Professor Oren Lyons – American studies & faithkeeper of the turtle clan

Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons reflects on the costs of capitalism, greed and the win-lose business model that has led us to the brink of ecological — and spiritual — collapse. In outtakes from our amazing interview from Standing on Sacred Ground, Oren reflects on the importance of cooperation, the commons and looking ahead seven generations.

How did Oren first learn about his relationship to the Earth? Listen to his story...

This video was produced by the Sacred Land Film Project, http://sacredland.org, a project of Earth Island Institute. To deepen public understanding of sacred places, indigenous cultures and environmental justice, the Film Project produces a variety of media and educational materials—films, videos, DVDs, articles, photographs, school curricula and other materials. The Sacred Land Film Project uses journalism, organizing and activism to rekindle reverence for land, increase respect for cultural diversity, stimulate dialogue about connections between nature and culture, and protect sacred lands and diverse spiritual practices.

Its latest project, Standing on Sacred Ground, http://StandingOnSacredGround.org, is a four-part series that chronicles indigenous people in eight communities around the world standing up for their traditional sacred lands in defense of cultural survival, human rights and the environment. Watch them stand against industrial mega-projects, consumer culture, resource extraction, competing religions, tourists and climate change.

If you enjoyed this clip, please consider supporting our ongoing work by visiting http://StandingOnSacredGround.org and clicking Donate.

This short film is part of 8 short, testimonial films, on the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois.) The Iroquois are embarking on an historic project about the 500-year history of the Iroquois, their relationship with Europe and America and their prophesies that, if heard, can help us navigate the oncoming changes due to climate change. This series of short films is done via their testimony, and creates the space for the Iroquois to tell their story as they strive to uphold the traditions and the legacy of their people while also protecting the central tenents of their people and their relationship and care for the Earth.

This series was created by Tree Media in collaboration with Oren Lyons, Sid Hill and the Haudenosaunee. This series was created with the support of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and with the support of Executive Producer Oliver Stanton.  For more information: http://www.digitalwampum.org and http://www.treemedia.com

Oren is a faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs, Haudenosaunee
(Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy). He has been active in international Indigenous
rights and sovereignty issues for over four decades at the United Nations and other
international forums. He is a State University of New York (SUNY) distinguished services
professor emeritus of the University at Buffalo. He serves on the board of Bioneers an
environmental champion of the earth. Oren is chairman of the board of directors of
Plantagon International AB, the leader in urban agriculture, Plantagon is designed
to meet challenges of compounding human population, finite resources and global warming. For more information on these interviews as well as more interviews: http://www.treemedia.com/#!11th-hour-research-tapes/c18kw

Thanks to DanielTheDorian

Chief Oren Lyons, Jr., a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, addresses the Spotlight of Indigenous Peoples plenary at the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 19th.

Chairman Oren R. Lyons: Sustainable Leadership - UAAI 1st seminar
Organized by: Plantagon International Association

Oren R. Lyons, Jr. (born 1930) is a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Once a college lacrosse player, Lyons is now a recognized advocate of indigenous rights. In the 1960s, Lyons joined the Red Power movement and joined the Unity Caravan, which traveled through Indian Country to foster dialogue about traditional tribal values. In 1972, he was a leader in the Trail of Broken Treaties, a caravan to Washington DC to convince the Bureau of Indian Affairs to honor its treaties with Native American tribes. In 1977, Lyons helped create the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth at a meeting in Montana. Since then, the Circle has gathered annually at a different site in Indian country. In 1977, he also was part of the Haudenosaunee delegation to the first World Conference on Racism. For over fourteen years he has taken part in the meetings in Geneva of Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, and helped to establish the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982. In 1992 he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations where he opened the International Year of the World's Indigenous People. Lyons has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Syracuse University. He has been the recipient of the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, the National Audubon Society's Audubon Medal, the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations, and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human Rights. Lyons serves on the board of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and is board chairman of Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations.

Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (SLRG). He currently holds an ESRC Professorial Fellowship on Prosperity and Sustainability in the Green Economy (PASSAGE). Tim joined the University of Surrey in 1995 under a Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship on the thermodynamics of clean technology, after five years as Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute. In April 2000, he was appointed as Professor of Sustainable Development at Surrey, the first such chair to be created in the UK. Between January 2003 and April 2005, Tim held a research fellowship on the social psychology of sustainable consumption, supported by the ESRC's Sustainable Technologies Programme. His monograph Motivating Sustainable Consumption (2005) drawing on research from that period is still widely cited in both academic and policy circles and was influential in framing the Changing Behaviours chapter in the 2005 UK Sustainable Development Strategy. During his time at the Stockholm Environment Institute, he pioneered the concept of preventative environmental management outlined in his 1996 book Material Concerns -- pollution profit and quality of life. In 1996 he co-authored (with Nic Marks) the first Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for the UK and has continued to work closely with the New Economics Foundation and others on measures of sustainable wellbeing at national and regional level. During the last decade, he has led numerous research and policy initiatives on sustainable consumption and production in the UK and abroad. From June 2004 to March 2006, he was the sole academic representative on the UK Sustainable Consumption Round Table and co-authored their influential report I will if you will. In 2006 Tim published the Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Consumption. He led the team which developed the Surrey Environmental Lifestyle Mapping (SELMA) model used to estimate the UK's 'carbon footprint' for the Carbon Trust. He is a co-author of the WorldWatch Institute's influential State of the World 2008 on sustainable economies. From 2006 to 2009, he led the SDC's Redefining Prosperity programme and authored the controversial report, later published by Earthscan as Prosperity without Growth -- economics for a finite planet.

Seneca Chief Oren Lyons speaks on the state of the world's resources and the challenges humanity will face in the next 50 years.

Favorite Quotes: "Fish are our family, it's not a resource it's family. It requires all the respect."

"The world, no matter what damage you think you've done to it will regenerate...except there won't be any people."

"When do you cease to be a CEO and become a grandfather?"

"You MUST have a moral society, or you won't have any."

"Every day you don't do what's right is a day you've lost an option; and you're loosing options every day."