Our Roots, Our Heart: Food & Medicines Gathering
ONLINE – Saturday, September 23 · 9am – 2:30pm PDT
Please join us on September 23rd for the Our Roots, Our Heart: Food and Medicines Gathering hosted by the Na’ah Illahee Fund.
This event is being held to nourish our hearts and spirits as Indigenous peoples by re-imagining and reconnecting with our plant relatives and ancestral roots. With speakers and our Youth Panel, this event brings us together to share knowledge on traditional foods, wellness, and sovereignty.
This fully virtual event will include presentations, breakout discussion groups, raffle items and more. Please see the agenda for details.
Registration opens on July 30th and will remain open until 8:00 AM on the day of the event, Sept 23rd.
Event Details
Monique Grey Smith
Keynote Speaker – 9:15-10:30: Monique Grey Smith | Cree, Lakota, Scottish
Monique Grey Smith (Cree/Lakota/Scottish) is an award-winning, best-selling author and sought after consultant. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults, the youth-adapted version of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, which brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.
Dune Lankard
Plenary Speaker – 10:45-11:45am: Dune Lankard | Eyak Athabaskan | President and Founder of Native Conservancy
An Eyak Athabaskan Native of the Eagle Clan, Dune grew up in Cordova, in southcentral Alaska. Born into a fishing family, his life education as a subsistence and commercial fisherman began at age five. He later earned a living as a fishery and processing consultant and commercial fisher in the Copper River Delta and Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez oil spill transformed him into a social change activist and Native Rights leader. He has founded and co-founded several key organizations, including the Eyak Preservation Council (EPC), the FIRE Fund (Fund for Indigenous Rights and the Environment); the RED OIL Network (Resisting Environmental Degradation of Indigenous Lands), and the Native Conservancy (NC). His work has helped win the preservation of more than 1 million acres of the Copper River Delta and wide recognition, including Time magazine’s Hero of the Planet, as well as fellowships with the Ashoka Foundation, the Hunt Alternatives Fund, Future of Fish, among others.
Dune will be sharing his experience as a Na’ah Illahee Fund grantee to support the Native Kelp Alliance, and how they are addressing climate change and the regenerative economy through kelp farming.
Rena Priest
Lunch + Speaker – 12:15-1:00: Rena Priest | Lummi
Join us during lunch and poetry with Rena Priest (Lummi). Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and was named the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow.
Gabe Canfield
Youth panel will be moderated by Shanoa Pinkham of the Na’ah Illahee Fund. Discussion themes will be announced soon. There will be a set of prepared questions for the panel in addition to a Q&A option for participants to submit questions or comments to the panel.
Youth Panel Participants
Gabe Canfield | Iñupiaq
is a graduate of Dartmouth College in 2021 with a degree in Environmental Studies and Native American Studies and works in the field of Indigenous Advocacy and resource management with the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit of subsistence and commercial fishers and traditional cultures within the Yukon River drainage.
To be Announced…