This week, we focus on the enduring legacy of 94-year old elder Oren Lyons, Onondaga Chief and a beacon of Indigenous culture and environmental activism. We explore Oren's insights from the Bioneers conference, his reflections on the Haudenosaunee principles of peace, and his impassioned plea for a value shift towards communal living and environmental harmony. His keynote address was entitled To Survive, We Must Transform our Values. Discover the unwritten history of Turtle Island and the wisdom that could lead humanity to a more just and sustainable world.

Bioneers [https://bioneers.org/] is a nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Founded in 1990 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by social entrepreneurs Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, they act as a hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.

We also share Oren Lyons – “We are Part of the Earth” from the Sacred Land Film Project, part of Earth Island Institute.

Oren Lyons also decodes the classic story "The Wizard of Oz", from a Native American perspective. L. Frank Baum’s tale as a Utopian American Dream soft-peddles an anti-nature-prejudice amid dazzling urban-industrial landscapes. This bias manifests at the expense of the Earth’s resources, and contributes to today’s environmental, economic, and social collapse.

Finally, we include an excerpt from the Indigenous Forum at the Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, California. Recorded by friend of the show Janet Sager in March 2024. The panel is entitled Listening to Wisdom Keepers. We feature the moderator, Alexis Bunten, co-director of the Indigeneity Program at Bioneers, a song from Greg Castro, and discussions from Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, and of course, Oren Lyons.

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More Info:

Bioneers Conference https://conference.bioneers.org/

Oren Lyons, “We Are Part of the Earth” Sacred Lands Film Project: https://youtu.be/bSwmqZ272As?si=crGAyku6eCrFwbaC

Oren Lyons on The Wizard of Oz, Sacred Lands Film Project: https://youtu.be/t8ttzSwYFa8?si=43nbAQNXGPcz1ZuI

More on Oren Lyons: https://wilderutopia.com/international/earth/oren-lyons-on-the-unity-of-the-earth/

Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan who serves as a Member Chief of the Onondaga Council of Chiefs and the Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Haudenosaunee peoples), is an accomplished artist, social and environmental activist, and author; a Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo; a leading voice at the UN Permanent Forum on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples; and the recipient of many prestigious national and international prizes including The UN NGO World Peace Prize.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

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Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 215

Photo credit: Sacred Land Film Project