What's Happening

June 4, 2024, New York, New York – Indigenous People need to be accepted for who they are and for the gifts they bring to the world and need to be offered a place at the table, especially when decisions are being made in the area of sustainability and restoring Earth. 

Those were the takeaways of Sister Mary Rae Waller, OP, and Rose Johnson after they attended the first week of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Sister Durstyne Farnan, OP, Dominican UN representative, and the Dominican Leadership Conference (DLC) sponsored the women’s attendance at the Forum. (Read more about Sister Durstyne’s experience of the Forum.) 

Rose, of Comanche and Aztec descent, is a member of the People of the Four Winds, an evolving group based in Adrian and composed of people with Native ancestry, people who serve in Native communities, and other interested people. Sister Mary Rae is of Cherokee heritage. 

The 23rd session of the forum, held April 15-26, 2024, drew 2,000 participants from around the world in addition to UN delegates. The theme was “Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination in the Context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” 

The United Nations first issued its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The formal UN proceedings focused on ways for Indigenous Peoples to enhance their rights to self-determination through such means equal access to funding.

Rose and Sister Mary Rae attended side events – workshops and forums offered by civil society, UN governments, and their NGO partners. They came away from the Forum with new perspectives – and a new understanding of their identity. In the opening session, David Choquehuanca, Vice President of Bolivia, encouraged participants to embrace awareness of themselves as “Ancestral Peoples” rather than Indigenous Peoples. 

“Indigenous relates to something that’s boxed, put away,” Sister Mary Rae explained. “Ancestral embodies memories of healing, memories as guardians of life relationships on Earth.”

We speak for ourselves, Rose said. “We talk about our own ideas as ours. It comes from generational ancestors. We all have a gift of some sort that we can speak out about.” 

Rose and Sister Mary Rae focused on the need for the governments and the mainstream culture to listen to Indigenous Peoples in the area of the environment. “We ask that you see we carry in our genes the memory of how to keep in balance,” Sister Mary Rae said. “We ask of you, let us bring our insight, our experience, and our knowledge to help save Earth. We’re not asking that you don’t have all your advancements but invite us to the table.”

Much of the conference focused on climate change and on mining companies that have been moving into native lands without their permission. Rose and Sister Mary Rae attended a reflection session by Indigenous Peoples of South America, focusing on mining practices and on mining companies that came into the Amazon 10 years ago, cutting down trees and bulldozing. The UN began to monitor the mining companies, beginning a process in which the miners would first have to engage with the Indigenous Peoples.  

“What they’re doing is killing the bloodline of Earth with their mining and stripping,” Rose said. “Mother Earth gives us everything we need when we need it … Mother Earth can heal herself if you give her time.”

Sister Mary Rae gave an example of the healing power of Earth. Part of the Amazon rainforest was destroyed and went barren, she said. “The ancestral people came in, began working with and nurturing her, and she came back to life. Earth has her own life force and if it’s nurtured and brought back into balance, it can be restored,” she said.

Rose and Sister Mary Rae also reflected on efforts in the past to kill the culture of Indigenous Peoples. Rose pointed to the boarding schools in the United States that tried to force children to adapt to the white European culture. Some children lost the use of their native language in the boarding schools, she added.

The boarding schools followed the notion of “kill the Indian and save the person,” Rose said. But “you can’t kill the Indian. You can’t kill what God made in our hearts. You can’t kill our soul, even though they tried.”

Rose added that she felt safe at the UN. “I was amazed,” she said. “The first thing I thought of was that could have been shot not long ago for all of us being together.” In the opening session that began with a procession that included an Ecuadorian drum and a pan flute, “I knew I was in the right place,” Rose said. “It was really an interesting time, and I definitely would do it again.” 

Sister Mary Rae sees hope in the healing of relationships between Indigenous Peoples and people of the dominant culture. “The advances in society have given us the opportunity, and the mindset of the United Nations has really helped so much with advancing the rights of all the people,” she said. “We still have a long way to go, and I felt the commitment to stay the course.”
 

May 23, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – Students from Barry University in Miami, Florida, and Siena Heights University in Adrian extended their education beyond the spring semester by participating in the Environmental Leadership Experience (ELE) offered by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Both universities were founded by and are sponsored by the Congregation.

From May 13 to 18, 2024, the students toured the Motherhouse Permaculture site, planted a “pocket forest,” learned about carbon sequestration and measured trees for their sequestration potential, planted trees near the Congregation’s cemetery to help control erosion, analyzed pond water, helped to release fish into the pond, and enjoyed field trips to local areas such as a vernal pool at Heritage Park in Adrian and Hidden Lake Gardens in Brooklyn, Michigan. 

The eight Barry University students, two Siena Heights University students, and their mentors concluded the formal portion of their week on May 17 with a lively and enlightening presentation to the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

The students and their mentors were accompanied by and learned from Brad Frank, Director of the Office of Sustainability; Mike Walters, Permaculture Specialist; Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor and former Director of the Office of Sustainability. Mentors attending were Celeste Landeros, PhD, Professor of English and Humanities, and Betsy Thomas, Assistant Vice-President of Enrollment Services, from Barry University, and Jeffrey Lake, Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Siena Heights University. 

In preparation for the week, Mike had 700 trees in cold storage, ready to be planted at the cemetery and in Permaculture as a pocket forest. “A pocket forest is an intensely planted woodland area,” in which numerous trees are planted typically in an 800- to 1,200-square-foot area, about three per square meter, Mike explained. “You plant everything really close and they race for the sun. Maintain it for three years and it’s self-sustaining.” He said pocket forests “shortcut the process” of growing a forest; pocket forests mature in only 15 to 20 years.

“The planting of the pocket forest is for 100 years in the future,” Brad explained. “It’s for the next generations.”

This year’s ELE participants also had the unique experience of introducing fish into the pond located on the Motherhouse land. The fish were scheduled to arrive at the pond during the ELE so that students could learn about how the fish provide benefits to the local ecosystem. “The fish are complementing the entire habitat,” Brad said, explaining that they “increase the biodiversity within the pond. This is habitat restoration.” 

The ELE is “set up to be an outside experience, getting your hands dirty,” Brad said in an interview prior to ELE. But he also hoped to go beyond the physical experience. “I’m going to be more cognizant this year to interweave throughout the week the practice of sustainable lifestyles … and encourage sustainable living,” Brad said. “That will be an undercurrent for me, in addition to mentioning the most vulnerable groups of people who are impacted by climate change.”

The intended lessons were not lost on the students. Caleb, a freshman studying computer science and music at Barry University and a member of Barry’s environmental Green Team, said he was interested in coming to Michigan to participate in the ELE. “Regardless of our profession, it’s very important to learn about environmental sustainability because we all live on the same Earth,” he said. “We’re going to be living on it and we want to make sure it’s a safe and clean environment.”

Breauna, a senior at Barry University studying business management, said she’s been practicing sustainability on her own. “We all play our part and we all have to do more to end climate change,” she said. 

The students also appreciated the opportunity to visit Michigan and to get to know some of the Adrian Dominican Sisters on campus. Faiyaz, a freshman chemistry major, was impressed by the “warm welcome I received” from the Sisters. “I also love the most how everyone in this community cares so much about nature, and I share that same passion.”

Read more about ELE from the students who wrote a blog and created a video of their experience.