Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley California overflowed with thousands of activists, scientists, indigenous leaders, politicians, concerned youth, and authors from all over the globe to take part in the annual conference and social phenomena that is the Bioneers. Celebrating its 35^th year, Bioneers is the brainchild of social entrepreneurs Nina Simons and Kenny Asubel. The goal is to connect people with solutions, and to one another.

Speakers and workshops on offer this year focused on topics and actions about Restorative Food Systems, Biomimicry, Rights of Nature, Indigeneity, and Women’s and Youth Leadership. It is easy to believe that the Climate crisis is too big a thing for any one person to tackle. After my three-day journey into both possibilities and actualities that are leading to a positive change, I found that there is a lot to be hopeful about.

Youth from Destiny Arts Center dance at Zellerbach Hall on March, 30, 2024 at Bioneers. Photo by Vita Hewitt.

Oren Lyons, Onondaga Council of Chiefs and the Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy (and one of my new heroes) said, “There’s nothing really special about human beings aside from our intellect. We can make decisions, and these decisions can be made individually. So every morning, when all of us wake up, you have an option: to either be the best for the world or the worst. And there’s over 8 billion of those options right now.”

Here are some highlights and takeaways that got my mind thinking and ready to take action.

Isabel Rodriguez Vega led a natural dye workshop for the intercultural Bioneers Youth Program.  Photo by Vita Hewitt.

What do Land Acknowledgements do and what can they do?

Corrina Gould, director of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, opened the conference with a land acknowledgment and an eloquent point. I have long wondered what effects land acknowledgments have beyond the raising of awareness. Gould said, “I am often asked to come and do a Land Acknowledgment and it’s always interesting to me, because Land Acknowledgements didn’t start here for a while…When we do land acknowledgments now through Sogorea Te’ Land Trust or through the tribe it’s really about reciprocity. It has to come with action items. It cannot just be words that we say and wrote.”

Corrina Gould, Director of the Segorea Te’ Land Trust gave an opening talk at Bioneers on March 28th, 2024. Photo by Vita Hewitt.

Gould elaborated on this, “Many of us grew up saying the pledge of allegiance. We can say it by rote but do not know what those words mean. The same cannot be for Land Acknowledgement. We cannot say, welcome to this territory that embraced my ancestors. We were born to these lands and waters, and we faced three waves of genocide. Next on the agenda…We can’t do that!” She exclaimed.

Gould went on to say that one action that we as members of this community could take would be to teach every fourth-grade child about the history of her people. This doesn’t just mean to cite the atrocities done but to teach about who they were and are as well as their resiliency.

Gould participated in reintroducing a Tule Canoe to Tamales Bay in Support of Alliance for Felix Cove on Sunday October 30th, 2022.

West Berkeley Shell Mound

On March 12^th the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust celebrated a historic win after Berkeley’s city council voted unanimously to return a large portion of the sacred native land that is the West Berkeley Shell Mound to the trust. This 2.2-acre parking lot next to Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto, is the only undeveloped portion of the shell mound in West Berkeley. This is a site where ancestors of the Ohlone people settled on the shores of the Bay almost 6,000 years ago.

The site first had to be purchased back from Berkeley developers Reuggs and Ellsworth LLC for the whopping price tag of $27 million. The trust plans to create a park with a new shell mound and a cultural center. This is a huge win, not only for the trust, but for LandBack efforts across the country.

“In the dominant culture, we tend to think of water as a commodity or a threat, and that leads to this control urge. We concern ourselves with human needs. But that is not an innately human approach. Putting ourselves first in this way isn’t working, and that’s because that single focus ignores water’s agency and its complicated relationship with ecosystems. Ignoring those complex systems damages them.”  Erica Gies, author of Water Always Wins on March 30th, 2024 at Bioneers.

Dolores Huerta

Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta walked on stage and received a standing ovation before she uttered a word. Huerta worked with César Chávez, and together they founded the National Farmworkers Association. This would later become the United Farm Workers. At 93-years-old, Huerta is still working tirelessly to educate and raise awareness for the rights of essential workers.

“We know that we are still trying to remove ourselves from the legacy of slavery. It seems like we are still fighting the civil war all over again.” Huerta said. She went on to state, “I would like to remind everybody that farm workers are essential workers…it is the farm workers that feed the policemen and firemen and everybody, every day.”

Huerta is a strong believer that education is a way to counter racism in this country. “There’s a lot lacking in our educational system.” She asked us if we knew how this country got the 8-hour day. “There was a riot in Chicago because labor unions were organizing for the 8-hour day. And yes, we now have the 8-hour day. But what happened to the leaders that fought for the 8-hour day? They were executed. They were hung. Do we know their names?” Huerta believes that labor studies should be added to school curriculums.

“But what happened to the leaders that fought for the 8-hour day? They were executed. They were hung. Do we know their names?”

When speaking about different forms of racism Huerta said, “One way we can find proof is to look at how many people we have in prison in the United States. And who are the people in those prisons?” Exactly who is incarcerated and how prisons are run was a repeating topic with many of the speakers this year. To conclude Huerta had us stand up and say the words that she used to change the world. A phrase, that former President Obama acknowledged borrowing to win an election. “Si Se Puede!” or “Yes we Can!” we shouted and then we cheered to thank an icon who has worked tirelessly to change this world for the better.

 

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The Local Honeys, a duo from Kentucky sing about the negative effects of coal mining on their community on March 28, 2024 at the Bioneers.

Stacey Mitchell and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

“How can we as a country find the ability to govern ourselves?” Stacey Mitchell asked. She was there from the Institute of Self-Reliance to talk about fighting monopolies in this country ( I am absolutely looking at you, Amazon). Forty years ago, leaders of both political parties in this country agreed to abandon the anti-monopoly laws. These were laws put in place to control corporate power. Collectively, we let these laws go in the hopes that it would create a more efficient economy. “Today, nearly everything we rely on, food, medicine, housing, credit, news, information is controlled by a small number of corporations. We are every day subject to their arbitrary dictates and whims…We submit to abusive working conditions and pervasive surveillance.” Mitchell stated.

“Today, nearly everything we rely on, food, medicine, housing, credit, news, information is controlled by a small number of corporations.”

This all sounds a bit extreme until you realize that Boeing, with their failing airplanes, was allowed to buy its only competitor in 1996. Mitchell gave us the scary statistics that Amazon now controls 2/3rds of online shopping traffic. On top of that, they pocket half of the profits. If a seller doesn’t like it, they get buried in the search results.

To combat this, there is a anti-monopoly movement across the country making real strides towards dismantling anti-trust laws. “This movement stretches from the grass roots to the highest levels of government.” Mitchell said. It stretches to both blue and red states and is making a huge difference. One of their bigger wins was to get the people in New York City to prevent Amazon from having their offices housed there. To learn more, Visit the Institute of Local Self Reliance here.

“When people tell you that prisons are about community safety, they are lying to you, to themselves, and to their creator. Prisons are about industry and making the rich richer.” Claudia Peña, from For Freedoms and Center for Justice at UCLA speaks at Bioneers on March 29, 2024.

“A circular economy isn’t about what we lose, it’s about what we gain. It prioritizes investing in experiences and services rather than material possessions.” Sage Lenier from Sustainable and Just Future led a workshop at the Youth Summit for Bioneer.s

Protection of the Amazon and Mother Earth

Amazon Watch, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the rainforests while advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil hosted Puyr Tembé, First Secretary of the state of Para in the Brazillian Amazon, and Celia Xakriabá, a Federal Deputy in the Brazilian Congress and a co-founder of ANIMAGA (the National Association of Ancestral Indigenous Women Warriors). Together, these two showed a captivated audience what warriors are made of.

Leila Salazar Lopez Executive Director of Amazon Watch led the discussion on March 29, 2024 at Bioneers. Photos by Vita Hewitt.

Leila Salazar-López, director of Amazon Watch led the conversation. Xakriabá began advocating for the rights of indigenous women at the age of 13. Along with Amazon Watch, she hopes to ensure that there is Indigenous LandBack from California to Brazil and beyond. In Brazil LandBack is called Demarcation. “United Nations has also recognized that Indigenous territories are the solution to stop the climate crisis. We are the last generation that can do something and that time is now.” She said.

HESAPA – A LANDBACK FILM

Celia Xakriaba a Federal Deputy in the Brazilian Congress at Bioneers on March 29, 2024. Photo by Vita Hewitt.

“To reforest is not a romantic concept, It’s a way of life. It’s the way we Indigenous people actually live.” Tembé stated. The Amazon has seen a great deal of change in recent years with deforestation and wildfires ravaging it. Tembé has risked her life to protect her ancestral lands from deforestation.

Puyr Tempe First Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Para at Bioneers on March 29th, 2024. Photo by Vita Hewitt.

To find out more about what these women are doing visit Amazon Watch or find Celia and Puyr on Instagram. A documentary film about them, We are Guardians, Directed by Chelsea Greene will be coming to media platforms soon.

We Are Guardians (Somos Guardiões) | Official Trailer (2023) English

I took away so many amazing things from the talks and actions at Bioneers. It was three days of non-stop information. You can go to their website to watch the talks. Or listen year-round on their podcast. After thirty-five years, the Bioneers have only grown in community and wisdom. Until next year…

Bioneer attendees dance to the closing performance by MaMuse. Photo by Vita Hewitt.

For more Breakthrough Solutions for People and Planet, check put the incredible programming happening through Bioneers and there partners:  bioneers.org/programs

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