Indigenous Futures
Description:
The panel focused on Indigenous perspectives on climate change, and the panel create a space where Indigenous voices are centered within the climate conversation. Panelists discussed why Indigenous communities protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity and how indigenous technologies are used in climate adaptation efforts. They also reflected on the challenges Indigenous activists face when they are seldom given the same platforms and support as white activists. This panel also considered how sustainability, resilience, and world-building look from diverse Indigenous perspectives.
Panelist Bios:
Tia Kennedy
Tia (she/they) is an Indigenous activist and leader in what is now known as "Canada." They carry Anishinabee and Haudenosaunee teachings from Oneida Nation of the Thames and Walpole Island First Nation. Tia is a decolonial educator and is the founder of an anti-racism consulting firm, Kiinew Kwe. She has worked as a consultant for non-profit organizations, government bodies, corporations, and universities. Their work has allowed her to support Indigenous peoples across the globe and has given her opportunities to speak about climate change on international platforms. They are a passionate caretaker for Mother Earth and wants to ensure the next generations have a place to call home.
Chenae Bullock
Chenae (she/her) is an enrolled Shinnecock Nation citizen and descendant of the Montauk Tribe in Long Island New York. She is also African American. Chenae is an entrepreneur, pioneer, Indigenous perspective historian, and cultural practitioner. Following her ancestors footsteps as whalers and business leaders, the foundation of her work has been based on the resurgence of the traditional canoe culture of the northeast coastal Algonquin communities. She has organized historically sacred paddles in the ancient waterways of the northeastern seaboard. Some of her most recent work has led her to assess for signs of submerged cultural history for the Atlantic Shores Cultural Core Analysis. She successfully served as a Tribal Alternate on behalf of the Shinnecock Nation for the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean, which facilitates coordination and collaboration among governmental entities and stakeholders to enhance the vitality of our region’s ocean ecosystem.
T. Cleopatra Doley
Cleopatra Doley(they/she) is an activist, educator, healer, and divinator born and raised in NYC. Seeing their own ancestral roots as a grounding point for themself, Cleopatra identifies with their Black, Indigenous, and Latinx ancestry and also identifies as two-spirit, queer, and genderfluid. They seek to share ancestral knowledge with other POC folk to create a higher amount of access to resources that can help individuals heal themselves and their communities. Cleopatra co-founded a POC-centered botanica called Abuela Taught Me to provide people with tools for self-healing and community healing in order to decolonize our bodies and resist societal oppression. They believe that by honoring our Black and Indigenous ancestors we will be able to heal by any means necessary.
Dr. Abigail Pérez Aguilera
Dr. Abigail Pérez Aguilera (she/her) researches and writes about contemporary Indigenous movements, literature written by women of colour, and its connections to environmental social movements, forced displacement, gender violence, and global politics. Her most recent work appears in Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies: Conversations from Earth to Cosmos (ed. Joni Adamson and Salma Monani; Routledge, 2017). She is currently teaching at the New School.