The 2008 Indigenous Earth Day Summit is April 22-23 at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI

This summit is made possible by the Center for Native American Studies, the Environmental Science Program and the Office of International Programs.

This summit is a call to action on Indigenous environmental issues in the Great Lakes area, on Turtle Island and around the world.

An Aboriginal Australian delegation from the Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways project will be featured as keynote presenters and will provide musical entertainment.

Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways project

The day/time will be announced soon.

Turtle Island Project Presentation #1

In the Spirit of the Earth Ecologico-Poetics: Native American story telling and the Ecological Challenge

The first presentation will focus on the relationship between language and earth based spiritualities.

Rev. Hubbard will first establish the many similarities between the functioning of a language and a religion within a particular cultural context - suggesting that the original language of human beings is poetry, and that poetry (mytho-poetics) is the true and proper language of religious consciousness.

Dr. Hubbard speak of the limitations of rational discourse (the inability of logic to express the truth of mythos) and suggest that indigenous language, as expressed through the many stories involving human and animal interactions, holds the key to the creation of an ecological-poetic understanding of the world, an understanding that can function as a corrective to traditional Euro-American forms of religion and science, which have helped to contribute to the current global ecological crisis.

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Turtle Island Project Presentation #2:

In The Absence of the Sacred Ecologico-Spirituality: Sacred Land and the struggle for Human Liberation

"Sacred places are the foundation of all other beliefs and practices because they represent the presence of the sacred in our lives." Vine Deloria, Jr.

Human societies have traditionally made either nature or history determinative of reality.

It is clear that traditional western forms of spirituality prefer history as the source of divine revelation, and hence use temporal metaphors for expressing their sense of the sacred, which is often understood as existing apart from the natural processes of the physical world.

Indigenous forms of spirituality prefer nature as a source of sacred knowledge, and use primarily temporal metaphors to express their sense of the sacred, which are often tied to a specific time and a specific place.

In this presentation, Dr. Hubbard will the examine the implications of these differing metaphors in relationship to the idea of sacred Land.

What is the sacred?

What do we mean by sacred land?

Is it possible for modern Euro-Americans to understand such a concept?

What is the relationship of Sacred Lands to global ecological concerns?

Does western culture, still have a notion of the sacred?

Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard bio:

Lynn Hubbard M.DIV. D.MIN. is founder and director of the Turtle Island Project (TIP) in Munising, Michigan.

He is currently the minister of Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising.

In addition to graduating from Valparaiso University and holding advanced degrees from the Lutheran School of Theology and Chicago Theological Seminary, Lynn has studied at the Pedagogishe Hochschule in Reutlingen, German, the Religious Studies Department at the University of Indiana, and the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.

For many years he worked as the Associate Dean of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.

He has served a number of churches throughout the Chicago area, and lived on the island of St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, pastoring two Afro-Caribbean Lutheran congregations.

He has had extensive experience in both the interfaith and ecumenical communities, and served as the Director of Development for the Parliament of World’s Religious.

Most recently, in working in his capacity as spiritual director for Juvenile sex offenders, he has given national and international conference presentations on "Creating Ritual Process for Juvenile Sex Offenders from a Cross Cultural Perspective".

He travels regularly to the Lakota Sioux reservations in South Dakota, where he helps prepare graduate theological students in cross-cultural ministerial training.

He has been honored by members of the Sigancu tribe of the Lakota people in being asked to serve as a fire keeper for their Sundance ceremonies.

Summary of Turtle Island Project websites & TV (video) sites:

Turtle Island Project website

Turtle Island Project Whispering Turtle website

Turtle Island TV on Blip TV

Turtle Island TV on you tube

Turtle Island Project on myspace

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Topics include:

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (T.E.K.)

Education and Indigenous environmental concerns

History of industrialism, industrial threats, Indigenous peoples and the Earth Economic globalization and Indigenous peoples

Indigenous languages and the Earth Solutions in Indigenous cultures to environmental problems

Indigenous subsistence rights and protection of sacred land Global poisoning and the impact on Indigenous peoples Climate change and its impact on Indigenous peoples

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Center for Native American Studies

Northern Michigan University

April Lindala, Director

112F Whitman Hall

Marquette, MI

49855

For more information:

NMU Center for Native American Studies homepage

NMU 2008 Indigenous Earth Day Summit page

Office: 906-227-1397

Fax: 906-227-1396