Addressing Climate Change from the North: Solutions from the Arctic
Indigenous peoples in the north have been feeling the disastrous effects of climate change far longer than the rest of the planet’s population. According to NASA record sets, the Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the rest of the planet, disturbing terrestrial and marine ecosystems, destroying villages, and disrupting healthy ways of life. Some of the most innovative solutions to the climate crisis born of the practicality and ingenuity rooted in Native knowledge systems are emerging from the circumpolar north. In this panel, leaders at the Native Conservancy, Indigenous Climate Action, and Native Movement will share their strategies for addressing climate change in the policy, civil society and economic sectors. With: Dune Lankard (Eyak), Native Conservancy; Eriel Deranger (Athabaska Chippeweyan First Nation), Indigenous Climate Action; Ruth Miller (Dena’ina Athabaskan/Russian Ashkenazi Jewish), Native Movement. Moderated by Alexis Bunten.
Indigenous Forum
May 14th | 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
Panelists
Dune Lankard
Native Conservancy
Founder
Dune Lankard, an Eyak Native, was a subsistence and commercial fisherman before the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In response to the catastrophe, he founded the Eyak Preservation Council and Native Conservancy, which has helped preserve more than a million acres of wild salmon habit along 3,500 miles of the Gulf of Alaska coastline, helping build resilient communities and regenerative/restorative economies. Dune has also served on a number of boards, including for International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, the Seva Foundation, and Bioneers.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Indigenous Climate Action
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), a leading global figure in Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice activism, is the co-founder and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action and is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. She also sits on a number of boards of notable non-profit organizations (including Bioneers) and activist groups. She has organized divest movements, lobbied government officials, led mass mobilizations against the fossil fuel industry, written extensively for a range of publications and been featured in documentary films (including Elemental).
Ruth Miller
Climate Justice Director
Native Movement
Ruth Miller (Łchavaya K’isen), of Dena'ina Athabaskan and Ashkenazi Russian Jewish ancestry and raised in Dgheyay Kaq (Anchorage), Alaska, is the Climate Justice Director for Native Movement, a matriarchal grassroots Indigenous organization that fights for the rights of Indigenous peoples, and a founding member of the Fireweed Collective, an alliance of young Alaskan justice and sustainability activists. A longtime climate justice and regenerative economy campaigner, she served as one of the youngest ever Capitol Hill interns and has attended several major UN international conferences on Indigenous issues and on climate, including COP25 and 26. Ruth is also a traditional bead-worker and a practitioner of subsistence fishing.
Alexis Bunten
Co-Director, Indigeneity Program
Bioneers
Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide.
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