How to Save the World: Ancient Wisdom and Contemporary Climate Policy

Name: How to Save the World: Ancient Wisdom and Contemporary Climate Policy
Start: 2024-09-25T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-09-25T20:00:00-04:00
Location: The Paul Robeson Campus Center

Schedule

Wed Sep 25 2024 at 06:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

The Paul Robeson Campus Center | Newark, NJ

This event unites Jacob Johns and Sheelah Bearfoot of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation on a panel moderated by Anthony Diaz of the Newark Water Coalition. As people from all over the globe unite in New York City for climate week, the Newark Water Coalition wanted to host an event in the city of Newark to boost the policy platforms of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation and to connect the hyper local enviromental issues in the city of Newark.
Since January 2023, Jacob Johns has been a leading force behind A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, a groundbreaking initiative that brings together Indigenous wisdom keepers, activists, and youth from around the world. This collective is focused on shaping contemporary climate policy, working under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to influence critical discussions at United Nations Climate Change Conferences (UNCOP) and Subsidiary Body (SB) meetings. Set to culminate in November 2025, this initiative marks a crucial step in ensuring that Indigenous perspectives are embedded in global climate governance.
The work of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation is not just about policy; it is deeply intertwined with spiritual practice. Johns and his fellow delegates understand that they were born out of prayer and that their mission involves both action and ceremony. They are committed to operating as one global Indigenous force, harnessing the power of prayer and collective ceremony for the benefit of all humanity.
More information on A Wisdom Keepers Delegation can be found at www.awisdomkeepersdelegation.org
Sheelah Bearfoot is an Indigenous intellectual and advocate who thrives in interdisciplinary environments. She graduated with a degree in Genetics and Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2016. She's Chiricahua Apache, and worked at the Native American Health Center in SF for two years as a diabetes-focused health educator (clinical care assistant) before earning a Master of Health Science (MHS) in Environmental Health at Johns Hopkins, where she continued her focus on Indigenous health disparities.
Her extensive experience as a speech and debate coach and college counselor have helped hone her public speaking and writing skills. Currently, she thinks she's found a perfect niche where she can combine her talents in STEM and humanities as a freelance grant writer for environmental justice nonprofits, with a focus on grants geared towards food sovereignty, racial justice, and environmental activism. She's considering going back to school because she greatly misses working directly with patients, especially patients whose health has suffered from systemic discrimination in medicine.
She's traveled across the country and had the privilege of working with/learning from dozens of grassroots organizations.
The Newark Water Coalition is a grassroots non profit organization that acknowledges that Water, Housing, and Food is a human right. Our intention is to cultivate a self-determined local, national, and international community of people who recognize the connection between systemic environmental racism and capitalism. NWC fights to liberate natural resources whether it be food, land, air or water as sources of life for all.
More information can be found at www.newarkwatercoalition.org and Instagram at CleanWater4Newark.