Indigenous Women Upholding Indigenous Rights and Knowledge, and Leading Climate Solutions

During this UNPFII side event we hear from global Indigenous women leaders on the impacts of

Indigenous Women Upholding Indigenous Rights and Knowledge, and Leading Climate Solutions

During this UNPFII side event we hear from global Indigenous women leaders on the impacts of fossil fuels, deforestation, and the climate crisis in their communities and how they are implementing solutions, practicing traditional knowledge systems, upholding Indigenous rights, and advancing policies and practices of care and climate justice.

Panel ONE
-- Ruth �chav’aya K’isen Miller (Curyung Tribe of Dena’ina Athabaskan) | Indigenous Climate Activist, Turtle Island, USA
-- Yasso Kanti Bhattachan (Thakali) | Founding Member and the Vice Chair of the National Indigenous Women’s Forum (NIWF), Nepal
-- Claire Charlo ( Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes)| Indigenous Feminisms Organizer, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Turtle Island/USA
-- Xiye Bastida (Otomi-Toltec)| Co-founder and Board, Re-earth Initiative, USA

Panel TWO
-- Josefina Tunki (Shuar) | First woman president of the Shuar Arutam organization (PSHA)
-- President Whitney Gravelle (Bay Mills Indian Community) | President and Executive Council Bay Mills Indian Community, Chair of the Department of Interior’s Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee and Commissioner on the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, Turtle Island/USA
-- Michelle Woodhouse (Métis) | Water Program Manager, Environmental Defence, Canada
-- Majo Andrade Cerda (Kichwa) | Young leader of the Kichwa People of Napo, Land is Life’s Latin America Program Assistant, Ecuador
Panel moderation and comments by Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director

During the convergence, we brought together global women leaders in all their diversity to share the many ways they are working and strategizing to build the solutions needed for an equitable and

During the convergence, we brought together global women leaders in all their diversity to share the many ways they are working and strategizing to build the solutions needed for an equitable and Just Transition— including food sovereignty, gender responsive climate policies, regenerative economics, forest protection, Indigenous rights, rights of nature, demilitarism, phasing out fossil fuels, and much more.

Thank you to the many amazing speakers: President Whitney Gravelle (Bay Mills Indian Community), President and Executive Council Bay Mills Indian Community, Turtle Island/USA; Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Convenor and International Spokesperson for Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), Philippines; Neema Namadamu, Founder and Executive Director of Hero Women Rising, and WECAN Coordinator in the DR Congo; Tzeporah Berman, Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Canada; Ruth Nyambura, African Ecofeminist Collective, Kenya; Dr. Crystal A Cavalier, Ed.D, MPA (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation), Co-Founder, 7 Directions of Service, Turtle Island, USA; Dipti Bhatnagar, World Commission on Fossil Fuel Phase Out, Mozambique; Dr. Tammy Greer (Houma Nation), Associate Professor and Director, Center for American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRS) at Southern Mississippi, and WECAN OHIH Program Leader, Mississippi, Turtle Island/USA; and Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), USA