Sharon Day, executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, kicked off Macalester’s celebration of Women’s History Month on March 4 with a speech in the Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel about the connections among culture, individual activism and the environment.

Using personal anecdotes and examples, Day connected cultural attitudes to treatment of the environment and foreign policy issues. She also discussed ways that individuals can use direct action to incite change.

Day related humility to the way people treat the environment. “The planets, plants, animals all came before humans; everything in the universe can survive without us,” she said. “We think everything is here for us; we simply take things.”

Emphasizing the role of the individual in inciting change, Day said, “We can’t have a revolution without strong warriors.” She related the story of several women who walked around Lake Superior with a bucket of water to raise awareness about the Great Lakes as a freshwater source. She stressed that she believes it was significant that the women did what they thought was important to help their cause.

Giving an example of the potential effectiveness of minor changes, Day cited the small-scale PVC piping irrigation systems in some developing countries as an example of the potential of minor changes.

Addressing the rights of indigenous peoples, Day contended that many lack an understanding of U.S. history, referencing what she called the genocide of America’s indigenous peoples and the genocide continued by our military today around the globe. She linked this with what she called “the ingrained belief that we are right and powerful; no country in the world is not in sight of our weapons of mass destruction.”

“What is this belief that causes us to think we’re right, that we have the right to interfere, and to make up stories and reasons for the interventions?” Day asked. “We’re in cahoots with former murderers while ‘defending democracy’ in Haiti. It never bothers us that we help put these types of people into power.”

Feminists in Action (FIA) and Macalester’s Community Service Office (CSO) are cosponsoring Women’s History Month. FIA co-chair Elana Wolowitz ’04 said that she sought out Day because she is a local activist and offers a different perspective than what she called “the world of academia.”

Ruth Strickland ’07 heard about the event in her Rebirth of Native Activism class. She said she enjoyed the way Day related personal stories.

Assistant Psychology Professor Joan Ostrove said that she “appreciated Day’s vision of the world and the insight it brings to individuals and relationships.”

Other Women’s History Month events included a presentation on March 8 by representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club. On March 11, the CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota gave a career talk on philanthropy after graduation.

FIA and the CSO have also planned a training session on the tools of grassroots organizing as part of their Women’s History Month schedule. “This is an event meant for a cross section of people with varying levels of community organizing experience and student organization involvement,” Wolowitz said. “It’s not electorally focused and is accessible to activists disillusioned with the political process.”

The training session is scheduled for March 27, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Olin-Rice 150. Interested students should pre-register by e-mailing FIA@macalester.edu.