As Indigenous peoples, we recognize the sacredness of water and of how water sustains all life on earth. Indigenous cultures share a holistic understanding that goes back thousands of years on how our subsistence is impossible without water and how our human and non-human relatives all depend upon water for drinking, for nourishing and for cleansing. Water is our first medicine. Without water, there is no life. For that reason, we often refer to water as the blood of Mother Earth. We must come together to protect our access and authority over water sources, to advocate for our water rights and the right to protect water source areas from pollution and droughts, to act on our concerns about the earth’s warming and rising oceans. 

This session will focus on how healthy water systems are a necessity for our communities, the threats our water systems face including agriculture, climate change and mining, and how we can best protect water for all life on earth. Speakers include Nikki Cooley from the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) and the session will be moderated by Aaron Bird Bear, UW-Madison’s Director of Tribal Relations.

Food encompasses all facets of being for Indigenous peoples: the physical, the emotional, the spiritual and the community and understanding Indigenous food systems requires understanding our unbreakable relationship to place and environment. We cannot protect and revitalize Indigenous food systems without delving into Indigenous values, worldviews and perspectives because our relationship with food is sacred and embodies kinship with our human and non-human relatives. For that reason, food is more than agriculture or hunting for Indigenous peoples. Food is cultural, ceremonial, political and environmental sustenance and Indigenous food sovereignty is a necessity for Indigenous peoples everywhere and impossible to achieve without an intact connection to land, to environment, and to community. 

This session will focus on how the revival of Indigenous food systems is crucial for the health and integrity of Indigenous cultures and how Indigenous food sovereignty provides a restorative framework for environmental and Indigenous wellbeing. Speakers include Elder, Mate Heitia, Executive Director of  Rapua E te iwi nga Kai o nga Atua (REKA), and will be moderated by Mariaelena Huambachano of Syracuse University – American and Indigenous Studies.

Indigenous medicine refers to the culmination of healing knowledge and practices that have come to us over thousands of years and is still actively practiced by Indigenous peoples and communities around the world today. Indigenous medicine is place-based and evidence-based, with knowledge that has been developed from multiple generations of studying and applying medicinal herbs and minerals, wellbeing remedies and spiritual practices that are specific to the local context and the particular relationships to those lands and territories. However, all these traditions share a holistic worldview that the earth is the source of our life; that our positive relationship with the environment and cosmos is inherently part of human health. This health is because of the balance among the body, mind and spirit, and the balance between humans, non-human species, and the Earth herself.

This session will present traditional and modern knowledge around Indigenous health systems, including addressing health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Speakers include Menpa Phuntsog Wangmo from the Shang Shung School of Tibetan Medicine, Maria Montejo (Jakaltec Popti), Dr. Jessican Hernandez (Zapotec Chorti), and will be moderated by Sammy Weru, East Africa conservation specialist.

“Sovereignty” is inherent to Indigenous peoples and nations and are systems and practices that are thousands of years old.  It arises from Indigenous peoples' distinct cultures, societies, cosmovision and connections to their lands, and territories. Sovereignty means different things to Indigenous peoples around the world because of the multiplicity of Indigenous Nations. However, the core qualities of sovereignty are rooted in autonomy, self-determination, nation to nation relationships, cultures and languages, ceremonies and lifeways.  Sovereignty of Indigenous peoples and communities has been attacked and oppressed due to European colonialism and the imposition of settler colonial borders and European-created systems of governance, agriculture, economies, religion and technology. Indigenous peoples have endured theft of their lands and territories, forced displacement, and at the most extreme, genocide of their peoples. However, Indigenous peoples have always found ways to survive, resist and protect their relationships to food, water, land, languages, plants and animals, spiritual practices and culture. 

This session will focus on three components of sovereignty; land, law and peoples and how this is implemented around the world, whether as an inherent right of Indigenous Nations and as part of developments in International Human Rights Law such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Speakers include Tim Coulter from the Indian Law Resource Center, Kyle Powys Whyte from University of Michigan and will be moderated by Juanita Cabrera Lopez, Executive Director of the International Mayan League.