Ericka Huggins, Former Leader of Black Panther Party: Practicing Mindfulness

Ericka Huggins, activist, educator, former political prisoner & leader of the Black Panther Party shares with Elisa Parker how we can integrate mindfulness to navigate and change the world. #Bioneers16 www.conference.bioneers.org. Learn more at https://bioneers.org

Standing Rock Update and Indigenous Call to Action – Bioneers 2016

Kandi Mossett, Tara Houska, and Dallas Goldtooth present an update and call to action on the situation at Standing Rock, North Dakota – where thousands of Indigenous water protectors and allies are defending sacred lands from desecration by the Dakota Access Pipeline in the face of police brutality and arrest.

Filmed live at the Bioneers 2016 Conference on October 23, 2016.

Full professional quality audio version will be made available after the conference.

Learn more at https://bioneers.org

Ericka Huggins: The Role of Spiritual Practice in Social Justice Work

Ericka Huggins, the renowned former Black Panther, political prisoner, human rights activist – and educator, poet, and professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Merritt College in Oakland – has for 35 advocated for “restorative justice” and the role of spiritual practice in sustaining activism and promoting social change. Grounded in her belief in the greatness of the human heart, Ericka says each one of us has the ability to look there for the answers to questions about the future of our world. Personal transformation is necessary to achieve social transformation.

Introduction by Fania Davis, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth.

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference.

Bren Smith – The Least Deadly Catch: Ocean Farming in the Climate Change Era

Bren Smith, founder of GreenWave and winner of the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge award, tells his personal story of ecological redemption. He dropped out of high school and became a commercial fisherman at age 14, but witnessed the destruction of the ocean firsthand. In a quest for a better way, he pioneered a revolutionary new model of harvesting bounty from the seas. He describes his innovative, practical design and future vision for “Restorative 3-D ocean Farming”. It restores ecosystems, mitigates climate change, creates jobs in a blue-green economy, and ensures healthy, secure local food for communities.

Introduction by J.P Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer.

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference. To find out more about Bren Smith and his work, visit GreenWave.

Kenny Ausubel: Imagining Our Way Out of the Unimaginable | Bioneers 2016

Kenny Ausubel is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author, journalist and filmmaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Bioneers, the internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to disseminating breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. He launched the annual Bioneers Conference in 1990 with his business partner and wife Nina Simons, Bioneers Co-Founder and President.

Kenny is a writer, filmmaker and media professional. Since 2004, he has served as executive producer and co-writer of the award-winning international radio series The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature. He acted as a central advisor to Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary, The 11th Hour, and appears in the film.

He has written four books and edited several volumes of the Bioneers anthology book series. His most recent book Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature (Chelsea Green 2012) won the Nautilus Grand Gold prize in the Ecology-Environment category. He writes for the Huffington Post.

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference.

Transcript is available here.

Vien Truong: Creating an Equitable Environmental Movement

Vien Truong, formerly the National Director of Green For All, has worked tirelessly to bring equity, social justice and climate justice to the frontlines of the environmental movement and public policy. She has been a central force in putting environmental justice at the center of California’s groundbreaking climate policy, legislation and cap-and-trade funding. Vien shares her wise perspectives on how to build a new clean-energy economy that brings prosperity and justice to low-income communities and communities of color.

Introduction by Steve Phillips, founder/Chairman, PowerPac+

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference.

Mark Plotkin: Maps, Magic and Medicine in the Rainforest

Mark Plotkin, groundbreaking ethnobotanist and author of seminal books including “Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice”, works closely with Indigenous peoples and uncontacted tribes in the northwest Amazon. As co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) in 1995, he depicts ACT’s work partnering with over 30 South American tribes, including the Kogi, to map, manage and protect over 70 million acres of ancestral forests. He describes collaboration with elder healers to develop and implement successful “Shamans and Apprentices” programs to transmit sacred healing information down through generations within the tribes themselves.

Introduction by Laurie Benenson, film producer and environmental changemaker.

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference. To learn more about Mark Plotkin and his work, visit the Amazon Conservation Team.

 

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: What Are We Fighting For?

“Revolution is on the horizon, and youth are rising with the oceans to lead the movements that will shape our future”, says Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a  Indigenous hip hop artist, environmental activist (since age 6!) and the newest board member of Bioneers. He’s the award-winning Youth Director or Earth Guardians, a rapidly growing international organization of young activists, artists and musicians committed to protecting water, air, land and atmosphere. He organized many rallies, actions, demonstrations and events. He travels globally to speak about environmental and Indigenous issues, including at the United Nations with Robert Redford. He brings alive the unparalleled intergenerational movements emerging to save our planet, as youth globally join hearts and hands against some of the world’s most powerful industries to take a stand for the future and build resilient communities.

Introduction by Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers CEO and Founder.

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference.

To find out more about Xiuhtezcatl Martinez visit the Earth Guardians.

Visit the Bioneers Green New Deal Media Collection.

Janine Benyus – Biomimicry as a Cooperative Inquiry

Our species is finally turning toward other species for their embodied wisdom, borrowing these insights to solve challenges such as delivering nutrition in a way that nourishes both planet and people. Biomimicry author and visionary Janine Benyus shows how nature-inspired breakthroughs in agriculture are evolving from plant-focused “silver bullets” to system-savvy healing. She gives us a sneak preview of the amazing entries in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge in food systems. She explores how the “democratization of invention” is growing more biomimetic – as teams turn to nature together, in massive parallel, to discover a multitude of wild ideas that work together as a system. Cooperation, naturally enough, is the best way to learn from life’s genius!

Introduction by Paul Hawken, author, activist, entrepreneur.

This speech was given at the 2016 National Bioneers Conference.

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