Join Native leaders from across the country, former miners and steelworkers, youth activists and frontline community members for a day of action outside the Shale Insight gas and petrochemical conference.
12pm, Native-led Water Ceremony
1pm, March
2pm, Rally and Music
7pm, Panel discussion, Decolonizing Green Power
With a major petrochemical build-out slated for the Ohio River Valley over the next few years, Pittsburgh is becoming a key site of struggle over the future of energy. On the October 23rd the annual Shale Insight Conference will bring top oil and gas executives and government officials to Pittsburgh, with an aim of bending the national and international energy future in the direction of the extractive industries. Proposed as a low-carbon alternative to oil, shale gas is part of a climate change adaptation strategy that expands and diversifies the market for fossil fuels while broadening our collective dependency on nonrenewables. Climate scientists, Native Nations, and environmental organizations have long warned that for there to be a planetary future, fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. The future of energy requires not only a break from fossil fuels, but also from the extractive relation to the land that has underpinned the twin projects of capitalism and settler colonialism for centuries.
Water is Life!
12PM
Native Water Ceremony
@ Point State Park Fountain
Stand in solidarity with members of Seneca Nation and other Native and faith leaders to protect our rivers and waters. If you would like to participate, bring a vial with water from a stream near your home along with a prayer or your intentions.
The water ceremony will be performed by Cheryl Angel (Sicangu Lakota), an elder of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, mother of five children, and lifelong devoted water protector active at the Standing Rock camp and the nonviolent resistance to the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.
1PM
March down Liberty Avenue
We will march from Point State Park down Liberty Avenue past the EQT global headquarters to 10th Street where we will walk through the tunnel under the David L. Lawrence Convention Center to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail along the Allegheny River.
2PM
Rally and Music
Join us for a rally outside the Shale gas and petrochemical conference at the Convention Center to hear speakers representing Native communities, former miners and steelworkers, youth leaders, frontline community members and others. Enjoy music performances, drumming and dancing, including a performance by members of the Afro Yaqui Music Collective.
7PM
Panel discussion: Decolonizing Green Power
@ Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden
Renewable energy is a new frontier for economic growth. Facing increased global pressure to curb emissions, the companies most responsible for planetary global warming are erecting wind farms, building solar panels, and expanding renewable energy infrastructure without reducing their investments in the extraction economy. These companies are not the only ones investing in the power of the sun. Building on centuries of Indigenous knowledge about the sun’s power to give life, Indigenous communities around the continent are modeling a solar energy future that breaks from the profit motive. This panel considers green energy as a site for decolonization, asking how Indigenous activists are advancing an alternative future for green energy by connecting green technology development to the grassroots movements resisting fossil fuel expansion.
Doors open at 6:30pm. RSVP is encouraged. Email market@phipps.conservatory.org to make a reservation.
