PRESS RELEASE
“Water’s Own Voice”
Conference Keynote Set
Kykotsmovi, Ariz., March 17 — “Water’s Own Voice: A Bridge Between Today’s Science and Indigenous Wisdom” is the topic of the keynote address at the Braiding Through Water: Weaving Traditional and Western Sciences and Knowledge Conference to be held in Flagstaff April 6-7, 2009. Jennifer Greene, Director of the Water Research Institute of Blue Hill (Maine) and Vice President of the Constructed Wetlands Group, will be the keynote speaker. The conference is sponsored by Black Mesa Trust, an indigenous (Hopi) environmental/cultural education organization founded by Vernon Masayesva.
Ms. Greene has lectured and taught widely in the United States and around the world on water and her studies in Flow Science, beginning with her early interest in the work of Theodor Schwenk, author of Sensitive Chaos, founder of the Institute for Flow Science in Herrischried, Germany, and continuing through her current research at WRI’s Drop Picture Method Laboratory at Blue Hill—the only such laboratory in the United States and on water phenomena.
Ms. Greene has lectured at four of the five World Water Forums (Mexico City, Mexico; Kyoto, Japan; The Hague, The Netherlands; and at the current Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey) as well as at major water conferences from India to South Africa and throughout the US and Europe. Her work on constructed wetlands as context for the rehabilitation of wastewater has resulted in the approval of over 200 facilities in twenty-three states and Canada with over three million square feet of constructed wetlands now in productive use.
During the conference, eighteen internationally acclaimed scientists, teachers, and artists including water science pioneer Masaru Emoto featured in the film What the ##*!!# Do We Know; Quiet Axis creator painter and environmental/space artist Lowry Burgess of Carnegie Mellon University; and artist/muralist Michael Kabotie of the Hopi Tribe will gather with Hopi traditional leaders and teachers, including Tobacco/Rabbit Clan at Hotevilla Keeper of the Pipe Jerry Honawa and former Hopi Chairman Vernon Masayesva, to explore what new paradigms of understanding arise from the braiding of Western and traditional Hopi sciences. The dialogue and discussions will be led by Leroy Little Bear, former Director of Native Studies at Harvard University and 2003 Canadian Aboriginal Person of the Year.
Detailed background information, news releases, registration forms, and an agenda for the April 6-7, 2009 Black Mesa Trust Braiding Through Water, Weaving Traditional and Western Sciences and Knowledge Conference are now available on the conference websitewww.waterbraidingconference.com. The conference is open to the public at the Radisson Woodlands Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Through dialogue and explorations focused on the two systems of knowing and their unique approaches to the nature, actions, and teachings of water, Core Dialogue Participants and Conference Attendees will share knowledge and experience to generate new understandings of the world in which we live. Unlike efforts to blend traditions, work at the conference will be more akin to the way in which dark and light threads are bound together before being woven into Hopi fabric. Like the single black-and-white strand that gives to Hopi weaving its unique character and endurance, the system of inquiry developed through conference dialogue will draw strength and quality from its respect for the integrity of both traditional and Western approaches. As with all Hopi weaving, the work will draw energy from the optimistic hope of the weaver that the braiding of two into one will yield a singularity stronger, more beautiful, and more responsive to contemporary need and challenge than could be created from either on its own.
Conference registration will be limited to 200 persons. It will include both adult learners and some 40 indigenous youth whose attendance is intended to deepen their appreciation of traditional science and knowing, enhance their sense of identity, and promote more purposeful learning, especially in science and mathematics, as prerequisites for their effective leadership of their peoples in the years ahead.
Registration forms and information are available at the conference website, www.waterbraidingconference.com as well as by e-mail atBraidingConference@gmail.com or by US mail at BMT Braiding Conference, P.O. Box 30396, Flagstaff, AZ 86003. Registration for the Conference–including all meals, banquet attendance, and materials–is $175, which may be paid by check or by credit card through Pay Pal.
Other members of the Core group of Dialogue Participants include: Shonto Begay, painter, muralist, Navajo Nation; Sat Bhattacharya, cancer research scientist, and President, International Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, and Harlem Children Society; Angelita Borbon, Indigena Sonoran Desert (Yoeme), Sacred Science consultant, and Conciencia Dialogue facilitator; Phillip Duran, Physicist, and Former Dean of Science and Mathematics, Northwest Indian College; Sandy Fox, Founder H2Om Water, Blue Water Planet Radio, and Love Planet Foundation; Jennifer Greene, Director, Water Research Institute of Blue Hill, and Vice President, The Constructed Wetlands Group, Inc.; Alan Hamilton, clinical psychologist, and President, Rio Grande Return; Jack Loeffler, environmental/Native American aural historian, and writer; Nina Perlmutter, Rabbi, and Emeritus Faculty and former Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Yavapai College; Al Qöyawayma, Hopi scientist, engineer, and artist, and Founding Director and Former Board Chair, American Indian Science and Engineering Society; Thomas Sisk, Professor of Ecology, and Director, Graduate Programs, Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University; and Victor Vernon Woolf, Founder, Holodynamics and the Science of Unfolding Potential.
The Conference is sponsored by Black Mesa Trust, The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, Grand Canyon Trust, Museum of Northern Arizona, and others. Funding for the conference is provided by Christensen Fund, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Marguerite Casey Foundation, SB Foundation, Seventh Generation Fund, Honor the Earth, and others, including individual philanthropists. Persons interested in providing additional support may contact Vernon Masayesva at kuuyi@aol.com
Garret Rosenblatt 7270 Slayton Ranch Road Flagstaff, AZ 86004 (928) 527-0341 (phone) (928) 527-0008 (fax)