Bioneer,
This week’s newsletter is dedicated to mothers—those who are raising kind humans through trying times, those who are breaking barriers by excelling in their careers and families, and even those with feathers, fur and fins. In this week’s newsletter, we celebrate Mother’s Day by recognizing organizations and individuals standing up for women, mothers, and families, those that are working to protect our planet for future generations, and we look at what you can do to lend support.
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Person to Know: Kandi Mossett
A mother and member of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation of North Dakota, Kandi Mossett is known worldwide for her involvement on the frontlines of the protests at Standing Rock. Mosset joined the Bioneers Indigenous Forum in 2014 and two years later joined fellow water protectors at Bioneers 2016 to provide an update on Standing Rock that reached millions. Passionate about bringing visibility to the impacts of climate change and environmental injustice—specifically those affecting Indigenous communities throughout the world—she currently works with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) as Lead Organizer of the Extreme Energy and Just Transition Campaign. Here is an excerpt from a recent interview Mossett did with Bioneers about the significance of the Standing Rock protests.
This moment we find ourselves in was prophesied 200 or 300 years ago. The major fights against Dakota Access Pipeline and the on-the-ground fights were on sacred sites. There are over 380 sacred sites in that corridor, and there’s a lot buried under the ground that people don’t see. Medicine was put there to make sure that diverse nations who were traditional enemies could gather together there and trade. We each had our own skill sets. My tribe, for example, Mandan Hidatsa Arikara, are farming tribes. We lived along the Missouri, and we had water for irrigation. So we would have more of the farming goods – the corn, the squash, the beans – whereas another tribe would have meat. And so we recognize diversity even in ourselves, and recognize that, even as traditional enemies, we relied upon each other for those times of trade. People would tell the stories to the youth, the future generations, about how it was really important to listen and understand each other, because the significance of the medicine would come up again. And here we are. And it is significant.
With the fight at Standing Rock, we’ve been able to show that over 500 tribes can still get together for the same cause, which is for justice and for truth and reconciliation, and for a change of the system. That fight has helped that whole narrative move forward, so that people understand that it wasn’t just about Indigenous Peoples, it was people in general reaffirming your attachment to the sacred, or reaffirming yourself as an individual. It doesn’t matter the color of your skin or whatever, you have to do that as a human living on the planet. Read more here. |
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Don't Miss: Bioneers 2019 Early Bird Tickets!
This great deal won’t last long! Buy your ticket now for 20% off the regular price. Learn more here. |
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Video to Watch: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins on Motherhood and Leadership
The co-founder and CEO of Promise, a California-based company reworking the bail system and former CEO of Green For All shares her deeply personal journey of the experience of becoming a mother and her renewed urgency to create a healthier and more just planet. The challenges of parenting have stretched and transformed her approach to leadership.
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This Week on Bioneers Radio & Podcast
We live in a society dependent on toxic chemicals. Today about 287 such chemicals trespass inside the blood of newborns and inside all of us – without our consent. Despite the odds, ecologist, author and mother Sandra Steingraber is an optimist. She’s betting that the burgeoning global environmental human rights movement will free us from our deadly dependency. She believes our grandchildren will look back on us and marvel that our economy was once dependent on toxic chemicals – and they will think of it as unthinkable.
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Take Action: MomsRising
“Flowers are Nice. Equality is Better”
Looking for ways to support the most critical issues facing mothers and families? MomsRising is an incredible grassroots organization that champions women in everything from paid family leave and affordable childcare to wage discrimination. Help them make a difference for families all over the country: Check out their website for a number of ways to support women and families, from making a dedicated Mother’s Day donation to encouraging your senators to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. |
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Eat Like a Fish: Restoring the Oceans Through Kelp Farming
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Organization to Know: Climate Parents
Since 2012, Climate Parents has mobilized families across the country at a local, state and national level to support clean energy and climate solutions. By creating a dialogue with public policy makers and energy providers, Climate Parents hopes to achieve 100% clean energy and a healthy planet for future generations. Learn more about Climate Parents and how to get involved here. |
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 Big News!
Bioneers cofounder Nina Simons’ Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership has been awarded a Gold Nautilus Award in the category of Women and a Silver Nautilus Award in the category of Social Justice.
About the Nautilus Book Awards: Established in 1998, Nautilus Book Awards (“better books for a better world”) is an annual accolade of books in the genre of social and environmental justice, which seeks to recognize books that “make a difference and inspire.” Award winners are selected through a three-tier consensus process presided over by an assembly of editors, professors, writers, librarians, publishers, schoolteachers and bookstore owners. Nautilus awards have been conferred to The Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Goodman, and Desmond Tutu.
Get your copy of Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership on Amazon or Indiebound. |
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The Latest From Bioneers.org: The Secret to Funding a Green New Deal
Ellen Brown, attorney, author and chairman of the Public Banking Institute, explores the ins and outs of the Green New Deal, and hones in on how the network of public banks proposed in the Deal itself could help fund it without burdening taxpayers. Read more here. |
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