintains a significant role in international advocacy for Indigenous people. This has included numerous presentations at United Nations forums.

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, she has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. She also attended one year at the Massachussets Institute of Technology in the Community Fellows Program. The author of six books, she is widely recognized for her work on environmental and human rights issues.

This event is sponsored by the First Nations and Indigenous Studies program and the Center for Sustainability and the Environment.

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Event Details

Start

March 29, 2017 12:30 pm

End

March 29, 2017 12:30 pm

Location

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Organizer

Wells College

Venue

de Witt Lecture Hall (106), Zabriskie Hall

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Contact Email

communications@wells.edu

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