Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by: John Greenman
This year’s HOPE festival keynote speech from indigenous rights lawyer and activist, Sherri Mitchell. Born and raised on Indian Island, Sherri graduated from the University of Maine magna cum laude and went on to the University of Arizona, where she earned her law degree and a certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy. She is the director of the Land Peace Foundation, dedicated to the protection of indigenous land rights and works with the Wabanaki confederacy in Maine and the Maritimes and has been involved with the Idle No More movement, launched in the winter of 2012 in Canada to resist Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s policies dismantling the rights of First Nations peoples. She is director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection of indigenous land rights, and works with the Wabanaki confederacy in Maine and the Maritimes.
FMI: http://landpeacefoundation.net/
The 20th annual free HOPE (Help Organize Peace Earthwide) Festival was held on April 26th at the University of Maine in Orono. The festival is held each year “to celebrate Earth Day and all the good work being done my more than 60 organizations working to take care of the earth and each other. The festival offers information, entertainment and interaction.” It is sponsored by the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine
FMI: www.peacectr.org
(NOTE: There are 2 audio files attached to this post. The shorter one is the Bangor Area Commons show as it aired. The longer file is the minimally edited full speech)