Future Primitive

Author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of ISEC. A pioneer of the ‘new economy’ movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy on identity, community and local economies, and is a leading proponent of ‘localization,’ or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts.

Since 1975, she has worked with the people of Ladakh, or “Little Tibet,” to find ways of enabling their culture to meet the modern world without sacrificing social and ecological values. Trained as a linguist, she was the first Westerner in recent times to master the Ladakhi language, and co-produced the first Ladakhi-English dictionary. Her book, “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh” has been described as “an inspirational classic,” and sold almost half a million copies. She is on the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, and is a co-founder of both the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Eco-village Network.

www.localfutures.org

Helena speaks with Joanna about the pressure of globalization on traditional cultures, … the relationship between beautiful, healthy and sustainable, … local communities and economies as a sustainable alternative to global consumer culture, … the connection path of community and nature, … and her latest film as co-director: “The Economics of Happiness”…

Music: “Part 8” (from Salzau. Music on the Water) by Danielsson/Dell/Landgren

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Speakers at Bioneers By The Bay Connecting For Change (2011)

When Barretto Point Park opened in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx in 2006, it marked a major accomplishment —becoming the only riverside park in the neighborhood and one of the few greens space in the heavily industrialized area. But Misra noted that there was no transportation to and from the park and that pedestrians had to endure a smoggy walk through a key transportation route that serves some 15,000 heavy trucks daily. Misra and her teen advocacy group, ACTION, lobbied the New York transit authority (MTA) for a bus route to be extended to include stops at the park. Misra’s campaign was successful, and a seasonal city shuttle bus now serves the park in the summer, taking 4,000 Bronx residents to green space they might not otherwise be able to access. Misra is a 2010 Brower Youth Award recipient.

www.marioninstitute.org/connecting-for-change/events/misra-walker

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Zev Friedman grew up in Sylva, NC and received his B.S. in Human Ecology from UNCA. Zev’s specialty is forest agriculture; he now runs the Forest Cuisine Project, which helps land owners to start forest farms and to market their products. He is particularly passionate about assisting landowners in setting up mushroom farming operations and in using fungi as remediators for damaged environments. Zev also specializes in urban permaculture design and installation, including many private residences, as well as consulting on the design of the Mars Hill town hall and grounds; he is an active member and teacher in Transition Asheville, helping to plan for Asheville’s future as an abundant, self-reliant city in the age of petroleum decline.

www.upgardens.com

Zev speaks with Joanna about permaculture and imagination, learning from indigenous societies, transitioning to an Earth-based way of living, working with the “cultural compost”, attuning to the local ecosystem through the Forest Cuisine project,…and more

Music: “Qosh tari” ( from Ouzbekistan L’art du dotar) by Hamidov, Khodaverdiev, Razzaqov

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Speakers at Bioneers By The Bay Connecting For Change (2011)

Riki Ott, PhD, is an activist, author, marine toxicologist, and former commercial fisherma’m who experienced the Exxon Valdez oil spill first-hand. Her latest book on oil spill impacts is Not One Drop (Chelsea Green). She starred in Black Wave, an award-winning feature film. Ott received Huffington Post’s Game Changer 2010 Award for her volunteer work in the Gulf, empowering local residents to take action after BP’s disaster. She co-founded Ultimate Civics, a project of Earth Island Institute, and teaches value-based community organizing from fifth grade to university, sharing practical skills for sustainable living and ending corporate rule: www.changingtheendgame.org

“This is really my favorite Bioneers, and it’s because of this intentional integration of youth…”

www.marioninstitute.org/connecting-for-change/events/riki-ott

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Speakers at Bioneers By The Bay Connecting For Change (2011)

John Francis, Ph.D.,  is an American environmentalist nicknamed the planetwalker. After witnessing the devastation caused by a 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay, he stopped riding in motorized vehicles, a vow which lasted 22 years from 1972 until 1994.  Several months later, to stop the arguments about the power of one person’s actions, he took a vow of silence. From 1973 until 1990, he also spent 17 years voluntarily silent. During that time Dr. Francis walked across the United States earning a B.A at Southern  Oregon State College, an M.S. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and a Ph.D. in land resources at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence. and The Ragged Edge of Silence: Finding Peace in a Noisy World

John speaks with Joanna about sustainability as caring for each other, rediscovering ourselves, inhabiting the present moment, the value of the social networks, using technology to raise our consciousness.

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Speakers at Bioneers By The Bay Connecting For Change (2011)

Jodie Evans is a co-founder of CODEPINK and has been a peace, environmental, women’s rights and social justice activist for forty years.  She has traveled extensively to war zones promoting and learning about peaceful resolution to conflict.  She served in the administration of Governor Jerry Brown and ran his presidential campaign.  She has published two books, Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism and Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation and has produced several documentary films, including the Oscar-nominated “The Most Dangerous Man in America” and Howard Zinn’s The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known . Jodie is the board chair of Women’s Media Center and sits on many other boards, including Rainforest Action Network, Drug Policy Alliance, Institute of Policy Studies, Women Moving Millions and Sisterhood is Global Institute.  She is the mother of three.

Jodie speaks with Joanna about the 99% movement, the shift of paradigm in activism, the power of sharing stories, participation and community, democracy as open-ended participation…

www.codepink4peace.org

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Martha Elena Llano Serna is a graphic designer, documentary photographer, and expert in strategic thinking for environmental conservation. She is the founder of “SENTIR”, an educational project about endangered species and ecosystems that has become a Foundation which promotes sustainable development in Colombia. She has lived in the Colombian Pacific (Pijiba), helping to identify photographically the Humpback Whale. She lives in El Robledal Nature Preserve, where she works in environmental conservation, ecotourism and actively supports local networks.

http://www.sentir.org/
http://www.bioneers.org/conference

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Beatrice Achieng Nas is a Ugandan Womens’ rights grassroots leader, and a citizen journalist with World Pulse - a global media and communication network devoted to giving women a global voice. Beatrice is touring the USA in October 2011.

“I believe everybody has the potential to live a better life. Given the opportunity, education and motivation everyone can become someone admirable.”

http://www.bioneers.org/

http://www.worldpulse.com/user/6478

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Nora Barrows-Friedman, an award-winning independent journalist, radio producer and writer, was the senior producer and co-host of Flashpoints on KPFA for seven years, and currently is on the editorial staff at The Electronic Intifada. Nora also contributes to al-Jazeera English, Truthout, Inter Press Service, and a number of periodicals. She is the author of a chapter on Western media and Palestine in the Project Censored 2011 anthology, and regularly travels to Palestine.

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Malathy Drew is a healer, teacher and a social media innovator. Malathy was recently honored by Fast Company Magazine as the ’23 Most Influential Person in the Online World’. Her vision of ‘Cultivating Global Healing, One Soul at a Time’ has became “WE (Whispering Energy Collaboration)”: heart-centered networking.

www.whisperingenergy.com

Malathy speaks with Joanna about “WE (Whispering Energy)”, the new paradigm of heart-centered networwing and its applications, uplifting each other in order to uplift the world, raising consciousness and re-distributing wealth, social media and collective change…

Music: “Collection of Folk Songs” (from World Network: Georgia ) by Rustavi Choir & Duduki Trio Omar Kelaptrishvili

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Sobonfu Somé is an author and teacher, one of the foremost voices in African spirituality to come to the West. Destined from birth to teach the ancient wisdom, ritual and practices of her ancestors to those in the West, Sobonfu – whose name means “keeper of the rituals” – travels the world on a healing mission sharing the rich spiritual life and culture of her native land Burkina Faso. She teaches and leads rituals throughout North America, Asia and Europe and has published three books: Spirit of Intimacy, Welcoming Spirit Home and Falling Out of Grace. She is involved in ongoing projects in the Dagara Villages of West Africa.

www.sobonfu.com

www.ancientwisdomrising.com

Sobonfu Somé speaks with Joanna about grief & community, the relationship with the ancestors,  love…

Music: “Dagara Traditional Song“, by Sobonfu Somé

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Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist and author. He is author and co-author of dozens of articles, op-eds and papers, as well as six books including The Ecology of Commerce (1993) and Blessed Unrest (2007). Paul heads the Natural Capital Institute, a research organization located in Sausalito, California, that has created WiserEarth, a open source networking platform that links NGO’s, funders, businesses, goverment, social entrepreneurs, students, organizers, academics, activists, scientists and citizens.

paulhawken.com

naturalcapital.org

wiserearth.org

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