Speakers and Moderators
Gary Besaw, Director of Agriculture, former chairman of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
Gary Besaw (Menominee, Bear Clan), is Director of the Menominee Tribal Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, and the Menominee Tribal Food Distribution Department. Gary has served for fifteen years on the Menominee Tribal Legislature, twice as Tribal Chairman, also as Vice-Chairman and Secretary. He has worked serving Native American K-12 education as Superintendent, Administrator, Vice-Principal, Curriculum Coordinator, Art Instructor, and as a Tribal College Dean of Student Services. Gary holds an MS in Education Administration from UW-Madison, and a BS in K-12 Art Education from UW-Stout. His journey has led him to recognize the need to re-establish a culturally informed, sustainable, indigenous foods system to improve tribal member health, heal the environment and revitalize the local economy. He is an advocate for the need for systemic immediate action to heed the warnings of our damaged environment, and for the importance of protecting water in all its forms.
Aaron Bird Bear – Assistant Dean, School of Education, UW-Madison
Aaron Bird Bear (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Diné Nations) is the Assistant Dean for Student Diversity Programs in the School of Education at the University of WisconsinMadison. Bird Bear oversees five academic programs serving pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students in the School of Education. Additionally, Bird Bear oversees American Indian Curriculum Services (AICS) which forwards the integration of the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of the 12 First Nations of Wisconsin into PK16 education. With UW–Madison likely being the most archaeologically-rich campus in the United States, AICS offers place-based learning through a First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour examining the 12,000-year human story of the shores of Waaksikhomik (Lake Mendota). Bird Bear received his Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis MS degree from the School of Education University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Khenpo (Abbot) Chheke Gurung, Pullahari Monastery, Jagdol, Ward Kopan, Kathmandu, Nepal
Khenpo Chheke has an Acharya (Masters Degree) in higher Buddhist philosophy from Karma Shri Nalanda Institute, Sikkim, India. He has served as Abbot for Pullahari Monastery from 1992 to today and provides guidance for the education of the monks, teaches at the annual international programme for Tibetan language and scriptures at Rigpe Dorje Institute and teaches Buddhist philosophy at affiliated Dharma centres in the west, Asia and Africa. Khenpo has also served as the national coordinator for Khoryug Nepal since 2015. Khoryug is an environment movement initiated by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje in 2009. Khoryug monasteries and nunneries under the Karma Kamtsang tradition from Bhutan, India and Nepal are committed to help protect the Himalayan region from environmental degradation. Khoryug Nepal has 16 active monasteries and nunneries working on environmental and climate projects.
Khenpo Chheke’s passion for flora fauna started in Karma Shri Nalanda Institute where he spent most of his spare time assisting the gardeOnce Khoryug was initiated in 2009, Khenpo oversaw several projects including climate preparedness, organic farming, waste segregation, kitchen composting, and recycling waste-water at Pullahari. He was appointed as the Nepal coordinator for Khoryug in 2015 in recognition of his environmental leadership. He is of Nyishang Gurung heritage.
Nicolette Cooley, Co-Manager for ITEP’s Tribal Climate Change Program
Nikki is the co-manager for ITEP’s Tribal Climate Change Program. She is of the Diné Nation by way of Shonto and Blue Gap, AZ, and is of the Towering House Clan, born for the Reed People Clan, maternal grandfathers are of the Water that Flows Together Clan, and paternal grandfathers are of the Manygoats Clan. Nikki received her Bachelors and Masters of Forestry from Northern Arizona University (NAU) with a few years of post-graduate study at Michigan State University. For her undergraduate and Masters studies, she has worked extensively with the Cherokee Tribe of North Carolina, and has worked with various tribes including the Kaibab Paiute tribe. Prior to ITEP, Nikki has worked with the Merriam Powell Center for Environmental Research on a Climate Change Education Program, and at NAU Talent Search working with underrepresented, low-income, potential first generation college students at 10 middle and high schools in Northern Arizona.
In addition, as a river guide and cultural interpreter working on the Colorado River-Grand Canyon and San Juan River, Nikki is the co-founder of the Native American River Guide Training Program and Fifth World Discoveries, was the first Native American President and Vice-President of the Grand Canyon River Guides Association (GCRG), and is a former associate director of the Native Voices Program. She is very passionate about advocating for and education about the protection and preservation of the environment and its resources. Nikki thoroughly enjoys gardening, her Navajo language and culture, and spending time with her large extended family in the southwest and Iowa.
Robert T. Coulter, Executive Director of Indian Law Resource Center
Robert T. Coulter is an attorney who practices in the fields of Indian law and international human rights. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Montana and Washington, DC. The Center provides legal assistance for indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. He is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
With more than 45 years of legal experience in the field of Indian affairs and human rights, he has published numerous articles in these and other fields of law. Before starting the Center in 1978, he was Acting Executive Director of the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, staff attorney for the Native American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He was awarded the Lawrence A. Wein Prize for Social Responsibility by Columbia University Law School in 2001 and the Bicentennial Medal by Williams College in 2002.
Laura George, PhD
Governance and Rights Coordinator,
Amerindian Peoples Association
Laura George is Governance and Rights Coordinator at the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), an advocacy group for the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Guyana and works with a team to ensure that the rights of Indigenous Peoples are represented in areas of project, programmes, legislation and policy development.
Laura George is an indigenous woman of the proud Ka’pon nation also known as the Akawaios of the forested highlands in Guyana. Laura George was invited by her leaders and plaintiffs to provide translation services in Guyana’s High Court for the elder witnesses in a landmark litigation case which her people have been fighting for over 23 years and are still awaiting a decision.
Laura George has fearlessly represented the rights of Indigenous Peoples both within and out of Guyana. Having witnessed the destruction of the waterways and forests by mining activities, she follows in the footsteps of her elders and her ancestors who created the path for advocacy and rights representation in her homeland. The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) gives her the public platform and voice to be a rights advocate.
Mate Heitia, Executive Chairperson, REKA Whakatane, New Zealand
Mate Heitia, is a New Zealand Maori born and raised in a Maori community. Mate was raised in Te Ao Maori (the Maori World) in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Mate and her family lives off grid with solar power and are fully involved in their community.
Mate created and founded REKA (Charitable Trust) in 2008 in response to many of her whanau (family) dying prematurely of degenerative diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. All these diseases have reached epidemic levels across the Maori Communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and all these diseases can be linked to inadequate nutrition.
Jessica Hernandez, Scientist, scholar and author
Jessica Hernandez (Maya Ch'orti/Binnizá-Zapotec) is a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. She has an interdisciplinary academic background ranging from marine sciences to forestry. Her work is grounded on her Indigenous cultures and ways of knowing. She advocates for food, climate, and environmental justice through her scientific and community work and strongly believes that Indigenous sciences can heal our Indigenous lands. In 2020, she became the first alumni from her high school in South Central Los Angeles to receive a doctoral degree. She is the founder of Piña Soul, SPC, an environmental consulting & artesanias hybrid business that supports Black & Indigenous-led conservation and environmental projects through community mutual aids and micro-grants. Her current research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is investigating the role of energy (from an environmental physics lens) plays in addressing climate change impacts. Her book, Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science, is forthcoming this Spring '22.
Mariaelena Huambachano, Professor of American Indian Studies, Syracuse University
Mariaelena is a native Peruvian Indigenous scholar. She emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand at a young age, which inspired a collaborative and cross-cultural approach to her work in food and environmental justice, sustainable development, Indigenous studies, and public policy. She is passionate about protecting, promoting, and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and practices that promote the well-being of people and the natural world.
Kelsey Leonard, Professor at University of Waterloo, Ontario
Dr. Kelsey Leonard is a water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation. She is an Assistant Professor in School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability. Her work focuses on Indigenous water justice and its climatic, territorial, and governance underpinnings for our shared sustainable future. Dr. Leonard represents the Shinnecock Nation on the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean, which is charged with protecting America's ocean ecosystems and coastlines. She also serves as a member of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board of the International Joint Commission. Dr. Leonard has been instrumental in safeguarding the interests of Indigenous Nations for environmental planning, and builds Indigenous science and knowledge into new solutions for sustainable water and ocean governance.
Maria Montejo, Mental health expert
Maria Montejo (Deer clan) is a member of the Jakaltec/Popti’ (Mayan) community of Indigenous people who reside in the Xajla’ territory of Iximulew (Guatemala). In addition to her formal schooling, Maria has been mentored from a young age by various Elders, Medicine people and Traditional Teachers on Turtle Island and from Central and South America. Maria has had the privilege of being exposed and participating in various ceremonies and traditional cultural practices that have fueled her passion to develop programming that will bridge the Newtonian/allopathic model of wellness and an Indigenous/multidimensional approach. Maria is a traditional knowledge holder and carries the Deer Dance, Corn/Seed and Creation Stories for her community. Maria has over a decade of experience working in community development in priority neighborhoods and with Newcomer and refugee families. Maria has also worked for many years as a mental health and addictions treatment worker and provides education and consulting to various organizations and institutions in Canada. Maria also facilitates the R.E.A.L School Youth Leadership and Native Wilderness Survival Skills Development program in various Indigenous communities around the world and is the manager of Dodem Kanonhsa’ Indigenous Education and Cultural Facility in Toronto
Bwaananaabekwe Mary Moose, Anishnaabe Elder, Turtle Island
Bwaananaabekwe is an Anishinaabe Elder, born in the remote regions of Northern Ontario, Canada. She is from the First Albany First Nation in Ontario and is also known as Gaa-giizhiikwajiwed Bwaananaabekwe, The Mermaid Who Swims Fast, or just Bwaananaabekwe. Bwaananaabekwe was raised by her grandparents in the deep bush of Northern Canada. Her early life was similar to that of our ancestors who lived before contact with Europeans. Mary heard many stories as a child, bundled in bed in the family wigwam. She listened to her relatives fill the long winter nights with ancestral teachings that connect every living thing and how these stories are written in the stars. At a very young age, she used her star knowledge to navigate cross-country back to her home, after escaping horrific abuse in a government boarding school. Mary holds a wealth of knowledge, skills, and abilities. She is a first language speaker of Cree and Ojibwe and has devoted her life to helping Anishinaabeg in Canada and the United States revitalize language, and pass on knowledge that has been suppressed over hundreds of years (and counting) of forced assimilation.
Gîtonga wa Mûciri, Gîkûyû Elder, Kenya
Gîtonga wa Mûchiri was born some 73 years ago, in Maraigushu area of Naivasha. At the peak of the struggle for Kenya’s independence, his family was forcefully moved from their home in 1952 and resettled some 200 km away against their will in the present day Muranga County. His father was a freedom fighter who was detained without trail by the colonial government, while he and his mother were forced to labour for the colonial government, digging moots around the same detention camp where his father was incarcerated. At the dawn of Kenya’s independence, Gîtonga returned to Maraigushu in 1962. In the 1970s, he started coordinating traditional and cultural activities of the Agîkûyû (aka Kikuyu) in Naivasha and Kinangop areas of Central Kenya. In 1977, he was consecrated as a full elder of the Agîkûyû (mûthuri wa Kîama). Over the years, Gîtonga wa Mûchiri has acquired the status of a sage among the Agîkûyû who are mainly associated with Mount Kenya, due to his venerable status and deep wisdom. The Agîkûyû of Kenya regard Mt Kenya as the home of God (Kîrîma kîa Ngai mwene nyaga) from where he created Gîkûyû and Mûmbi, the ancestral parents of the Agîkûyû people, and apportioned them the land delineated by 5 mountains where they are domiciled as agriculturalists to date. The sage, Gîtonga wa Mûchiri, is well versed in the history, religion, and, cultural norms, practices and traditions of the Agîkûyû. Over the years, he has acquired and honed his vast knowledge of traditional and herbal medicinal remedies and is a great conservationist of indigenous plant species. He lives on his farm in Karati area of Naivasha where he has conserved over 400 tree species in a pristine and natural environment that is also home to a variety of wild animals and provides him and his family with pure spring water.
Kay LeClaire who called herself “nibiiwakamigkwe” has been removed from this list. Please click on image for our statement.
Dr. Gabrielle Tayac, Activist Scholar and Elder
Dr. Gabrielle Tayac is a member of the Piscataway Indian Nation and an activist scholar committed to empowering Indigenous perspectives. She is also a cultural practitioner holding a medicine lineage, now based at Nekamaco, which is Piscataway for House of the Mother, a tributary of the lower Potomac. Gabi earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from Harvard University, and her B.S. in Social Work and American Indian Studies from Cornell University. Her scholarly research focuses on hemispheric American Indian identity, multiracialism, indigenous religions, and social movements, maintaining a regional specialization in the Chesapeake Bay. Gabi served on NMAI's staff for 18 years as an educator, historian, and curator. She engages deeply in community relationships and public discourse. Gabi took a two year journey to uplift the voices of indigenous elder women leaders, sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors prior to settling back at home. She is now an Associate Professor of Public History at George Mason University.
Tawni Tidwell, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Healthy Minds
Tawni learned about her heritage from her paternal grandfather in the Ozarks with kinship to the Western Cherokee and her maternal grandfather, who grew up as part of the Assiniboine (Nakhóta) in Montana — exploring how to read the land and the stories it tells of our shared history. Eager to learn more, Tawni immersed in five years animal tracking, nature awareness, wilderness survival and traditional ecological knowledge training on Lenni-Lenape land in the Pine Barrens of southern Jersey, and taught survival and tracking children’s programs in which First Nation youth from various North American tribes participated. Traditions from which she studied include Lipan Apache, Eastern Band Cherokee and Akamba transmitted primarily by her tracking teachers.
An eagerness to learn heritage knowledge of sustaining cultivated relationships with the natural world, wild harvested food practices and medical knowledge rooted in ecological relationship, Tawni traveled to Tibetan regions throughout the Himalayas in north India, Ladakh, and Tibet, as well as to mountain and Amazonian communities in Peru and Bolivia - such as the Nacion Q’eros and Machiguenga. Tawni developed cultural ecology programs in the Himalayas, Andes and Amazon, working with youth in learning indigenous practices and knowledge of the land and well-being. This work led her to pursue training as a traditional Tibetan medical doctor and biocultural anthropologist to help translate knowledge of well-being across contemporary epistemic paradigms and into people’s bodies and relationships with the earth.
Nana Maria Teresa, Spiritual Elder of the Maya Mam Nation, Guatemala
Nana Teresa Lopez (Nana Teresa) is a Maya Spiritual elder (Ajq’ij) of the Maya Mam Nation and medicine woman. She has been a human rights defender and leader of the Maya people and advocate for the protection of Mother Earth her entire life. She has worked extensively with Indigenous women and youth, particularly with survivors of the war and genocide, through traditional healing and ceremony. She lives in Iximulew (Guatemala) and is former K'amalb'e of the Regional Council of Ancestral Maya Authorities of Guatemala; former member of the leadership council of the Maya Mam Council of Quetzaltenango; member of Aj Q´ij, Oxlajuj B´e of 8 municipalities of the Mam people in the department of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala; member of the Council of Elders of the Americas; and Founder and current Board Member of the International Mayan League.
Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, International Director, Shang Shung School of Tibetan Medicine
Khewang (Tibetan for Honored Scholar) Phuntsog Wangmo received her advanced degree from the Lhasa University School of Traditional Medicine in 1988 after completing her five-year training program and two-year residency. During that time she studied with the Khenpos Troru Tsenam and Gyaltsen, two of Tibet’s foremost Tibetan Medicine doctors.
Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo had the exceptional opportunity of extensive clinical training under Khenpo Troru Tsenam for four years.
Thereafter, she dedicated many years of work as a doctor of Tibetan Medicine in Eastern Tibet where she collaborated with and directed the implementation of A.S.I.A. the non-profit organization founded by Professor Namkhai Norbu. After that, she worked on behalf of A.S.I.A. setting up hospitals and training centers in the remote regions of Sichuan Province and Chamdo Prefecture.
She co-founded the American Tibetan Medical Association (ATMA), a national organization representing the Tibetan medical profession within the United States. Its mission is to preserve, protect, improve, and promote the philosophy, knowledge, science and practice of Tibetan medicine for the benefit of humanity.
She is currently in residence at the Shang Shung Institute of America, the international seat of the School of Tibetan Medicine, where she continues in her leadership as Director and International Director of the Institute’s national and international programs.
Sam Weru, Biodiversity Expert, Coastal East Africa
Sam is a 56-year-old indigenous Kenyan. He is a specialist in wildlife conservation, eco-tourism, wildlife security and general natural resources management with technical and practical field experience spanning over 30 years. He has a keen interest in Africa's place on biodiversity and natural resources, climate change adaptation and sustainable access to water. He is a PhD candidate in Environmental Policy at the University of Nairobi’s Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy. Sam has worked for the Kenya Government, the US Government and WWF, all spanning over 25 years of active employment.
Sam is a fully ordained elder of the Agîkûyû people. Fully conscious of, and, acknowledging that the environment provides humanity with essential goods and services that sustain life on earth, he has great interest in combining science with tradition/cultural knowledge in the conservation and management of the environment and natural resources.
Mike Wiggins, Jr., Chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe Tribe
Chairman Wiggins is currently Chair of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, serving his third term in this role. He is a life-long resident of northern Wisconsin. Raised on the Bad River Reservation, Mike learned how hunting, fishing and harvesting were essential to the Tribe’s cultural and spiritual traditions and why the Tribe’s ceded territory rights were important to protect for this generation and the next. He earned his bachelor’s degree at UW-Superior in 1992 and previously served as a conservation warden for the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, and as a Home School Coordinator for the School District of Ashland. He is an active teacher of Anishinaabe practice in use and protection of natural resources and is a leader in the protection of the Penokee Hills region.
Kyle Powys Whyte, Professor of Environment and Sustainability at University of Michigan
Kyle Whyte is George Willis Pack Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Previously, Kyle was Professor of Philosophy and Community Sustainability and Timnick Chair at Michigan State University. Kyle’s research addresses moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organizations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Kyle has partnered with numerous Tribes, First Nations and inter-Indigenous organizations in the Great Lakes region and beyond on climate change planning, education and policy. He is involved in projects and organizations that advance Indigenous research methodologies, including the Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup, Sustainable Development Institute of the College of Menominee Nation, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians’ Climate Change Program, and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. He has served as an author on reports by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and is former member of the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science and the Michigan Environmental Justice Work Group.
Pedro Rivera Zea, Representative of CHIRAPAQ, Peru
Pedro Rivera Zea is Peruvian, a native Quechua-speaking person, born in the Community of San Francisco de Pujas, Vilcashuamán, Ayacucho. Pedro has been a member of the Executive Council of Chirapaq for many years, fulfilling his commitment to support the aspirations of Indigenous peoples and rights at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
He is an agronomist and holds a Master's Degree in Watershed Management from the San Cristóbal de Huamanga National University in Ayacucho. Peru.
Pedro has worked with and for the benefit of Indigenous peoples for more than 35 years holding various institutional job positions concerning the agrarian development of Indigenous Peoples. More recently, he is the Regional Country Coordinator of Chirapaq (Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru), responsible for the Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Territorial Development and Climate Change Program.
Organizers
Juanita Cabrera Lopez, Executive Director, Mayan League
Juanita is Maya Mam from Guatemala and a survivor of the internal armed conflict and a former political refugee. She works with Maya leaders and elders in Guatemala and the United States for the advancement of their human and environmental rights. Her work is focused on the use and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She holds a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Dekila Chungyalpa, Founder and Director of the Loka Initiative at UW–Madison
Dekila Chungyalpa is the Founder and Director of the Loka Initiative, an interdisciplinary capacity-building and outreach platform at the University of Wisconsin – Madison for faith leaders and culture keepers of Indigenous traditions who work on environmental and climate issues. Dekila began her career working on community-based conservation in the Himalayas and went on to work on regional climate change adaptation and free flowing rivers in the Mekong region for the World Wildlife Fund. In 2008, she helped establish Khoryug, an association of over 50 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries implementing environmental projects across the Himalayas under the auspices of His Holiness the Karmapa, the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. In 2009, Dekila founded and led WWF Sacred Earth, a 5-year pilot program that built partnerships with world religions towards concrete conservation results in the Amazon, East Africa, Himalayas, Mekong, and the United States. She received the prestigious Yale McCluskey Award in 2014 for her work and moved to the Yale School of Environmental Studies as an associate research scientist, where she researched, lectured and designed the prototype for what is now the Loka Initiative.
She belongs to the Bhutia tribal community from the Himalayan state of Sikkim in India.