KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 6, 2022 – Harvard-educated economist, environmental activist, author, hemp farmer, and former two-time Green Party vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke will kick off the 2022 University of Rhode Island Honors Colloquium Tuesday, Sept. 13 with “Restoring Indigenous Foodways in a Time of Climate Change: Lessons for the 8th Fire.” A Native American, she combines economic and environmental approaches to create a thriving and sustainable community for Indigenous populations across the country.
LaDuke will speak at 7 p.m. at Edwards Hall on the Kingston Campus and online. This is the first presentation of the fall Honors Colloquium, “Just Good Food,” which will be presented in person and streamed live (video links available on the day of each event, at the link above).
LaDuke’s work focuses on rural development, economic, food and energy sovereignty, and environmental justice. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota and leads several organizations including Honor the Earth (co-founded with the Indigo Girls 28 years ago), the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, and Winona’s Hemp, which all work to develop and model cultural-based sustainable development strategies for renewable energy and sustainable food systems. She is known worldwide for her thoughts and lectures on climate justice and renewable energy and as an advocate protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering.
LaDuke was named to the first Forbes “50 over 50 Women of Impact” list in 2021 and has been recognized by Time magazine, with the Thomas Merton Award and Reebok Human Rights Award, and was named the Woman of the Year by Ms. magazine in 1998. She has written a novel as well as several nonfiction books, including most recently To Be a Water Protector: Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in rural economic development and devotes much of her time to farming on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg.
LaDuke’s presentation is the University’s Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Women’s Studies Lecture.
The URI Honors Colloquium, an annual fall lecture series hosted at URI by the University’s Honors Program, is a university-wide educational forum open to the public. This year’s free public lecture series will bring several experts to the Kingston Campus to examine local and global food systems, examining ways to create equitable, sustainable and resilient food systems, on Tuesday evenings Sept. 13 through Dec. 13; also online. Learn more about the fall colloquium.