Waterwalkers come to the Kickapoo Valley on their way to Lake Superior

The Kickapoo Earth Day Committee invites you to come out to the Gays Mills Community Building, Saturday, May 28 at 7:00pm to a wild sourced feast prepared by Carrie Kneidler and Bjorn Bergman.  There is no charge for the meal and you bring your own utensils and a dish to pass.  This is our community’s way to support and welcome the Mother Earth Water Walk to the Driftless Area.

Spring is a time of growth and renewal and to honor that a small group of Indigenous women, elders and youth gathered at sunrise on April 20 in Gulfport, Mississippi and began walking more than 1430 miles north to Lake Superior in Wisconsin.  Carrying a copper vessel of  salt water from the Gulf of Mexico, they have been walking  forty miles a day over a six week period to reach their destination.

On June 12, at the Bad River Reservation near Ashland, Wisconsin, they will meet other groups carrying water from the Atlantic, Hudson Bay and the Pacific – representing all four directions of Turtle Island, as Indigenous people call North America.  When they get there they will meet with the three other teams, mix the water together and pour it into the lake to symbolically cleanse.

On May 28, three Native American women will take turns carrying a copper water vessel and an Eagle Feather Staff as they walk along Wisconsin State Highway 61 on their way from Fennimore to Readstown.   Sharon Day says they are on what is called a water walk.  “We, Anishinabequay, are undertaking this endeavor because it is our responsibility to care for our water.  We hope to educate our communities about the damage we are doing to our Mother Earth, to the water, and ultimately to the plants and animals.  Water is essential to Life.”

The women raised some money before the water walk , and they have been relying on the good nature of strangers for help along the way. .  You will have a chance to participate in a free will offering to help them on their way.  The Kickapoo Earth Day committee will host them to a feast and lodging over night in Gays Mills.

There will be entertainment provided by local talent of poetry and music. There will be remarks from the Water Walkers and answering of questions. The audience will be encouraged to interact with walkers.  Also, the walkers will be asking people to join them on their walk from Readstown to Sparta, the next day, May 29, Sunday. Both men and women are welcome to help carry the water.  Women are asked to wear skirts.

They travel with a van and walk on and off on the 40 mile per day trip.  You can do the same with your own vehicle and participate as much or as little as you wish, joining at any point along the way and dropping out again, as you wish.  Women and girls are asked to wear skirts.

59 year old Sharon Day says she chose to walk from the Gulf because the Mississippi River has special meaning.  “I live a block from the Mississippi in St. Paul and I have had water ceremonies at the head waters where the water is so pure and clean you can drink it.  But when it gets to St Paul, nobody would drink it,” Day said.

Kickapoo Earth Day 2011

Kickapoo Earth Day was a day of activism, reflection, community, a day to honor all living things and love

she is fierce

The Event

With Earth Day fast approaching we thought we’d better reiterate some essential information about the event. For specific schedules, please visit the 2011 Line-up page and the Kid’s page.

The event begins at 6pm on Friday, April 22nd with an organic/local wine, beer, and cheese social. At 6:30 the entertainment will kick of with a presentation on “What’s Real Wealth” followed by a reading of the Community Poem. If you havn’t contributed to the poem yet, please share your thoughts with us. Kat Tigerman is speaking at 7:30 and then Alvin & Lila will inspirit us with the Tslagi Dance of Life.  A Native American inspired concert by William Neil, Bill Greendeer, Carrie Treviranus, Rahbi Crawford, and Troy Marshall. The evening will end with a performance by Andreas Transo and the Call For Peace Drum and Damce Company!

On Saturday we have a number of speakers in the main building from 11am to 4:30pm and then musical offerings until midnight when we have to shut down and clean up.
Also on the grounds will be a Children and Family tent full of fun activities and demonstrations for the whole family, a Ranting stage for anyone who cares to get vocal, a Non-Profit  (NGO) tent for area conservation and sustainability organizations, and a Vendor tent for purveyors of environmental goods and services.

A few of the Presenters include Bill Christofferson–Author of “Man from Clear Lake” about Gaylord Nelson

Pete Nowak PhD–UW Madison Rural Sociology–Conservation challenges in rural Wisconsin

Glenn Reynolds—JD, MS–Environmental lawyer–focusing on indigenous law–will speak about fighting the American Transmission Company in the Madison area.

Kim Wright JD–Director of Midwest Environmental Advocates–will talk about fighting the proliferation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Sonya Newenhouse PhD–Madison Environmental Group, Community Car, Newen House–will talk about her new business marketing small super insulated houses.

A couple major project will also be showcased throughout the event including the progression of Alvin Felch’s “As So Above and Below” community sculpture and Randy Neu’s “Facing our Future” mask making project.

The pinnacle of the event with be an anti-corporate community theatrical event staged by a number of the events participants and requiring participation by attendees who wish to take part.

House by Newen

Sonya Newenhouse, Ph.D.

Dr. Sonya Newenhouse is founder and president of Madison Environmental Group, Inc., a sustainability consulting firm, and Community Car – Wisconsin’s first Carshare Organization with more than 1300 members and 19 cars. In 2003 Sonya founded EnAct — a free sustainability program supported by generous sponsors. In 2009 Dr. Newenhouse authored a book, EnAct: Steps to Greener Living and in spring of 2011 she begins her teaching career at the University of Wisconsin Business School with an MBA course Sustainability on the Ground and Around the Globe. A serial eco-entrepreneur, Sonya is also developing a line of NewenHouses – super insulated, sustainable, small kit homes that are designed to LEED Platinum and Passive House certification standards. The prototype will be built in the town of Viroqua WI where she lives with her husband Cecil Wright.

Talk: Small, Super insulated and Sustainable: The NewenHouse Kit Home provides a solution for the future.

Dr. Sonya Newenhouse will share why smaller is better, and how a super insulated home can eliminate the need for a furnace, even in Wisconsin winters. She’s staring a business, NewenHouse that will sell kit homes that are 80-90% more energy efficient and take into account occupants health and planet.

Keynote Speaker

Glenn C. Reynolds is an attorney practicing Indian and environmental law in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, and he received an M.S. degree in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin Institute of Environmental studies in 1982. He is currently Tribal Attorney for the Sokaogon Chippewa Community, a small Ojibwe Tribe in Northeastern Wisconsin and represents Towns throughout Wisconsin on land use and water quality protection (PDF) issues.
In 2002, he concluded a six-year legal battle, which granted the Sokaogon Tribe the authority under the Clean Water Act to enact non-degradation water quality standards for its Reservation waters. In 2003, he helped negotiate an end to a 25-year effort to build the Crandon Mine – a massive, sulfide, zinc and copper mine at the headwaters of the Wolf River and only one mile upstream from the Sokaogon Reservation.
In 2008 he prevailed on behalf of the Town of Magnolia in the first challenge of the newly adopted Livestock Facility Siting Law in Wisconsin. This law required towns to adopt State standards for approval of a confined animal feedlot operation or ‘factory farm” (CAFO) and therefore limited town regulation of these facilities. Although the Town granted the permit, it set conditions that were designed to protect surface and drinking water resources which had been degraded by the facility. The circuit court held that the Town had the authority to protect its water resources by insisting that the CAFO comply with State water quality and drinking water standards as a condition of operation. The State and the CFO operator have appealed the case to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

As So Above and Below Sculpture Project

The figure emerges even more

Alvin sculpts at his home near Gays Mills

“I work intuitively, my hands are busy, my senses alert, and I carve while I contemplate the great mysteries of the universe as the spirit of the sculpture emerges before my eyes.”

Visit the As So Above and Below page to see videos of the work in progress and learn more about the sculptor, Alvin Felch. You can also check out the As So Above and Below Blog or donate to the cause at the Facebook cause page.

The Procession of the Species.

The Mad Procession Puppeteers—based in Madison, Wisconsin—organize a”Parade of the Species” at Olbrich Gardens every year on the Summer Solstice, hoping to get people to think about the environment as a place for more than just people. Their puppets are huge and fun—and fun to make! During Kickapoo Earth Day, Laurie and Ted will help children (and adults) make masks during the afternoon, and the kids will be able to wear them in their own “Procession of the Species” later in the day.

If you would like to volunteer to help make masks on Kickapoo Earth Day, please respond in the “Leave a Reply” box below or e-mail Juliee de la Terre.

The Puppet and Mask Parade is scheduled to commence at 4:45 pm near the Kinderwald Tent and work it’s way through the grounds so everyone can experience this incredible display of ecological pagentry!

Changes are best made in your own backyard

Naturalist Dan Hazlett has been sharing his love of the natural world through his writing and beautiful illustrations for the past 30 years. A passionate advocate of the organic mission, he has been a valued member of the Organic Valley Family since 1989. His commitment to nature conservancy education has been an inspiration to our entire community, adults and children alike, always ready with a smile and a story.

Dan reminds us that, “healing Mother Earth begins in awakening the compassionate awareness in your heart by being in touch with nature. Changes are best made in your own backyard. Allow yourself a few minutes every day of tasting nature’s abundance, and you will become absorbed in the deliciousness around you.”

Dan is scheduled to speak at 2pm in the Land Speaks tent.

Spotlight on…

Juliee de la Terre,

Juliee is currently pursuing a graduate degree at UW Madison in the Environment Resources program at the Gaylord Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies. She is a research assistant in the department of rural sociology working with Pete Nowak PhD on conservation challenges in the Pleasant Valley watershed near Madison, Wisconsin. She is also collaborating with Dr. Hem Singh Gehlot of Radjastan, India on conservation of Blackbuck in the Thar Desert and Indian Tigers in northern India.

Kickapoo Earth Day has support from numerous organizations and individuals throughout the watershed.

Juliee also has a B.S. from Viterbo in Natural Science & Environmental Studies. She will share her thoughts about indigenous struggles to protect the earth and the effects of the globalization project beginning with the rise of neo-liberalism during the Reagan administration and how this has affected community and environment here in the US and abroad.