The monthly League of Women Voters Brainerd Lakes Area event titled "Love Water, Not Oil" will be Thursday at the Brainerd Public Library.
Social is at 11:30 a.m. and program begins at noon.
The speaker is Winona LaDuke. LaDuke will speak on "Making a Graceful Transition to a Green, Just, Restorative Future."
The event description is: "Minnesota is in a state of public policy crisis. We are failing to manage our natural resources and unprepared for the onslaught of new crude oil pipelines, oil by rail shipments, and mines that are proposed for the north. We are living in a time of extreme extraction, taking more and more destructive measures to feed our fossil fuel addiction. But we are also living in a time of transformation, as indigenous people and other frontline communities lead a graceful transition to a just, restorative future based on green jobs, local organic food, indigenous knowledge, and an economic system that acknowledges ecological and social realities."
LaDuke is an internationally renowned Anishinaabe author, orator and activist working on issues of renewable energy, food sovereignty, indigenous economics and human rights. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time US vice presidential candidate. She is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation based nonprofit organizations in the country, and has received a long list of awards and accolades, including membership in the National Women's Hall of Fame, the Reebok Human Rights Award, and the International Slow Food Award for Biodiversity. In her current role as executive director of Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on issues of environmental justice in indigenous communities and a graceful transition to a just, green, post-fossil fuel economy.
