- The Indigeneity Program hosted our most ambitious Rights of Nature gathering to date in September with the generous support of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Rancho Mirage, California. Attended by over 230 participants, the gathering attracted participation from 79 Tribes, including 26 California Indian Tribes! In honoring 7th-generation wisdom, participants ranged in age from elders to youth. Keynote speakers included Tribal leaders from coast to coast to share strategies for adopting the Rights of Nature, as well as legal experts and youth. In line with this, the Indigeneity Team shared our completed Guide to Rights of Nature in Indian Country toolkit, which includes an appendix with case studies, worksheets, evaluation instruments and more.
- We produced our first (of many) annual conferences in Berkeley, featuring a dazzling program, and generating evergreen media content to distribute, that’s now reaching millions through our media channels online and via radio. Highlights of registration included over 50% new attendees, 125 Tribal Nations represented, and age demographics that skewed far younger than in years past.
- I conducted interviews, summits and podcasts both to promote Bioneers, and the second edition of my award-winning book, Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, including this podcast with Sustainability Now.
- We launched our new online learning platform, Bioneers Learning, with the mission of education for action with a community of leadership, through engaging courses led by some of the world’s foremost movement leaders. Bioneers offered six courses and four Community Conversations in 2023 ranging in topics from Permaculture to Sacred Activism to Rights of Nature. In 2024 Bioneers Learning will be launching asynchronous courses (including one on Regenerative Agriculture) along with live offerings, starting with my January course: EveryWoman’s Leadership: Cultivating Ourselves for Full-Spectrum Flourishing.
- Kenny, in collaboration with our radio team, has continued to produce and expand our stunning array of award-winning shows which air on a total of 437 stations, including 18 of the top 100 U.S. radio markets. The podcast version of the series continues to spike, with 1,855,000 downloads in 2023, growing at 43% over the past year. You can listen to our latest release, Midwifing a Movement: Community Birth Centers and the Care Economy here.
- We successfully launched a new newsletter on Intelligence in Nature, called Earthlings. And The Food Web, our Restorative Food Systems newsletter, continues to grow with over 11,500 subscribers—a 56% increase in the last 6 months—and recently features issues on The Creative Force of Fungi and Food Sovereignty: A BIPOC Perspective. Read more here.
- Regranting through both our Indigenous Relief in Indian Country and the Everywoman’s Leadership Regranting Fund, which each focus on underserved BIPOC and Native women leaders, distributing over $120K to 63 worthy individuals, 54 organizations and 3 community caregivers through small grants and fellowships.
- In 2023, youth leadership grew and evolved, as we combined Bioneers’ Youth Leadership Program with the Native Youth Leadership Program and Intercultural Conversations. Intercultural Conversations (IC) is an annual educational exchange between a diverse group of Native and non-Native youth who come together to address critical issues facing Indigenous and all peoples. IC inaugurated its 8th cohort since the program launched in 2017 with youth from Georgia, California, Louisiana, Alaska, and Hawaii convening in person for the first time at the Southern California Rights of Nature event, where they participated in hands-on activities to strengthen their leadership skills. After gathering, the youth met together for the Annual Sunrise Ceremony on Alcatraz Island for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, as well as virtually throughout the year. This year’s cohort will meet again in person at the 2024 Bioneers Conference.
- Learn more about Bioneers catalytic initiatives, program updates, and future activities here.