Ecological Amnesia: Winona LaDuke (#104 Encore)
“I don’t think there’s a lot of excuses, frankly, for not doing the right thing.”
Anishinaabe orator, author, economist and activist Winona LaDuke doesn’t mince words in her quest to light a path for us to “hang around another thousand years.” Winona observes that we are “doing things only addicts would do,” including sedating ourselves with a lot of information and television. “Your ecosystem seems to be your mall,” LaDuke tell us.
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The author of Recovering the Sacred tells us we need a society that is “respectful, resilient, and ecologically and socially responsible.” Instead, “we have a society based on conquest, on consuming more than it needs.” We emphasize “quarterly profits over intergenerational responsibility.”
This interview, recorded in the Spring of 2015, confirms that “the tenets of a sustainable economy are found in indigenous thinking.” The conversation ranges from rights, responsibilities, and cultural baggage, to globalization, the pros and cons of urbanization, and the intelligence of economic growth as a public policy goal.
More About Winona LaDuke:
Winona is a graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities with advanced degrees in rural economic development. Founder and Co-Director of Honor the Earth, LaDuke has devoted her life to protecting the lands and life ways of Native communities. She is a leader on the issues of culturally-based sustainable development strategies, renewable
energy and food systems.
In 1994, Time magazine named her one of America’s fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age, and in 1997 LaDuke was named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year. Other honors include the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Thomas Merton Award, the Ann Bancroft Award, the Global Green Award, and the prestigious International Slow Food Award. In 2007, Winona LaDuke was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
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