UNITY CONCERT WORKSHOPS
| BECAUSE KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
BY SHAELA NOELLA
ANTI-FRACKING WORKSHOP
The Anti-Fracking workshop will be moderated by recognized leaders in the anti-fracking movement and environmental advocacy.
David Braun
Co-founder of Americans Against Fracking and New Yorkers Against Fracking, he is currently working with Californians Against Fracking, a coalition of over 150 organizations fighting for a ban.
http://www.americansagainstfracking.org/
http://www.californiansagainstfracking.org/
Deia Schlosberg
MFA Science & Natural History Filmmaking
Director and producer of the award-winning documentary, Backyard, about the human costs of fracking for oil and gas.
Josh Fox
Film director and environmental activist, best known for his Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary, Gasland.
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
Russell Mendell
Russell is a writer, musician and community organizer. His work focuses on the merging of art and activism to inspire youth participation in climate solutions.Currently he is the Campaign Director for Frack Free Colorado a nonprofit focused on making the transition from fracked gas to renewable energy.
http://www.frackfreecolorado.com/
Wes Gillingham
Co-founder and the Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper,
an environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Catskill Region in New York State. Wes serves on the New York Sate Forest Preserve Advisory Committee providing advice and guidance to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the 3.4 million acres of the State Forest Preserve.
http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
14 year old indigenous environmental activist.
Xiuhtezcatl is the youth director of Earth Guardians, a non-profit environmental organization that is committed to protecting the water, air, earth, and atmosphere.
http://www.earthguardians.org/
The Rosenberg Fund for Children (www.rfc.org) will present information on the organization’s resources for activist families and young activists. The RFC is a public foundation that aids children in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, whose parents have faced repression because they are activists in movements for climate justice, indigenous people’s and immigrants’ rights, peace, civil liberties, LGBTQ rights, and other progressive struggles from Idle No More, to efforts to combat police brutality, to the fight to free U.S. political prisoners and more. The RFC also aids youth who have faced repression directly because of their own activism. The Fund’s grants are used to support the recipients’ educational and emotional needs, including: music, art, sports, and other cultural or recreational activities; therapy; visits to see imprisoned loved ones; school supplies including computers; assistance to young activists to develop their organizing skills; and more. The RFC encourages activist parents and young activists who have been targeted, to contact the organization to inquire about applying for assistance.
SUPPORTING THE CHILDREN OF RESISTANCE:
AID FOR ACTIVIST FAMILIES
+ YOUTH ACTIVISTS
CONCERT GUIDE
Unity Nature Essence
Shaela Noella Roselena will introduce what Nature and Flower Essences are, how to use them, and their healing qualities. We will also work with the Nature Spirits of the Land and Together create an essence in which supports the Prayer of Unity; Unity with the earth, cosmos, eachother and all of creation. If you would like to carry or take home the essence we make ; bring your water bottle or a small glass container.
Shaela Noella Roselena has been creating Nature and Flower essences all over the West Coast and Hawaii for the last 10 years. She has great appreciation to the Nature Spirits of Hawaii and her Apache and Pueblo ancestors; with their love, influence and wisdom her communication with the plant world happened naturally and magically. Currently you can find out more about her work at www.roselenaalchemy.com
UNITY NATURE ESSENCE
Rafael Rodriguez Cruz is a Puerto Rican civil rights attorney and activist. He is the chair of the Board of Directors of Rosenberg Fund for Children. In 2000, Rafael was arrested and convicted for non-violent civil disobedience acts in Vieques, Puerto Rico, where the U.S. Navy was exposing the civilian and local population to radioactive contamination.
Amber Black has been with the Rosenberg Fund for Children in Easthampton, MA, for 15 years, where she is currently the Communications Director. In that capacity she produces public events, manages the website and social media, acts as the press liaison, and creates the organization’s online and print materials for fund raising and for outreach to both supporters and grantees.
This workshop will cover current methods of uranium mining, plans to mine radioactive uranium in the Black Hills near sacred sites, and how people have stopped -- and can stop -- uranium mining.
Lilias Jones Jarding is a long-time activist and researcher who has a history of opposing uranium mining and other unsafe energy projects. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science with an emphasis on Environmental Policy from Colorado State University. Currently, she teaches at a tribal college in South Dakota. She serves on the Boards of the Clean Water Alliance, Izaak Walton League – Rapid City Chapter (2011 – present), South Dakota Peace and Justice Center (March 2014 – present), Western Mining Action Network, and Dakota Rural Action (December 2013 – present).
WHAT IS PLANNED?
URANIUM MINING IN THE BLACK HILLS
Good Shield Aguilar
From a young age, art and music had always played a major role in his observations and expressions of the world around him. Cultural identity was always important too, having grown up in California, far from his regional ancestral lands, he has successfully faced the challenge of keeping strong cultural ties.
Music and activism has taken him all over Turtle Island (and Europe), introducing him to the beauty and diversity of the many nations across this land and beyond and also the struggles and plights continuing today, from sacred site desecration, to revoked water rights, to contamination of the environment, and the slaughtering of buffalo and wolves.
By his mid 20′s, Good Shield had devoted his music and energy to speaking up for the Last Wild Herd of Buffalo left in Yellowstone, MT and the salmon on the Klamath River where he lives in Northern California. Music had become a way to bring awareness and consciousness rather than just entertainment.
When Good Shield isn’t traveling with music or isn’t up in Yellowstone with the Buffalo Field Campaign, he is a “green builder”, building eco-friendly strawbale homes and structures, enjoying nature, as he is a lover of the outdoors and is a blessed father of three beautiful young warriors.
Larry Schweiger recently retired after serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) for ten years, with a commitment to confront global warming to protect wildlife and our children's future. Larry's book "Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth" was the first place winner of the "best non-fiction book-2011" from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Mr. Schweiger served for eight years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, where he pioneered watershed restoration and promoted ecological research, land conservation and community outreach. Prior to that, he served as Executive Secretary of the Joint House/Senate Conservation Committee for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Senior Vice President for Conservation Programs at National Wildlife Federation, and as 1st Vice President of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. In 2011, He was awarded the Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future Visionary Award for his leadership in raising awareness about the critical impacts of climate change throughout the world and commitment to employing clean energy solutions. He was selected as Pennsylvania’s Environmental Professional of the Year in 2002, Pittsburgher of the Year in 2000, and he received a Conservation Service Award from the Christian Environmental Association in September 1995.
PRESERVING THE LAST WILD BUFFALO
KXL PIPELINE WORKSHOP
Vice President Tom Poor Bear (Oglala) and attorney Jennifer Baker, who have been battling the proposed Keystone XL pipeline since 2011, will provide background information regarding that controversial project and the importance of stopping it - from the sacredness of water to the enforcement of treaties. Participants in the workshop will be given an update on the proposed project's status, including recent developments pertaining to the project's permit for the state of South Dakota and the anticipated certification process before South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission (PUC). In addition, the workshop will equip participants with the knowledge and tools to become involved and make their voices heard in the South Dakota PUC permit process.
This Workshop examines the opportunity for the application of sustainable, affordable, future-proofed and energy efficient building techniques on the Great Sioux Nation reservations.
Bob Gough, Intertribal Council On Utility Policy Secretary, co-chaired the national Native Peoples Climate Workshops, participated in several Kyoto Protocol COPs as part of the Indigenous Peoples delegation, and contributed to the National Climate Assessment for the Great Plains and the Indigenous Peoples chapters.
Gough contracted with the Wind Powering Native America Initiative, served on the WGA's Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Committee, and co-directs the Intertribal COUP initiatives in building tribal sustainable homeland economies based upon efficiency (straw bale housing) and renewable energy (wind, solar and geothermal). The COUP plan for 1,000 megawatts of intertribal wind in S.D. was recognized with the inaugural World Clean Energy Award for Courage, in Basel, Switzerland and recently announced as a Clinton Global Initiative commitment. He currently serves as a visitor on climate issues to UCAR/NCAR, where he has co-convened Rising Voices of Indigenous Peoples in the Global Climate Conversation 1 & 2.
TRIBAL GRASS ROOTS SUSTAINABILITY
THE INTERGENERATIONAL
TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE
Responsible storytelling, knowledge support and sucession planning regarding indigenous and traditional knowledge systems.
Dr. Bennett and I will inform, amuse and entertain participants in a sharing and dialogue regarding the past, present and future states of TEK, ITK and initiatory experience for continuity of cultural values and perspectives.
Kalani Souza is a gifted storyteller, singer, songwriter, musician, performer, poet, philosopher, priest, political satirist, and peacemaker. A Hawaiian practitioner and cross-cultural facilitator, he has experience in promoting social justice through conflict resolution. His workshops and lectures inspire, challenge and entertain the listener while calling all to be their greater self.