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Full recording from Day 2 of “Unfence the Future”, a virtual symposium dedicated to dismantling the colonial logics, practices, and protocols inscribed in institutions of federal law, conservation, and historic preservation. https://bit.ly/UnfenceTheFuture.

Day 1 video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDnCAZhpHcA&t=20s

DAY 2 AGENDA
00:00 OPENING POEM
* Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Muscogee) – Poet, Writer, Curator, Advocate, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

24:15 DISCUSSION: EXTERMINATING EXTRACTION
* Kai Bosworth – geographer, professor, and author of “Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the 21st Century”
* Enei Begaye (Diné/Tohono O’odham) – Executive Director, Native Movement
* Julia Fay Bernal (Sandia Pueblo/Yuchi-Creek) – Executive Director, Pueblo Action Alliance
* Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. (San Carlos Apache) – Founder, Apache Stronghold

1:27:58 INTERLUDE: MEDITATION THROUGH THE EYES OF THE SALMON
* Ruth Lchav’aya K’isen Miller (Dena’ina Athabaskan)

1:54:35 DISCUSSION: DEFENDING THE SACRED IN LAW AND POLICY
* Judith LeBlanc (Caddo) – Executive Director, Native Organizers Alliance
* Whitney Gravelle (Anishinaabe) – Chair of the Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan
* Wesley James Furlong – Attorney, Native American Rights Fund, Alaska Office

3:00:38 FILM: FROM THE ANCESTORS TO THE GRANDCHILDREN
• From The Ancestors To The Grandchildren

3:06:51 SYMPOSIUM RECAP: PULLING THE THREADS TOGETHER
* Steve Lyons, Research Director, The Natural History Museum

3:12:10 DISCUSSION: UNFENCING THE FUTURE FOR THE STORMS TO COME
* Billy Fleming – Director, McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology
* Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) – Author of “As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock”
* Elizabeth Yeampierre – Executive Director, UPROSE and Co-chair, Climate Justice Alliance
* Rueben George (Tsleil-Waututh) – Sundance Chief and Manager, Sacred Trust Initiative

4:28:36 CONCLUDING REMARKS
* Beka Economopoulos, Director, The Natural History Museum

4:32:27 VIDEO POEM: I AM FROM MEDICINE PEOPLE
* Kusemaat Shirley Williams (Lummi), Co-founder, Whiteswan Environmental
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UNFENCE THE FUTURE: TAKING DOWN FORTRESS CONSERVATION AND ITS ENDURING LEGACY

A two-day virtual symposium of panel discussions, poetry, films, and a call to action.
April 12 & 13, 2023

Fences create artificial borders between places and mediate the relations between them—what goes in, what comes out, and under what conditions. Without the lines that fences inscribe, there would be no place for border police. Nor could lands be parceled up, claimed as property to be possessed or plundered.

In the history of conservation, the logic of fencing was institutionalized in what critics call “fortress conservation,” a project of drawing boundaries between designated wilderness areas and their outsides, expelling perceived threats to ecological balance–from Indigenous Peoples, to predator species. In the process, habitats have been fragmented, and lifeworlds devastated.

While the science of fortress conservation has been widely discredited, we continue to live in its world. Where did this model come from? Where does it endure? How is it encoded in current laws, policies, and institutional practices—and more broadly, in our ways of seeing, understanding, and relating to the land? And what are activists, communities, and institutions doing to take it down?

Join community leaders, conservationists, legal scholars, geographers, historians, activists, and artists for a free online symposium dedicated to dismantling fortress conservation and its enduring legacy.

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A Red Natural History launch event, organized by The Natural History Museum and co-sponsored by Survival International and the Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center. With support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation.

* With music from “Theory of Ice” by Leanne Betasamasoke Simpson (Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg), http://leannesimpsonmusic.com

*Title inspired by the report “Unfencing the Future: Voices On How Indigenous and Non-Indigenous People and Organizations Can Work Together Toward Environmental and Conservation Goals”, by Hester Dillon (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), https://4riversconsult.com (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This panel brought together frontline communities, including Indigenous elders from the Pacific Northwest and environmental justice advocates from rural Appalachia and the Gulf South. Drawing on intergenerational knowledge and the lived experience of struggle, speakers shined a spotlight on the costs, public health impacts, and environmental damage caused by extractive and fossil fuel-based energy initiatives. They also addressed the power of people around the world to come together around truly clean energy solutions — solutions that contribute to the regeneration of the air, land, and water, and to the flourishing of communities that have been sacrifice zones for decades and longer.

Moderator * Beka Economopoulos, The Natural History Museum, Pacific Northwest

Speakers

* Rueben George, Sacred Trust Initiative, Tsleil-Waututh Nation

* Yvette Arellano, Fenceline Watch, Texas/Gulf Coast

* Germaine Patterson, Women for a Healthy Environment, Pittsburgh/Mon Valley, PA

* Heaven Sensky, Center for Coalfield Justice, Washington County, PA

* Gillian Graber, Protect PT, Westmoreland/Allegheny County, PA

Roundtable co-organized by @BreatheProject and @The Natural History Museum at @Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Pittsburgh, PA Thursday, September 22, 2022

“We have a warrior right here from Lummi, Jewell James, who has been fighting for decades and decades and decades. He fought with my mother on the same side, and with my oldest sister. Jewell and I work together, so it’s this generational effort of protecting our sacred sites.”

This video interview was recorded during the first Alliance of Earth, Sky and Water Protectors Summit at the Lummi Nation Stommish Grounds, May 27-29, 2022.

Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris is a mother, grandmother, and an enrolled Lummi tribal member. As Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House, and has served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of Lummi Nation. At Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground.

“The last thing that is wanted for us right now is for us to unify. And that’s what we’re doing here. We are unifying and we are joining force. They do everything they can to stop that. They’ve taken children from women. They’ve abused us. They’ve killed us. They’ve murdered us. They’ve taken everything they possibly could from us, and yet we’re still here.”

This video interview was recorded during the first Alliance of Earth, Sky and Water Protectors Summit at the Lummi Nation Stommish Grounds, May 27-29, 2022.

Liv Bigtree (Oneida) grew up on the Onondaga Nation where she learned about her culture and traditions. Based in the Onondaga Nation and Mohawk Nation territories, she is an artist, whose work is about her connection to her culture and identity. Taking inspiration from her favorite Indigenous artist and mentor Wendy Red Star, her work often brings awareness to issues that face Indigenous peoples. By using mediums such as performance art and sculpture, she hopes to educate others in a way that westernized education does not. Outside of her art, Olivia continues to advocate for her people by attending protest marches and learning from her elders.

“In the city, we accept that my backyard is a refinery, and that’s normal. But it’s not normal. That’s the land hurting. And we’re hurting because the land is hurting. The land shouldn’t be hurting. The air shouldn’t be hurting you.”

This video interview was recorded during the first Alliance of Earth, Sky and Water Protectors Summit at the Lummi Nation Stommish Grounds, May 27-29, 2022.

Jan Victor Andasan is a community organizer with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. Jan was born in the Philippines until they emigrated in 1997 to Long Beach, California. They lived there for about five years where they attended Daniel Webster Elementary. They moved to Carson in the South Bay area where they got involved with student organizing against the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. They went to the University of California where they got a Bachelor in Arts in Asian American Studies with a concentration in Pilipin@ Studies. During their tenure at UCLA, they were involved with organizing students of color, LGBTQ issues, and various issues affecting underrepresented communities. They worked on the affordability, accessibility, and quality of higher education. Jan has a passion for addressing social justice issues.