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Native Peoples

Water Celebration at Stephenson Island

Date: 
Friday, July 16, 2021 - 12:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: 
Stephenson Island, Marinette, WI

Water Celebration and Bridge Walk

Friday, July 16

Stop the Back 40 Mine

  • 12:00 pm: Event Opening - Bring Your Lawn Chairs
  • 1:30 pm: Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Al Gedicks
  • 1:50 pm: Western Mining Action Network (WMAN) Speech
  • 2:10 pm: Menominee Nation Speech
  • 2:30 pm: BLESSING OF THE WATERS CEREMONY
  • 3:30 pm: “River’s Edge Trio” Performance & Raffle Drawing - Custom-Built Guitars appraised at $4,500.00
  • 4:00 pm: Bridge Walk w/ Signs to the demonstration site
  • 6:00 pm: Return to Stephenson Island to adjourn, with our thanks!!

Car-pooling from the Fox Valley is being arranged. Leave a message at https://esther-foxvalley.org/ejtf if you are interested.

Sponsored By: Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Inc.

Website: https://jointherivercoalition.org

Rally: MMIWG2S Billboards for Change

Date: 
Saturday, June 12, 2021 - 9:30am - 10:30am
Location: 
Urban Evolution parking lot, 2401 W College Ave, Appleton

With the Waking Women Healing Institute and the Native Justice Coalition ESTHER is participating in a billboard campaign to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2-spirits. A new billboard in this campaign has just been placed on West College Avenue in Appleton, near the Urban Evolution store.

Join us for a rally Saturday morning, June 12, from 9:30-10:30 am, to dedicate the billboard and learn more about the campaign to raise awareness across the Great Lakes about this issue. “No more silence. No more stolen sisters.”

Help spread the word. Download and share the attached flier.

Vigil: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Posted in
Date: 
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - 7:30pm
Location: 
Riverside Park, 2 N Main St, Oshkosh

Bridge lights across the city of Oshkosh will turn red at dusk on Wednesday, May 5 to commemorate the Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This local and national day of action serves to draw attention to the underreported and disproportionate rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls. All community members are invited to a vigil and lighting ceremony at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, May 5 at Riverside Park in Oshkosh. The event will also be live-streamed via the ESTHER Facebook page.

This year’s efforts in Oshkosh are being organized by ESTHER and Waking Women’s Healing Institute. To learn more, visit the ESTHER webpage (esther-foxvalley.org) or the Waking Women’s Healing Institute webpage (www.wakingwomenhealingint.org)

May 5 Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Posted in

https://esther-foxvalley.org/

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2021

Oshkosh Bridge Lights Turn Red on May 5th to Honor
Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Oshkosh, Wisconsin - Bridge lights across the city will turn red at dusk on Wednesday, May 5 to commemorate the Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This local and national day of action serves to draw attention to the underreported and disproportionate rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls. All community members are invited to a vigil and lighting ceremony at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, May 5, at Riverside Park in Oshkosh. The event will also be live-streamed via the ESTHER Facebook page

Too long our communities have been silent about the high incidence of violence against indigenous peoples, especially women, girls, and two-spirit people. In 2016, the National Crime Information Center reported nearly 6,000 cases of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, yet the U.S. Department of Justice was tracking only about 100 cases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, homicide is the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women between 10 and 24 years of age and the fifth leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native women between 25 and 34 years of age.

Action for Healing and Justice for MMIWG2S

Date: 
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 (All day)

ESTHER and Waking Women Healing Institute are teaming up to help create awareness for MMIW and ask that you join us in this cause. We are petitioning agencies, towns, villages, cities, counties and tribal nations to make public proclamations declaring May 5th as Day of Awareness for Missing Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit. In addition to the proclamation, we ask that, within your area, you light up structures/bridges/buildings red as a sign of respect, healing, and awareness of the many issues of MMIW.

Please sign this petition on change.org. The petition will be used to show widespread support for MMIW, and hopefully induce urgency to create meaningful changes to bring both justice and healing.

Watch for information about a Facebook Live event in Oshkosh on May 5, sponsored by ESTHER’s Mental Health Task Force and Oshkosh ESTHER.

Global Developments in the Rights of Nature: Tribal Nations

Date: 
Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Location: 
Zoom Meeting

Hosted by the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.

Join in this fantastic free webinar with Frank Bibeau, Attorney for the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and with Honor the Earth, and Guy Reiter, Executive Director of Menīkānaehkem and Menominee Indian Organizer, both of whom have worked with the center for CDER.

Frank and Guy are advancing the rights of nature in tribal law and governance – including Frank’s work with the White Earth Band’s “Rights of Manoomin” law, and Guy with the “Rights of the Menominee River” resolution. Both may be found in CDER’s law library.

The webinar will be held on Zoom. All are welcome. No charge. Register here.

Sustainable Saturday Night: Indigenous-Led Resistance to Extraction Industries

Date: 
Saturday, March 27, 2021 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: 
Zoom Meeting

ESTHER’s Environmental Justice Task Force is pleased to bring this event your attention

About this eventOur Revolution

Extraction industries are destroying people and planet for the profit of a few. Whether it's Enbridge’s Line 3 and Line 5 to carry dirty tar sands oil across Wisconsin for export or the Back Forty metallic sulfide mine that threatens the Menominee River, extraction is running rampant in our state with little to no oversight.

But the people, led by indigenous groups, are fighting back. In this event, Our Wisconsin Revolution is joining with Building Unity’s Sustainable Saturday Night series to present a town hall on Indigenous-Led Resistance to Extraction Industries.

Join us for the first half hour to hear original music about Line 3 from singer-songwriter Larry Long, as well as testimony from two recent visitors to the Line 3 resistance camps: Justice Peche, OWR board member and Green Bay chapter leader, and Tim Cordon, Social Justice Coordinator at First Unitarian Society of Madison.

Then our program will get underway at 6:30 p.m. with a lineup of speakers that includes:

Vigil: Taking a Stand for Our Land and Bodies

Posted in
Date: 
Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Location: 
Zoom Event with Livestream

MMIWG2S: TAKING A STAND FOR OUR LAND AND BODIES

Missing Murdered Indigenous WomenFacebook Video ThumbnailA Virtual Rally and Webinar

With Live Rally Participation from Appleton and Madison

If you were unable to participate in the rally, you can now watch the recording on Facebook here

 

Partners: ESTHER, Waking Women Healing Institute, Native Justice Coalition, WCASA, Menominee County HSD Family Advocacy Center, Lorraine Shooter-M.A.D., Native Lives Matter Coalition

Logos of event partners

Kristin Welch Will Receive ESTHER’s Community Leadership Award

We Are Proud to Present this Award to Kristen Welch

ESTHER is proud to present its Community Leadership Award to Kristen Welch a member of the Menominee Nation. She  is a trained Community Organizer with the Indigenous led non-profit Menīkānaehkem, and she is also a lead organizer for the Womens Leadership Cohort MMIW. Her work includes revitalizing traditional matriarchal roles within indigenous communities through identity work, systems change, and advocacy for survivors of violence. 

The Women's Leadership Cohort Combats the Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

The Womens Leadership Cohort combats the MMIW epidemic by creating access to traditional knowledge, community organizing, policy change and community education. Kristin helps provide training in advocacy skills, power mapping, policy work, wellness work, and group facilitation, to empower Indigenous women organizers to create meaningful campaigns for social change.

Many Years of Experience in Mental Health Work

She currently sits on the Governors Council on Mental Health and is the co-chair for the Adult Quality Committee.  She has 10 years of experience in mental health, family wrap around care (CST), AODA prevention, and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault advocacy before becoming a grassroots organizer. 

Work Using Traditional Native American Methods and Approaches

She is a proud mother of three, and a member of the healing society Three Fires Confederacy Midewewin Lodge.  She believes strongly that creating partnerships with both formal and informal supports within tribal communities will help build and strengthen an Ecosystem of Care that is equitable, easily accessible, and sustainable. Her work utilizes Indigenous wellness models that offer alternate pathways to healing and are critical for healing and recovery work within tribal communities and for those who serve Indigenous peoples.

When asked why she chose this work, Kristen replied, “We got started out of a necessity.  So many women and families were impacted directly or indirectly.  We had to make sure that Indigenous women were leading the fight and lifting up our families.”

 

Advocating for the Rights of Nature

Date: 
Monday, October 26, 2020 - 6:30pm
Location: 
Zoom Meeting

Advocating for the Rights of Nature

Mari Margil

A presentation and discussion with Mari Margil, Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. No charge. All are welcome

Registration required. Zoom link will be sent before the event to all who register.

Register Now

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