Indigenous Environmental Justice Leadership Series
The Indigenous Environmental Justice Leadership Series is co-hosted with the Intercultural Center. Our co-sponsors include the Environmental Law Society, Commonplace, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program, the Humanities Institute, the Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, Graduate Sustainability Programs, the Department of Politics and International Affairs, the Race, Inequality, and Policy Initiative, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
The Condor and the Eagle – Film Screening
Wednesday, February 23, 6-8 p.m., Pugh Auditorium
The Condor and the Eagle tracks the stories of four indigenous environmental justice spokespeople from North and South America. These leaders and their communities teach each other to build solidarity and sovereignty in the face of common threats: environmental contamination of ancestral lands; forced removal from ancestral lands; and economic, legal, and political threats to sovereignty on ancestral lands. The film screening will be followed by a 30 minute guided discussion.
Dina Gilio-Whitaker Lecture and Q&A
Thursday, February 24, 12:30-1:45 p.m., Pugh Auditorium and Virtual
Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is a scholar, educator, and journalist in American Indian studies and the author of As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock, which “indigenizes” environmental justice theory by examining cases of Indigenous experience and action across the U.S., especially in the American West. In this keynote address and interaction with students, Ms. Gilio-Whitaker addresses the topics of Indigenous environmental leadership, the ethics and practices of coalition-building between Natives and non-Natives, and strategies for transforming histories of interpreting law and the sacred that have fueled Indigenous environmental deprivation.
Donna Chavis Keynote
Thursday, February 24, 4-5 p.m., Pugh Auditorium
Donna Chavis has over 40 years of service in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors on the local, state, and national level and currently serves as Senior Climate Campaigner with Friends of the Earth U.S. She is a recognized leader in social and environmental justice change and practice. Donna was a member of the Planning Committee of the First National People of Color Leadership Summit in 1991 which developed the Principles of Environmental Justice. She remains committed to those principles and has specifically integrated them in her work over the past 4 years in opposition to the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. When she is not working for environmental and social justice Donna enjoys music, poetry and time outside with her friends and family. She is a member of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina and resides in the ancestral home of Pembroke, NC.
These events will follow the university’s indoor event protocols.