The 2021 Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples Lecture took place on April 9, 2021 as part of the Environmental Justice Pathways Summit hosted by Beyond Toxics and the NAACP of Eugene-Springfield and featured Environmental, Cultural and Human Rights Advocate Sheila Watt-Cloutier. To view the recorded lecture between now and May 16, 2021, please email kathy@uoregon.edu.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Environmental, Cultural and Human Rights Advocate
IMAGINING A WAY FORWARD. By creating a meaningful and accessible narrative of complex processes, Sheila will tie in the connections between Inuit history/culture, environmental degradation, human trauma/planet trauma as one, climate change and human rights for all humanity. She will also link the current pandemic to climate change and help guide us to re-imagine a way forward through personal transformation and spirited leadership. “The pandemic has given a pause, a time to reflect on new possibilities. It is a time to shift from apathy to empathy and see how we are all inter-connected. What happens in the Arctic affects us all.”
About the Event
The event also featured an opening blessing from Joseph Scott, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Introductory Remarks from Don Sampson, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Climate Change Director, and Tribal student respondent: Ryan Reed, an undergraduate student at the University of Oregon. To view the recorded lecture between now and May 16, 2021, please email kathy@uoregon.edu.
Bios
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier is in the business of transforming public opinion into public policy. Experienced in working with global decision-makers for more than a decade, Watt-Cloutier offers a new model for 21st-century leadership. She speaks with passion and urgency on the issues of today — the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability — not as separate concerns, but as a deeply interconnected whole. At a time when people are seeking solutions, direction, and a sense of hope, this global leader provides a big picture of where we are and where we’re headed.
In 2007, Watt-Cloutier was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work in showing the impact of global climate change on human rights — especially in the Arctic, where it is felt more immediately, and more dramatically, than anywhere else in the world. Watt-Cloutier is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award, the UN Champion of the Earth Award, the Norwegian Sophie Prize, the Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue, and the Right Livelihood Award, which is widely considered the “Nobel Alternative”.
From 1995-2002, Watt-Cloutier was elected the Canadian President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). She was later elected in 2002 to become the International Chair of the ICC, representing the 155,000 Inuit from Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Russia — she held this post until 2006.
Widely recognized for her influential work, Watt-Cloutier gave a TEDx Talk in 2016 titled “Human Trauma and Climate Trauma as One”. She is also the author of the memoir, The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet, which was nominated for the 2016 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. In 2017, the book was shortlisted for CBC Canada Reads, defended by Chantal Kreviazuk. Watt-Cloutier was also shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.
Joseph C. Scott is a member of the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians; the son of Lorna Avery Scott and Robert A. Scott. His ancestors include the Takelma People of the Upper Rogue River Valley. Joseph is a traditional dancer, singer and artisan, and is recognized as a Language and Culture Bearer by the Siletz Tribe. He has always made his home in what has come to be known as Western Oregon, learning and teaching traditional values of place, self, and spirit. Joe has a Masters of Science in Education; Curriculum and Instruction from Portland State University, and after nearly twenty years of teaching Tribal history, language, culture, and values on the Siletz reservation, he has continued on to share his education and experience in Tribal education with indigenous communities locally, across the country, and abroad.
Don Sampson is the Climate Change Project Director for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, a consortium of 57-tribes in the Pacific Northwest. In 2015 he was one of 15 Indigenous representatives from North America at the Paris Climate Accords (COP21). Don was also the former Executive Director of the Institute of Tribal Government (2012-2017) part of the Center for Public Service at Portland State University. Mr. Sampson was the former Executive Director (2003-2010) and Chairman (1994-1997) of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon; overseeing all tribal government and business operations with over 1500 employees. He was the Executive Director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission from 1997-2003. He is an enrolled citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Ryan Reed is Karuk, Hupa and Yurok from Northern California. He’s a Junior studying Environment Studies. His participation includes, but not limited to, commitment and dedication to his tribal/Native community back home and on campus through different leadership roles and positions.
Sponsors
This lecture is co-sponsored by the UO Center for Environmental Futures, as well as Eugene-based Beyond Toxics, the UO Environmental Studies Program, the UO Native American Student Union, the UO Office of the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, the UO Robert D. Clark Honors College, the UO Climate Change Research Group, Ecotrust, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. This event is also part of the Pacific Northwest Tribal Climate Change Project.
For More Information:
Kathy Lynn, UO Environmental Studies, 541-206-3281, kathy@uoregon.edu
Mark Carey, UO Clark Honors College, 541-346-8077, carey@uoregon.edu
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The University of Oregon and the City of Eugene are situated on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional homelands and political territories of the Kalapuya peoples, whose descendants are now citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.