WATER

SECURITY SUMMIT

A forum for grassroots action on water rights and security in Maine

Sept 29, 2018 : Protection: Maine

ARE YOU READY TO PROTECT OUR WATER?

TAKING PLACE

Sept 29, 2018

160 College Ave

Orono, ME 04473

Learn from and work together with a diverse group of people in the Water Protection realm

Maine is blessed with a plentiful supply of water, but there are growing threats to the quality and quantity of our precious resource. To effectively address those threats, it's imperative that concerned citizens and groups addressing water issues share information and coordinate efforts toward protecting our water resources.

That is what the Water Security Summit is all about.

Our goals are to:

raise awareness of various threats to our water,
explore all options to protect water in our communities, and to
inspire everyone to take action.

PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN REUSABLE WATER CONTAINER FOR REFILLING!

Penobscot Water (nə̀pi) Song -

00:00 / 00:00

This Penobscot (nepi) water song was written by Gabriel Paul at the request of his aunt after hearing Doreen Day's Ojibwe Nibi (Water) Song and her encouragement for other tribes to create their own song.

Click here for more song info or to download it

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MAILING LIST

Image donated by Maine Rivers

OUR SPEAKERS

There are loads of amazing people leading water protection efforts in the Indigenous and other communities of which we are a part. We are inviting a few to come speak about their work. Our list is not yet complete so keep checking back for more details as they arrive!

SPEAKERS

Tara Houska

Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, the National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She advocates on behalf of tribal nations at the local and federal levels on a wide range of issues impacting indigenous peoples. She spent six months on the frontlines in North Dakota fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is heavily engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a non-profit committed to educating the public about the harms of stereotyping and promoting positive representation of Native Americans in the public sphere.

Michelle Sanborn

Michelle Sanborn is a co-founder of Citizens of Alexandria Rights Effort (CARE), a grassroots community rights activist group which organized for the right of townspeople to determine a sustainable energy future, local self-governance, and the rights of nature within the town. She continues to be active in her local community while serving as president for the NH Community Rights Network (NHCRN) and working as the NH Community Organizer for Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Michelle's community organizing focus involves building a grassroots people's movement to amend the NH State Constitution to recognize, secure, and protect the inherent and unalienable rights of all inhabitants of New Hampshire to economic, social, and environmental justice - by enumerating the right to local self-government and the rights of nature. Free time is spent with family and creating music.

Sherri Mitchell

Sherri Mitchell has been actively involved with Indigenous rights in the U.S., Canada and abroad for more than 25 years. After receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Maine, she attended the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona where she received her JD and graduated with a number of honors, including being named an International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award Recipient.

Sherri has since fought for and defended indigenous rights in several capacities. She worked in the Civil Rights Division of the Maine State Office of Attorney General and afterward for the American Indian law firm Fredericks, Peebles, and Morgan LLP. Sherri is currently the executive director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection of indigenous land and water rights and the indigenous way of life.

Nickie Sekera

Nickie Sekera is the assistant director of SOLO, the founding school of wilderness medicine in the United States. She came to that position after working in remote medical clinics and minority-lead education projects within the conflict zones of Eastern Burma. Her work in that region lead to serving on the Board of Directors of the US Campaign for Burma where after 8 years, she felt increasing pressure to use her experiences and act locally.

Inspired by her young son Luke's inquiry process about global inequities, Nickie felt motivated to focus on water privatization issues from her home in rural Maine. She was the cofounder of the Community Water Justice network and served as a Trustee to the Fryeburg Water District. She has been a mentor and adviser to several youth and leadership projects and works closely with her son on leadership skills to meet the demands of the next generation.

Ellie Daniels

Ellie Daniels has lived in Maine her whole adult life. She has been a home birth midwife for 37 years. This year will be the 25th anniversary for her Belfast eco-retail business, the Green Store. Her deep dive into water issues has come about as a result of a huge Norwegian industrial salmon CAFO threatening her beloved town.

Ed Spencer

Ed Spencer moved to the woods of West Old Town after graduating from the University of Virginia with a BA in Religious Studies in 1976. He developed techniques for low impact logging while working in the woods and building a home and family. After observing the local paper mill forcing a landfill into Old Town, he became actively involved in opposing the State ownership of that landfill in 2003 and has represented the concerns of local citizens in front of the BEP on many occasions since then. The current barely regulated mega-dump, built on corrupt activities and dishonest corporate and government officials, threatens the health and living standards of future generations throughout the lower Penobscot River Valley.

Landis Hudson

Landis Hudson is the Executive Director of Maine Rivers, leading the China Lake Alewife Restoration Initiative. She organized Maine’s first workshop to train dam removal project managers and organized the 2014 Maine Rivers Conference on the Kennebec. She is a founding member of the Mousam and Kennebunk Rivers Alliance and the Royal River Alliance. She has worked for Maine Rivers since 2008. Previously she worked for Maine Audubon, NRCM and the Earthwatch Institute. Landis has a graduate degree in forestry resources management from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College. She lives near the Royal River with her twin daughters. She likes to swim!

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