Thursday November 14, 2019
Change from Within, Seattle Aquarium
Change from Within, Seattle Aquarium
6:30 pm to 7:15 pm, Seattle Aquarium open for event
6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, Reception with Light Bites
7:30 pm to 8:15 pm, Land Acknowledgment and Premiere of Change from Within Film
8:15 pm to 9:00 pm, Resonance Workshop
6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, Reception with Light Bites
7:30 pm to 8:15 pm, Land Acknowledgment and Premiere of Change from Within Film
8:15 pm to 9:00 pm, Resonance Workshop
Friday November 15, 2019 Salish Sea Equity & Justice Symposium
wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ - Intellectual House, University of Washington
9:15 am to 10:00 am, Registration and Breakfast
10:00 am to 10:45 am, Welcome to space
Moderator: Ava Holliday (Avarna Group)
12:45 pm to 1:45 pm, Plenary 2: Power structures and how they influence knowledge production
Moderator: Melissa Watkinson (Washington Sea Grant)
2:00 pm to 3:15 pm, Plenary 3: Ethical and Equitable Community Engagement
Moderator: Michael Chang (Makah Tribe)
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm, Breakout Group Discussion
5:00 pm to 5:30 pm, Reflections and Conclusion, Mari Shibuya, artist
Please join us at 7:00 pm at Regent Bakery & Café at 1414 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122 after the symposium for food and more discussion.
Regent Bakery is accessible via the Link Light Rail via the Capitol Hill Station and a short 10-minute walk or the 8, 10, 11, 12, or 43 bus lines
10:00 am to 10:45 am, Welcome to space
- Land and water acknowledgement - Ken Workman (Duwamish Tribe)
- Welcome and community agreements - Jasmmine Ramgotra (Culture SHIFT) and Michael Chang (Makah Tribe)
- Keystone address: Creating my role in environmental justice, not fitting into one, Hannah Wilson (2019 UW Graduate, Doris Duke Conservation Scholar)
- Identity heavily shapes our values and the work we dive ourselves into. Growing up, Hannah did not see role models or leaders in her community that looked like her or served to uplift someone like her until she found her way into environmental justice work. Her experience as a Black queer disabled woman gives her an intersectional lens and personal investment to address environmental justice issues in her communities. Becoming a leader in this movement has also meant for Hannah to address personal struggles and grow to better serve others.
- Artist introduction – Mari Shibuya
Moderator: Ava Holliday (Avarna Group)
- Bridging the Great Divide: Reconciling Environmental Justice and Traditional Environmental Movements, Sean Watts (SM Watts Consulting)
- Over the past two decades historically white-led (HWL) environmental organizations have begun to acknowledge their lack of diversity, however the sector has had limited success in increasing diversity and working effectively with community-based organizations (CBOs). Even with the best intentions, lack of understanding and sensitivity has resulted in missteps — deepening distrust of HWL organizations. This divide perpetuates the concentration of power, influence and money in HWL organizations and the disconnect between environmental, social and economic health and wellbeing. I present opportunities to address the “original sin” of exclusivity in ways that recognize the expertise of CBOs and facilitates authentic partnership.
- Working toward racial equity in the world of Puget Sound and Salish Sea recovery as a historically white-led organization, Mindy Roberts (Washington Environmental Council)
- Many historically white-led organizations, including Washington Environmental Council (WEC), recognize that we must change from within to ensure an equitable and inclusive future for the Salish Sea. Tribes, Indigenous People, and communities of color currently experience disproportionate environmental and health impacts. We will describe our organizational journey on the path to a more just future in the environmental movement and specifically within WEC and our Puget Sound program. We do not approach racial equity as experts or as a fully evolved organization. Instead, we identify tangible changes resulting from this work and the durable commitment needed to effect institutional change.
- Resource groups: a strategy to address representation of marginalized communities, Maritza Mendoza and Lisa Kenny (EarthCorps)
- People of color make up only 12- 16% of people working in environmental organizations, foundations and government agencies (Dorceta, 2014). EarthCorps, an environmental non-profit, shares a similar statistic with PoC making up 17% of staff and 20% of our AmeriCorps members. Resource groups offer an opportunity for members to process what it means to perform and exist in these white-dominated spaces and start to work towards liberation and empowerment with other people who share similar lived experiences. The changes sparked from EarthCorps’ resource group have already started to increase the ability for PoC to support, mobilize and empower each other.
12:45 pm to 1:45 pm, Plenary 2: Power structures and how they influence knowledge production
Moderator: Melissa Watkinson (Washington Sea Grant)
- Queering our Connection and Relationships to Nature, Jules Hepp (Tiny Trees)
- Participants will re-think what “nature” has meant and could mean. Jules will give tools to re-think how language and practice influences our connections and relationships to ourselves/other humans/our sense of place/other beings to keep practicing ongoing social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion work.
- Scientific imperialism: Tensions between Western Science and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Michael Chang (Makah Tribe)
- In light of multiple national and international climate change reports, there has been an emerging conflict in how some systems of science, knowledges, and understanding, specifically Indigenous and Local Knowledge systems, are excluded because they do not meet the "standards" of Western science. This presentation will explore existing tensions around how knowledge is constructed and how Western science constructs dominate scientific research agendas, who is included (or excluded) from participation or representation, and how we can begin to shift the paradigm of what we consider as valid science and knowledge.
- Data as a good to leverage science, funding, and actions, Maria Baron Palamar and Graise Lee Jenni (Resolve Conservation)
- How can we leverage community capacity to collect and share data? How can we influence partnerships, funding and the direction of science in our community? Generally, in every community, large research institutions obtain the funding, formulate the question, design the study, analyze the data, and synthesize results while becoming gatekeepers of the data. The community, involved in data collection, has little access to the scientific process, becoming the equivalent free labor. We are exploring a shift in the way we fund, store and use data, removing the need for centralized data management so it can become a trusted community good.
2:00 pm to 3:15 pm, Plenary 3: Ethical and Equitable Community Engagement
Moderator: Michael Chang (Makah Tribe)
- Building Authentic Relationships with Indigenous Peoples, Ellany Kayce (Nakani Native Program)
- In this presentation, lessons learned from creating a Racial Equity Toolkit with Puget Sound Cohort/Race Forward and the importance of allyship work with Indigenous Peoples, while centering equity and justice in community engagement, especially when linked to environmental justice.
- Unlikely Alliances of Native Nations and their neighbors on the frontlines, Zoltan Grossman (Evergreen State College)
- As Native nations asserted treaty rights, they were confronted by white neighbors fearful of losing control over natural resources. Yet faced with an outside threat to the common land and water, such as coal trains or oil terminals, some communities unexpectedly joined to protect the same treaty resources. The University of Washington Press book "Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands" explores this evolution from conflict to cooperation in the Pacific Northwest (including Quinault and Lummi) and elsewhere. These rural crosscultural populist alliances offer a hopeful alternative to working only with mainstream urban environmental groups.
- Swinomish Place-based Science, Culture, and Environmental Education: A Swinomish Approach to Environmental and Resource Issues, Todd Mitchell, swəlítub (Swinomish Tribe)
- The Swinomish People have long standing traditions of protecting, honoring, and thanking Mother Earth for the gifts that nourish our people. The culture of the Tribe is intrinsically tied to the health of the environment that sustains the habitat for our important natural resources and cultural practices they support. While some of our work is directed at addressing immediate and specific environmental or ecological concerns, our objectives focus on the long-view of sustaining the Swinomish culture. We use the place-based knowledge and indigenous science of our ancestors combined with scientific research to develop innovative ways to protect our environment and resources not just for now but for the next seven generations. For Swinomish, it is not enough to simply work for the survival of a species or habitat: we strive to protect and preserve resources and their place in Swinomish culture. This presentation will: discuss what is place-based science, traditional ecological knowledge, and indigenous science; the connection of Swinomish culture to our lands, environment, and treaty-reserved rights; case study(s) of Tribally designed and lead placed based-science, research, and habitat restoration on the Swinomish Reservation; our environmental education efforts of bringing Swinomish specific indigenous science curriculum to the Tribal youth in the Community.
- Process Behind Participation, Adrienne Hampton (Washington Sea Grant Keystone Fellow, Seattle Aquarium)
- The Duwamish Floating Wetlands Pilot Project fostered pathways for community-led science. Community participants evaluated how floating wetlands may affect localized water quality and provide habitat for salmon smolts in the Puget Sound, while inspiring community stewardship and education. Even in its limited capacity as a pilot, the project worked to infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion across all aspects of community science from transportation and accessibility to activities, speakers, and data dissemination. Yet the approach to achieve such goals often took a creative approach due to the constraints of western science (protocol, methods, and design) and how research must look to be perceived as legitimate.
- Equitable Partnerships and Community Empowerment: Building a Health Promotion Program to Advance Environmental Justice in the Lower Duwamish Superfund Site, Luz María Cárdenas, Emma-Maria Maceda, and Bình Tran (Community Health Advocates)
- The program established by Public Health-Seattle & King County (PHSKC) for the EPA, focuses on building capacity and creating power-sharing spaces for agencies to partner directly with us, the community members so that we can provide input on decisions that affect us. We build capacity by bringing our communities together, training our community members to become Community Health Advocates (CHA), and empowering the CHAs to work towards a solution to protect their health. Our work allows us to talk with decision makers on breaking down the barriers that affect us and give our community a voice so that we can work together to help create a change for future generations.
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm, Breakout Group Discussion
5:00 pm to 5:30 pm, Reflections and Conclusion, Mari Shibuya, artist
Please join us at 7:00 pm at Regent Bakery & Café at 1414 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122 after the symposium for food and more discussion.
Regent Bakery is accessible via the Link Light Rail via the Capitol Hill Station and a short 10-minute walk or the 8, 10, 11, 12, or 43 bus lines