Decolonize & Decarbonize Event 

Wednesday, October 25th from 4-5:30pm 

FPH Main Lecture Hall

A panel discussion and conversation at the intersection of (de)colonization and climate change with:

• Jean-Luc Pierite (Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana), Indigenous leader, activist, & designer 
• Eric Toensmeire 90F, author and educator on regenerative agriculture and carbon farming 
• Rowen White (Mohawk) 97F, Seed Keeper/farmer and Indigenous seed & food sovereignty activist 
• Moderated by Andrew Yang, Professor of Environmental Education and Sustainability 

The event will be followed by a reception in the FPH Lobby. 

This event is organized by Hampshire College’s Learning Collaboratives. 

Speaker Bios: 

Jean-Luc Pierite (member, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana) is an Indigenous leader, activist, and designer with areas of focus in: supporting distributed networks for education; public policy advocacy for racial, economic, and climate justice; and supporting philanthropic foundations committed to diversity and inclusion. Jean-Luc has served as President of the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB), since 2017. Jean-Luc has been awarded with the inaugural LaDonna Brave Bull Allard Science Activist Award at The Global Community Bio Summit which is hosted by the Community Biotechnology Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. 

Jean-Luc has earned a Master in Design for Emergent Futures from the Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. 

Eric Toensmeier is the award-winning author of Paradise Lot and Perennial Vegetables, and the co-author of Edible Forest Gardens as well as a contributor for Drawdown. He is an appointed lecturer at Yale University, and an international trainer, presenting in English and Spanish in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean. Eric has studied permaculture and useful plants of the world for over two decades. He managed an urban farm project for five years, ran a seed company, and co-developed a farm business training curriculum that is now used in eight US states and three Canadian provinces. Eric’s most recent book is the Carbon Farming: a Global Toolkit for Stabilizing the Climate with Tree Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices which was backed by supporters through a Kickstarter campaign.

Rowen White is a Seed Keeper/farmer from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and a passionate activist for indigenous seed and food sovereignty.  She is the Creative Director of Sierra Seeds, an innovative organic seed stewardship organization focusing on local seed and education, based in Nevada City, CA.   Rowen is the Founder of the Indigenous Seed Keeper Network, which is an initiative of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a non-profit organization aimed at leveraging resources to support tribal food sovereignty projects.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of Seed Savers Exchange, the largest public access seed bank in North America. She facilitates creative hands-on workshops and facilitates strategic conversations and community organizing around seed/food security around the country within tribal and small farming communities. She weaves stories of seeds, food, culture and sacred Earth stewardship on her blog, Seed Songs. 

Andrew S. Yang works across the visual arts and natural sciences to explore our ecological entanglements at a time of profound planetary change. His projects have been exhibited from Oklahoma to Yokohama, including the 14th Istanbul Biennial, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, with recent curatorial projects Earthly Observatory at SAIC Galleries and Making Kin-Worlds Becoming for the Center for Humans and Nature. His research and writing can be found in publications such as Leonardo, Art Journal, Biological Theory, Current Biology, and recently in the Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies as well as the book series Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations. Yang’s teaching span environmental studies, ecological art, and expanded natural history with a focus on cross-disciplinary approaches. He received his B.S. in Chemistry/Molecular Biology from Juniata College, an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the Lesley University College of Art and Design, and a Ph.D. in Biology from Duke University. He was a long-time faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History.

We encourage people to join in-person, but a Zoom link is available for those who are unable!