January 29, 2013
For Immediate Release
Fredericton – Winona LaDuke, an Anishinaabe activist for Native Americans and the environment and internationally acclaimed author and orator, will be in Fredericton on Feb. 6th-7th.
The public is invited to a conversation with LaDuke on Wednesday, Feb. 6th at 7:00pm at St. Mary’s Cultural Centre (35 Dedam St., corner of Dedam and Cliffe St.). The conversation is hosted by the Maliseet Grand Council, St. Mary’s First Nation and CCNB.
LaDuke will deliver a public lecture, entitled, “Idle No More, Harper’s Big Oil Economy, and All Our Relations,” the next night on Thursday, February 7th at 7:00pm in the Kinsella Auditorium, McCain Hall. This event is co-sponsored by the St. Thomas University Chair of Native Studies, St. Thomas University’s Native Studies, St. Thomas University’s Religious Studies and UNB’s Faculty of Education.
LaDuke has dedicated her life to protecting the lands and life ways of indigenous communities. She is a founder and Co-Director of Honor the Earth, a national advocacy group encouraging public support and funding for native environmental groups. With Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on climate change, renewable energy, sustainable development, food systems and environmental justice.
In her own community in northern Minnesota, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation based non-profit organizations in the country, and a leader on the issues of culturally-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy and food systems. LaDuke works to protect indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering.
LaDuke, a graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities with advanced degrees in rural economic development, was named by Time magazine as one of America’s 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age in 1994. In the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign, she served as Ralph Nader’s running mate for the Green Party, and in 1997, with the Indigo Girls, she was named a Ms. Woman of the Year.
-30-
Tracy Glynn, CCNB, 458-8747, forest@ccnbaction.ca