As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are thankful for another year of power, spirit, and the vision for a more equitable future in the face of a system and political leaders who try to convince us otherwise. Today (and every day) we amplify the voices of the mentors who guide our creative visions, those who inspire and shift us into action, and the centuries old history of women, femmes, and allies whose voices and stories continue to shape the movement. We are honored and delighted to be able to share these incredible women’s talks from the Bioneers Conferences:

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Heather McGhee

I don't know about you, but I need to find a way to love this country. One of the things that helps me do that is because of the beauty of who we are becoming. - Heather McGhee @hmcghee Click To Tweet

I don’t know about you, but I need to find a way to love this country. One of the things that helps me do that is because of the beauty of who we are becoming.

Heather McGhee, President of Demos, depicts how deep democracy is the only solution to the crises of inequality and climate change, and how the changing demos — people — of America can rise to meet this moment.

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Kandi Mossett

We are going to continue to fight, because it's not just about one pipeline. - Kandi Mossett @mhawea Click To Tweet

Kandi Mossett (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara), Native Energy and Climate Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), has emerged as a leading voice in the fight against environmental racism at Standing Rock and beyond. Kandi shares the powerful story of how her community drew on its cultural resilience to resist fracking in North Dakota, and how the re-assertion of tribal sovereignty, revitalization of language and restoration of traditional foodways can point the way to a just transition to a clean energy future for all of us.

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Dr. Teresa Ryan

We also found evidence that trees could recognize their relatives...When a mother tree was injured, she transmitted even more carbon to her kin, as though she were leaving her energy, her legacy, to the next generation. - Dr. Teresa Ryan Click To Tweet

Ecologist and Tsimshian native, Dr. Teresa Ryan shares from her training in Western scientific observation, insight into the relationships between tree roots, mycorrhizal fungi, marine-derived nitrogen that came from the bodies of spawned-out salmon that were defecated out by bears and eagles and otters.

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Corrina Gould

People in the Bay Area have a responsibility because you are now settlers on our land. You have to be able to protect these places because these shellmounds not only protect us, they now protect you. - Corrina Gould @corrina_gould Click To Tweet

California Indians have survived some of the most extreme acts of genocide committed against Native Americans. Prior the ongoing genocide under Spanish and American colonizations, California Indians were the most linguistically diverse and population dense First Peoples in the United States. In this historic panel, four California Indian leaders share the stories of kidnappings, mass murders, and slavery that took place under Spanish, Mexican and American colonizations.

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Saru Jayaraman

Seventy percent of tipped workers in America are, guess who? They are women. This is how we are taught what is acceptable and tolerable in the workplace. - Saru Jayaraman @SaruJayaraman Click To Tweet

Before the election, workers were already rising up all over the country and have continued to do so even more now, joining the campaign for “One Fair Wage,” demanding higher wages and the elimination of lower wages for tipped workers. The movement helped torpedo Trump’s first Secretary of Labor nominee and is ramping up the fight for a $15/hour national minimum wage. Innovative, award-winning labor leader Saru Jayaraman says that, if we join together, we can end economic inequality in America.

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Patricia Gualinga & Atossa Soltani

We know that this is a fight that is not just for us, in every forest there are living beings who are also defending the future of humanity and the planet. They have many different names, and when the forest is protected they are also… Click To Tweet

Gualinga (Kichwa) tells the story of the resistance of her Sarayaku village of 1,200 against oil concessions that have been trespassing on Native lands in the Ecuadorian Amazon, illegally claiming subsurface rights. Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch, interprets from Spanish to English. With help from Amazon Watch and Fundación Pachamama, Gualinga and her neighbors have triumphed against the oil companies by receiving legal assistance from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Sarayaku holds a bright torch for justice, not just for neighboring tribes – but for the health of the entire planet.

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Naelyn Pike

In order to create change for the people, we must unify, because a true unity is accepting one another's diversity. - Naelyn Pike @naelyn_pike Click To Tweet

This luminous 17-year-old Chiricahua Apache changemaker from San Carlos, AZ, co-leads the Apache Stronghold group to defend her people’s sacred sites, tribal sovereignty, culture and language.

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As Bioneers co-founder, Nina Simons, reflects: “Thankfully, as the Dalai Llama suggested, it’s not a question of whether or not rebalancing the feminine and masculine, and transforming our worlds into places of equity, peace and regeneration will happen. It must. It’s a question of when, and how, which will be determined by how many of us rise to the occasion how soon, and with what levels of commitment, love and endurance. May we rise soon, and ongoingly, and stand with those frontline women who’ve endured the most, as they understand essential lessons about resilience, lessons we all need to learn.” Happy International Women’s Day, Bioneers.