“My community is replicable,” said Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe who spoke at UWM Sept.11. “If we want to get healthy we need to deconstruct some of this American empire. Learning how to make peace is how we can create a society that’s sustainable.”

With a small American Indian population on campus, Winona LaDuke, a nationally renowned Ojibwe activist and environmentalist, provided a social perspective from an outside culture.

LaDuke visited the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sept. 11 to talk to over 100 attendees about indigenous thinking on sustainability, the military, and the environment.

This is a busy season for the White Earth Ojibwe of northern Minnesota. The day before LaDuke came to Milwaukee, she was busy harvesting wild rice, just as her ancestors did.

Floating into the marshland where the rice grows, harvesters knock the grains from the long grassy strands into their boat, collecting enough rice to feed their people until next harvest.

Along with describing long-standing American Indian rituals, LaDuke brought new perspectives on wide standing social issues like loss of species and habitat due to development, our addiction to energy in contemporary America, and how to create a sustainable society.

“The constant process of taking things from the land leads to extinction,” LaDuke said. “It turns out a society based on conquest is unsustainable.”

She said, in a country once driven by manifest destiny, the underlying urge to go further and discover more in order to acquire more, Americans often forget supply is limited

This thinking puts the condition of the land and the consequences of our actions backseat to the notion that ‘you can’t stop progress.’ American Indians have a very different perspective of time and the land.

“We have this reaffirmation of place,” said LaDuke. “We know when the suckers will run and the maple syrup will flow. It’s a cyclical view that places you in the natural world, places you as a part of it unlike the American linear view.”

Ojibwe time, like most Native American cultures, is cyclical and follows the natural way of the land. The Ojibwe know the next moon to come will be the Leaf Changing Moon, then the Freezing Over Moon, and always continues with Crusted Snow Moon, Berry Moon, and others.

“I liked the talk because she wasn’t speaking only to the Native Americans. She pointed out not only the problems we face, but also gave solutions,” said Sarah Moore, a UWM junior. “I also liked how she spoke at a personal level – she was inspiring because she has actually made things happen.”

LaDuke spoke of the goals we should make for ourselves and the environment. With many successes under her belt, she had many inspirational words of hope and viability for a sustainable future.

“It takes prayers, hard work, commitment and tenacity to do this work – to do something of consequence with ourselves,” said LaDuke. “If we can do it on White Earth, anyone can do it. We are interested in structural adjustment and sustainable economy…We want a society our descendants can live in. I’m interested in harvesting the next generation of leaders.”

At White Earth Reservation LaDuke has accomplished many feats. Re-introducing buffalo to the wild from a zoo, re-introducing sturgeon to the waters, and bringing in wind turbines for renewable energy are just a few.

“LaDuke’s story about the sturgeons was great,” said Moore. “She didn’t care that people said there was no economic value in sturgeon, she just cared that they belonged there and should be brought back.”

Starting a Farm to School lunch program at the reservation’s school in 2006 was yet another recent accomplishment. Bringing traditional farm-grown food to schools is one of the ways LaDuke hopes to bring about change. LaDuke mentioned studies of ADHD linked to bad diets, suggesting that feeding school-children healthier food can benefit their health and ability to succeed.

LaDuke sees even more potential in serving farm-grown foods. “I believe that’s how we can preserve culture – by serving traditional foods at school,” she said.

With a majority of Americans getting their food from grocery stores instead of gardens, people have become detached from nature and the origins of the food they consume. A way to reverse that detachment, while at the same time coming closer to sustaining ourselves and the environment, is to plant a garden.

Whether one lives in a rural or metropolitan area, LaDuke believes tending to a garden is an important human experience. A garden can be planted anywhere and once people can appreciate where their food comes from, they can come closer to the earth.

“You have to acknowledge the spirit you are taking, be it wings, hooves or roots. You have to give thanks. That is the depth that on some level we have to recover. If you don’t acknowledge life and death you will never be well,” said LaDuke.

With three kids and many aspirations, LaDuke still finds time to fight for what she believes in. She is currently working to keep wild rice from being genetically engineered, preserving the Ojibwe’s natural way of life. After all, once it’s genetically engineered it’s not wild anymore.

LaDuke closed with a word of advice: “My community is replicable. If we want to get healthy we need to deconstruct some of this American empire. Learning how to make peace is how we can create a society that’s sustainable.”

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