Water Justice: Impacts on historically marginalized and rural communities

PSU Recreation Center, Rm 230

1800 SW 6th Ave. Portland, OR 97201

Speaker: Colleen Sanders, Climate Adaptation Planner, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Dept. of Natural Resources

“Water is Life: CTUIR Climate Adaptation Planning for Indigenous Food Systems”

CTUIR First Foods are place-based, and most indigenous food systems draw their nutrition from a highly diversified diet on a regional landscape as part of a reciprocal relationship between food, culture, and wellbeing. CTUIR is one of many tribes that is examining climate change impacts to not only First Foods themselves, but the built and social systems that support tribal member access to these Foods. This talk will provide an overview of the anticipated climate change impacts to CTUIR natural, built, and social resources, and celebrate adaptation strategies that the tribe already has in place to protect this vibrant Columbia River Plateau indigenous food system. Colleen has been working with CTUIR First Foods Policy Program for over two years, and has been engaged with local food systems and small scale agriculture for over a decade. She channeled her passion for wild systems into a Bachelors of Science in Wildlife Ecology from the University of British Columbia, and while working in the food industry after graduating, decided to translate her belief in food as the answer into a Masters of Science in Community Food Systems, and a graduate certificate in Sustainable Agriculture from Washington State University. Colleen has lived and worked on many small and family farm operations across the Pacific Northwest and in Central America, has been working with local food systems and policy in Umatilla County since 2013, and spends her non-existent free time building a closer connection with her food, land, and community in Pendleton, Oregon.