Generating Movement and Action

Movement Generation notes that the "building ecological literacy within our movements has become a central priority – a vision for a healthy planet rooted in the needs and voices of poor people, indigenous people, and communities of color is a strategic necessity."

To build additional ecological literacy yourself, try:

- Ecological Knowledge Database from U. Mich - Dayton

- Seed Saving online forum, courtesy of Seed Savers

- Low Income Home Energy Assistance resources to get your home weatherized

Culture and Landscape

Miwok landscape management was recently featured by TribalP2 http://www.tribalp2.org/resources/in-depth_resources/ecological_management.php

On the food security and appropriate technology fronts, check out our calendar of upcoming events.  We are anticipating trips to the Lakota, the Nahuat, and multiple workshops in our local community over the next several months -- all highlighting how to best integrate ourselves with the landscape, wherever we are.

Copenhagen

From the UN to the US: Native Land, Air, and Water

COP15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen, the United Nations University has been working hard with partners to organize the Indigenous Voices on Climate Change film festival.

Also, IEN and a multi-generational delegation of 21 Indigenous Peoples from North America have arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark this week to advocate for the incorporation of Indigenous Peoples rights in the language of a fair, binding, and science-based global climate treaty at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Read CENSORED NEWS for more information

And some telling quotes from an Intertribal Environmental Council summit earlier this month:

"We need to water our corn, our chile, our melons, or they die off. The same for ourselves if we can't consume our water."

 

"We all breathe the same air and drink the same water. There are no boundaries when it comes to the environment. The sooner we learn to survive on the mother earth, the better." 

"There are those who still rely on traditional agriculture for their livelihood and for ceremonial purposes - the growing of corn, the harmonious relationship between the seasons" 

More at http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49552

What Is Permaculture?: Indigenous Sustainable Community Design Course

As stated by TNAFA

"Permaculture (permanent "agri" culture), is a holistic approach based on traditional practices for improving air quality, water quality, health, and ecosystems management. Permaculture is the harmonious integration of landscape and people, providing food, energy, shelter, and other needs in a sustainable way for all species. Permaculture is working with nature rather than against it; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than thoughtless action; of looking at systems to evolve beneficially, on their own way, towards a state of maximum natural productivity and abundance."

CINTDIS is another seed-food-life-security organization on the other side of the globe that believes "all humans have the right and capability to understand the complexities of  nature and society" and that "increasing specialization of disciplines has created a privileged class of people . . .  who know details of tiny corners of the knowledge universe, but are ignorant of the social relevance and implications of their specialty"

If you're in the Bay Area, catch the latter at the Ecology Center on Dec. 17.