Alaska Just Transition Summit 2024 Schedule

REMEMBERING FORWARD alaska just transition summit march 18-20, 2024 | Á’akw Kwáan

Summit Schedule

Lunch Session: Learning to Thrive: Alaska's Next Economy in a Warming World

Lunch Session: What Does It Take to Secure Land? Creating an Eship Hub and Coworking Space in Navajo Nation

Lunch Session: Strategic Troublemaking: An Introduction to Nonviolent Direct Action 12:30 1:00

Monday Lunch Sessions

Non-working Lunch

Sheiyí

Learning to Thrive: Alaska's Next Economy in a Warming World

What Does it

Take to Secure

Land? Creating an E-ship Hub and Coworking Space in Navajo Nation

The Alaska Climate Alliance Policy Working Group will present their latest report, "Learning to Thrive: Alaska's Next Economy in a Warming World." We will ask what can we do today to move towards a truly regenerative economy?

The opening of the Tuba City E-ship Hub was a four-year labor of love. The Navajo Nation is one of the most difficult places in the world to access land for a business. So, how did Change Labs do it? Change Labs teammates Holly & Racquel (a part of the Entrepreneurial (E-ship) Support) share the journey of their co-founders Heather and Jessica, securing land, funding and resources to bring this dream into reality. Then, learn how it shaped and wove together a tribal community.

Eleanor Gagnon Kay Brown

Ch’áal’

Strategic Troublemaking: An Introduction to Nonviolent Direct Action

In this training we'll introduce some of the theory and practice of nonviolent direct action, including when and how tools like banner hangs, blockades, die-ins, and other creative protest tactics to drive meaningful change for justice. We'll also spend time on our feet exploring deescalation, the meaning of "nonviolent", and how to use your body to hold space.

Holly Patterson Racquel Black

Brihannala Morgan

Breakout Session 1

Main Hall

Kayaaní Áwé Náakwx̱

Site: Plants as Medicine

In this workshop, we will explore plants as our relatives, ancestors, medicines, and foods. We will learn about the Respectful Harvesting Guidelines and healing medicines while learning the social-emotional skills that these plants teach us. Through this workshop, we will gain new appreciation and understanding of Indigenous ways while strengthening relationships with the land and our community. In addition to the presentation, attendees will get the opportunity to take part in a plant medicine activity. This workshop is led by members of the Kayaani Sisters Council and Haa Tóoch Lichéesh Coalition members & staff.

David Abad

Disney Williams

Heather Evoy

Jamiann S'eiltin Hasselquist

Tia Holley

Building a True MultiRacial Democracy

A panel discussion with community leaders on what a multiracial democracy looks like for their community, and how they are building it.

Sheiyí

Ch’áal’

Healers Space

Healing our Wombs with Ancient Wisdom

BIPOC Breakout Group

In this presentation, we will share ancient practices and remedies used in traditional and folk medicine to heal the womb. Much of this wisdom was suppressed by colonization, prejudice against women, racism and modern gynecology. However, we can take action to revive these practices and preserve this knowledge for future generations.

A space for BIPOC folks to come together for a healing moment of decompression and connection. This session will include a talking circle, somatic practice, and other tools for healing decided by the group.

Autumn Cantu

Celeste Hodge Growden

Emily Leak-Michie

Meda DeWitt

Rose O'Hara-Jolley

Christina Michelle Patterson

Corlé LaForce

Sound Bath

A sound bath is a meditative experience where those in attendance are “bathed” in sound waves. These waves are produced by various sources including healing instruments and the human voice.

Kristin Mabry

Asserting Tribal Rights Across the US/Canadian Border

Circular Economies and Waste What Constitutes Healing

12:45-2:00 Reclaiming

Sacred Spaces

Youth for Environmental Action: What the Youth Want You to Know! Arts in Action: Screen Printing as a Tool for Change Makers and Organizers Healing from White Supremacy: Identifying Internalized White Superiority in Ourselves Making Medicine: Prayer Ties

Breakout Session 2

Resourcing the Movement: Technical Assistance and Federal Funding Opportunities for Energy and Environmental Justice

This interactive session will introduce the University of Washington Center for Environmental Health Equity, one of two EPA Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers serving frontline community-based organizations and tribes in the Pacific Northwest, and preview a few current and upcoming federal funding opportunities to advance environmental and energy justice work in Alaska. We will also seek input on how our Center can best support Alaskan communities in achieving their vision for a Just Transition and share availability for additional one-on-one or small group conversations.

Esther Min

Leah Wood

Sheiyí

The Tools of Alaska Native Subsistence, Indigenous Knowledge, and a Just Energy Transition

In this session, I will share some of my research exploring how renewable energy development could impact Alaska Native subsistence stemming from summer 2023 work in Cantwell, Alaska. I’ll begin by explaining my understanding of Indigenous Knowledge, how its been impacted by past energy development, and the importance of choosing a research question that answering will build the community that I am learning from. Then I’ll explain my methods, how I learned from my people in Yedatene Na’ through semi-structured interviews, observations in community meetings, and going hunting and berry picking. From these methods I learned about how my people had their own energy transition from a strictly hunting way-of-life to one that practices our subsistence using fourwheelers, snowmachines, and chest freezers that use our modern oil and gas energy system. A Just Transition must address what tools our subsistence ways-of-life will be practiced with, what will power them, and with direction from the communities who will be using these tools to live their subsistence ways-of-life.

Asserting Tribal Rights Across the US/Canadian Border

This presentation will explore the legal pathway the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission is using to assert our right to self-determination over mining projects occurring within our traditional territories now inside Canada.

Guy Archibald

Ch’áal’

Healers Space

Circular Economies and Waste

What Constitutes

Healing: Exploring and Identifying Healing Beliefs and Practices

Right now, many of our material systems are linear. We extract raw materials (often destroying land and water), manufacture goods (with high GHG emissions), use products for a relatively short period of time, and then pollute our land and water with the resulting trash. This pattern holds true for electronics, clothing, household goods, and more. Linear material systems are one of the biggest problems we need to work through in order to limit climate change, especially if we want to simultaneously protect our air, water, and land. Fortunately, there is plenty of wisdom to draw on for a different and better approach.This presentation will cover background on the problem, what circular, regenerative, and sustainable economies could look like for material goods, and some practical steps to begin tackling some of the most egregious material systems.

This hour-long workshop is intended to create a dialogue among the participants and healer, exploring and identifying the elements (the essential parts, aspects) of healing.

Main Hall

Tvetene Carlson

Dyani Chapman

Amalia Monreal

Tuesday Lunch Sessions

Non-working Lunch

Sheiyí

Lobbying 101

Ch’áal’

Indigenous

Gain tips and strategies for effective advocacy. From building relationships with policymakers to crafting compelling messages, this presentation equips you with the tools needed to make an impact. Whether you're a seasoned advocate or new to lobbying, this session will enhance your skills and empower you to drive change effectively.

Frances Leach

The True Nature of the Fossil Fuel Industry: How to Stop the Money

Pipeline Fueling the Climate Crisis

Meet representatives from three Indigenous Environmental Network programs to learn about education, information, and resources available to Frontline communities. We have staff members who will speak about Indigenous Just Transution Principles, the development of IJT curricula, how to identify false climate solutions to climate change that actually prolong the fossil fuel era and cause more harm to Mother Earth, and BIPOC Communities. Learn about the importance of Free Prior and Informed Consent, and the need for a Just Transition away from fossil fuels and Mining.

The fossil fuel industry is the primary driver of the climate crisis, in the past and at present, with its unwavering greed and outrageous plans to expand production instead of transitioning. In this presentation we will explain how the industry wields its enormous wealth and power to derail the transition, and how we and other activist groups are working to stop the money pipeline that is funding climate chaos. We'll highlight some success stories and what we as citizens can do.

Doug Woodby

Environmental Network Meet & Greet

Loren White Jr/ ArikaraHidatsa-Mandan Panganga Pungowiyi Talia Boyd

Breakout Session 3

Main Hall

Reclaiming Sacred Spaces

This discussion will touch on subjects surrounding recentering Tlingit Governance through Clan houses and the complexities with BIA managed lands, Native allotments, land management in perpetuity, and merging Tlingit beliefs while navigating Western Legal framework. We will review historic preservation, our lack of inclusion in preservation of culturally historic spaces and buildings, and the need to decolonize frameworks surrounding the Secretary of Interior’s standards for historic preservation. Grant seeking can be rooted in colonial beliefs and legal mechanisms that prevent Indigenous people from being applicable to seek grants on behalf of themselves and their clans. The audience will learn how systems could work cohesively to support Land Back on a local level for clans to be able to recenter themselves in their roots.

Barbara BlakeDr. Forest Haven

Jerrick Hope-Lang President Richard Peterson

Alaska Youth for Environmental Action: What the Youth Want You to Know!

Sheiyí

Arts in Action: Screen Printing as a Tool for Change Makers and Organizers

Alaska Youth for Environmental Action is a program of The Alaska Center Education Fund that inspires and trains rural and urban youth leaders to impact environmental issues by providing leadership skills training and supporting youth-led community action projects and campaigns. AYEA's Youth Delegates are coming to the Just Transition Summit fresh out of their 2024 AYEA Civics Summit, where they met with legislators in the State Capitol and advocated for issues that affect their communities, particularly around food security. These youth are experienced organizers, caring community members, and advocates for a better future for Alaska.

This presentation will begin with an introduction to Arts in Action and visual strategy, and will provide examples and tips for visuals in campaigns/movements. The second half of the presentation will be a hands-on screen printing demonstration, where participants will get the chance to learn how to screen print their own patch.

Daniel Cheney

Kai Thomas

Sean Phillips

Taralynn Chesley

Zaiden JosephMoseley

Ch’áal’

Healers Space

Healing from White

Supremacy: Identifying Internalized White Superiority in Ourselves

When it comes to white people showing up for Alaska’s Just Transition, we need to start with looking internally. White supremacy is present in our individual actions, our familial norms, our supervising styles, our organizational policies, and our environmental conservation attempts. It’s a part of all societal norms. But how do we identify it? How do we hold ourselves accountable so BIPOC people and communities don’t have to? We address our internalized white superiority: Our fear (of open conflict), believing there is one right way, paternalism, objectivity, being qualified, perfectionism, binary & either/or thinking, quantity over quality, worship of the written word, individualism, defensiveness and denial, right to comfort, power hoarding, and urgency in all things.

This workshop is recommended for white identifying folks. For BIPOC folks interested, this is likely going to be an unsafe space.

Jessica Thornton

Making Medicine: Prayer Ties

Making Medicine, is an experiential and interactive activity involving the teaching and making of prayer ties. The healer will treat this workshop as though the participant was stepping into a philosophy course and learning philosophical thought and approach of other tribes and indigenous communities.

Frana BA

Amalia Monreal

Breakout Session 4

Main Hall

Military Contamination and Militarization in Alaska: Issues of Environmental Justice, Health, and Human Rights

The U.S. military is the world’s largest polluter and largest institutional user of fossil fuels. Alaska has been a site of great strategic importance to the Department of Defense, from World War II through the Cold War and into present times. There are more than seven hundred former and currently used military sites in Alaska, many in close proximity to Alaska Native communities, that are contaminated with hazardous wastes. Five military bases in Alaska are designated Superfund or National Priorities List sites and among the most polluted sites in the nation. Information about the sites is often shrouded in secrecy. This workshop will examine the harm and violence caused by the military and militarization in Alaska (and beyond) and also discuss how to hold the military accountable and prevent further harm through community-based research, organizing, and advocacy.

Cami Diaz Egurrola

Jaron Browne

Ofelia Sanchez

Pamela Miller

Dr. Samarys Seguinot

Medina

Vi Pangunnaaq Waghiyi

Sheiyí

Traditional Healing Services: Ceremony and Land Based Ways

Decolonizing Gender

Ch’áal’ Engaging

Underrepresented Voices in Climate Research: Addressing Data Gaps and Associated Barriers to Just Transition

This will be an overview of the science of the sacred and land based healing including an experiential session where participants will be break out into small groups to reflect on resiliency and goals and create their own medicine bundle.

This training uplifts Indigenous worldviews of genders so we can heal from western colonial impositions of binary gender constricts. We put forward ways of being around gender that honors all genders for their full selves. The training includes group agreements, foundations of terminology, unpacking the patriarchy, Indigenous feminisms, and Indigenous gender constructs. The training is a presentation format with group activities and personal story interwoven. If participants walk away with a more fluid and expansive understanding of genders and self reflection than we consider that a success!

Oliviah Franke

Sasha Kramer

Healers Space

Yoga: Navigating Change

The Engaging Underrepresented Voices in Climate Research project (EUV) is an exploratory study into factors at the intersection of climate change and race, as well as their potential contributions to racial disparities affecting Black and Asian-, Pacific Islander-, Desi-American (APIDA) residents of interior Alaska. During this 90-min workshop we will share and collaboratively explore with participants the findings of our research. Through dialogue we will increase understanding of existing barriers to just transition for understudied populations in the state and strategize ways research can contribute to overcoming those barriers.

This class will be a gentle practice addressing emotions like anxiety, anger, grief and overwhelm in the midst of the ever changing world. Experience the power of cultivating compassion for our planet, its inhabitants and ourselves. Tending to the body, mind, and soul connection is a way to bring alignment to our efforts and energies, personally and collectively. Safe and welcoming for all levels.

Curry

Dr. Allison Kelliher

Alyssa Quintyne Tracie

Aims Villanueva

Wednesday Lunch Sessions

Main Hall

��aay

Alaska Native Language Environmental Glossaries

Non-working Lunch

This workshop will introduce the idea of creating an Alaska Native language glossary of environmental terms related to how our ancestors interacted and thrived within the Arctic landscape. With climate change, some of these terms may not adequately describe the environment anymore. There is a need to create new terms in our Alaska Native languages to describe new environmental changes and to teach them to our youth. This could be helpful because accurate terms can improve the safety of hunting and gathering our foods that support our way of life, but also establishes a way for our languages to survive into the future. Sometimes the terms “environment”, “climate change”, and “just transition” become problematic because they come from the English language. This workshop proposes that we tap into the wisdom of our Alaska Native languages to create similar terms or the “cultural counterpart" that align with our value and knowledge systems.

In coastal Alaska, the ocean is our breadbasket. We rely on clean water and healthy habitat for our food and our economy. The use of dirty bunker fuel and exhaust gas scrubbers by cruise ships visiting Alaska threatens the health and productivity of our waters. There is a simple solution: burn cleaner fuel. This presentation will discuss the reasons behind the recent introduction of exhaust gas scrubbers onboard cruise ships that visit Alaska, how they work, the large volume of toxic wastewater that they now produce while traveling between our communities, risks to organisms, and the path forward. This story presents a stark contrast between corporate cost avoidance and safer environmental practices and this presentation is intended to raise awareness with a broader Alaskan audience as part of an effort to bring an end to exhaust gas scrubber pollution of our waters.

Join in for a new-film screening and discussion of "A Beautiful Place" (2024), a 27 minute documentary set in Golovin, a coastal village in Western Alaska, 70 miles east of Nome. The film traces the lives of residents as they confront an increasingly severe climate crisis, coastal erosion, and challenges securing adequate government support. As Golovin works on planning a relocation of homes and public infrastructure further inland to protect from extreme weather, the film hopes to amplify community perspectives and support discussions regarding the needs to accomplish future plans. The film welcomes discussion, exploring both adversities and community members' aspirations for their home.

Atman Mehta

Annauk Olin Rochelle Adams

Sheiyí

Scrubbers: A False Solution to Cruise Shipsʼ Dirty Fuel Problem

Aaron Brakel

Ch’áal’ Climate Crisis and Community Vision: Screening of 'A Beautiful Place' Film, Set in Golovin, Alaska