Winona LaDuke’s talk kicks off URI’s Fall Honors Colloquium – URI News
KINGSTON, RI – September 6, 2022 – Winona LaDuke, a Harvard-educated economist, environmental activist, author, hemp grower and former two-time Green Party vice-presidential candidate, will launch the University’s honorary colloquium on Tuesday 2022 of Rhode Island. 13 with “Restoring Indigenous Foodways in Times of Climate Change: Lessons for the 8th Fire.” Native American, she combines economic and environmental approaches to create a thriving and sustainable community for Indigenous peoples across the country.
LaDuke will speak at 7 p.m. at Edwards Hall on the Kingston campus and online. This is the first presentation of the fall Honorary Colloquium, “Just Good Food”, which will be presented in person and streamed live (video links available on the day of each event, at the link above).
LaDuke’s work focuses on rural development, economic, food and energy sovereignty, and environmental justice. She lives and works on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota and leads several organizations including Honor the Earth (co-founded with the Indigo Girls 28 years ago), the Anishinaabe Agricultural Instituteand Winona hemp, all of which work to develop and model culture-based sustainability strategies for renewable energy and sustainable food systems. She is known worldwide for her reflections and lectures on climate justice and renewable energy and as an advocate for the protection of native plants and heritage foods from patents and genetic engineering.
LaDuke was named to the first Forbes “50 over 50 Women of Impact” in 2021 and was recognized by Time magazine, with the Thomas Merton Award and the Reebok Human Rights Award, and was named Woman of the Year by M/s. magazine in 1998. She has written a novel as well as several non-fiction books, including the most recent Be a Water Protector: Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in rural economic development and devotes much of her time to farming on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg.
LaDuke’s presentation is the University’s Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Women’s Studies Lecture.
The URI Honors Colloquium, an annual fall lecture series held at URI, is a university-wide educational forum open to the public. This year’s free public lecture series will bring together several experts on the Kingston campus to examine local and global food systems, examining ways to create equitable, sustainable and resilient food systems, on Tuesday evenings from September 13 to December 13. ; also online. Learn more about the autumn colloquium.
