How much do you really know about Indigenous communities in America? Did you know that over a quarter of Native students drop out of school? Public schools on tribal lands are severely underfunded and underserved, resulting in higher rates of performance gaps, suspensions, and drop-outs - all of which perpetuate a cycle of poverty that's difficult to climb out of. Winona LaDuke knows from experience that Indigenous peoples face steep inequities and, yet, she overcame to become a Harvard graduate. Join us to learn from Winona on how we can be advocates for Native communities and how we can rebuild native narratives to create empathy, understanding, and activism.  Followed by live Q&A.

About the Speaker 

Winona LaDuke

Winona is an Indigenous writer, farmer, economist, and political activist, from the White Earth Anishinaabe reservation in northern Minnesota.  A two-time vice presidential candidate with the Green Party in l996 and 2000, she has been a critical part of movements to oppose the tar sands and oil pipelines proposed and newly constructed in the Great Lakes region, working on the opposition to the Keystone,, Dakota Access and Enbridge pipelines, as the former Executive Director of Honor the Earth, which she founded with the Indigo Girls.  Her work is internationally recognized in the preservation of biodiversity, including specifically work to protect wild rice or manoomin.  The author of six books, including Recovering the Sacred, To Be a Water Protector , and a newly re-released novel, Last Standing Woman.    LaDuke is a fiber hemp farmer and is working on the development of an Indigenous Hemp cooperative, focused on land back, carbon sequestration and the creation of a New Green Revolution- the fiber hemp economy.