Thursday, January 28, 2010

Multimedia: Advancing the Cause of Justice

Tomorrow (or today, depending on your time zone) the National Congress of American Indians will deliver the State of the Nations address to highlight the collective successes and challenges of communities across the land.  


http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=65512


And Native America Calling has had several good call topics recently, on indigenous advocates for climate change actionindigenous beliefs and rights among world religions,  women entrepreneurs on the reservation, and even safe places for Native youth from our friends at Native Movement

And for real motivation to keep working on all these community struggles, try the music of Blackfire



Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rebuilding Haiti from the Roots Up

Check this Living On Earth podcast about Haiti and environmental regeneration.  We have seen a lot of aid that has been hindered to getting to people.  We think our real task is to build capacity and infrastructure, share information and low-impact technology, to help empower Haitians to help themselves. 






Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Traditional Knowledge and Appropriate Technology Roundup

You can listen to Luis Macas Ambuludi, discussing Latin American indigenous issues here .  This podcast is provided by Seventh Generation, among many others in their Native Pulse media offerings .

And check out the Appropedia for an array of information on low-footprint, high impact technologies. 

NTEC sums up why traditional knowledge and appropriate technology is important in our current reality: 
    "[For Natives] culture, history, identity, spirituality and governance are inextricably intertwined with their lands, waters and living beings to whom they are related and with whom they maintain right relationships. Climate change is affecting ecosystems, the distribution of culturally-important species, and the scarcity of water.  . . .  Maintaining and using traditional knowledge is essential for successful tribal adaptation to climate change. Traditional knowledge is linked to ecosystems and central to their identity and existence. It must be used on a basis of equal standing with science in alleviating adverse climate impacts on tribal trust resources."