“Rights of Nature,” a public talk by Winona LaDuke

Community Rights Lane County along with UO Ethnic Studies and Native American Studies is hosting a “Rights of Nature” presentation by Winona LaDuke in the EMU Ballroom, Saturday November 19th at 7pm. Winona will speak on Nature’s historic position as “property” and the international call to legally recognize Nature’s right to exist, persist and naturally evolve. There is a global movement dedicated to normalizing this notion of “rights of Nature”. As one Native elder has said, “It is only by the grace of Nature, that the people exist.” It is well past time that we become better stewards of our precious host Planet Earth.

Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives on the WhiteEarth Reservations. She is the Executive Director of Honor the Earth, where she works on the national level to advance frontline native environmental groups. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, Winona has written extensively on Native American and Environmental issues, and is the author of books including The Militarization of Indian Country, Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming, and All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. She is a former Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year and board member of Greenpeace USA. She presently serves as co-chair
of the Indigenous Women’s Network, a North American and Pacific indigenous women’s organization.

Rights of Nature:
A fundamentally different relationship between humankind and nature is necessary, one that reflects our dependence on nature and need to live in harmony with the natural world. This requires providing the highest legal protection, one that recognizes the rights of both humankind and nature to health and well-being. CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) is a pioneering leader in the effort to secure the rights of ecosystems – or the “rights of nature” – working to develop rights-based legal frameworks to protect the environment. CELDF has assisted communities in the U.S. and Ecuador in establishing the first rights of nature laws in the world, and is now working in the U.S., Nepal, India, and elsewhere to build on these successes.

Co-Sponsors:
Oregon Wild, Lane County Green Pary, Oregon Coutry Fair, Organically Grown Co-op, LCC, ORCRN, KLCC, School Garden Project of Lane County, Willamette Farm and Food Coalition, Civil Liberties Defense Center, CELDF, Hummingbird Wholesalers, KXCR in Florence, Healing Matrix in Cottage Grove, UO Ethnic Studies, UO English Dept, UO Native American Studies, UO Environmental Studies, Willamette Weekly