Millions of people are searching for a way to live that can meet their needs without undermining the life-support systems of the planet. Although there are no easy solutions to planetary overshoot or quick fixes to the culture behind it, bioregioning offers a deeply positive and systemic way forward. Dr. Lyla June Johnston, Samantha Power, and Brandon Letsinger offer insight and inspiring leadership for thinking and acting bioregionally.
A bioregion is a geographical area defined not by political boundaries, but by ecological systems. This seemingly simple concept – a cohesive unit on the Earth that generates a shared culture derived from natural features (e.g., waterways, plant and animal residents, climate, topography) – provides a foundation for generating a social movement, restoring damaged ecosystems, re-envisioning a healthy economy, and reconnecting people to the places they live. Living bioregionally is fundamentally different from living as a consumer in an economy or as a citizen in a nation.
In this 90-minute conversation, Lyla June, Samantha, and Brandon explored:
- How we can adopt and truly embody a bioregional worldview,
- How we can we share the bioregional worldview so that it gains mainstream appeal,
- The practicalities of living bioregionally, and
- Some key ways to make progress toward a bioregional society and culture that can thrive for ages.
Supporting organizations of this event: Cascadia Department of Bioregion,The Emergence Network,Regen Network, and Regenerosity.
About the panelists
Dr. Lyla June Johnston is an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. She blends her study of human ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives, and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.
Samantha Power is a Co-Founder and the Director of the BioFi Project and the Founder and Principal Consultant of Finance for Gaia. She is a regenerative economist, futurist, and bioregionalist based in Oakland, California, on the ancestral land of the Ohlone people. She is a co-author of the book Bioregional Financing Facilities: Reimagining Finance to Regenerate Our Planet. Samantha believes we need to build a new layer in the global financial architecture to halt the sixth mass extinction, and she is dedicating her life to doing just that.
Brandon Letsinger is the co-founder and administrator of Regenerate Cascadia. He is also the executive director of the Department of Bioregion, co-producer of the Cascadia Northwest Arts and Music Festival, and President of the Cascadia Association Football Federation. In the past, he also launched CascadiaNow! in 2005, which he stepped back from in 2017, as well as helping organize the Cascadia Poetry Festival, Cascadians Against White Supremacy, Yes Cascadia, Vote Cascadia, and the Cascadia Underground, an independent media center on Capitol Hill. He also runs a 6,400-square-foot art space in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. His work has been featured in Time Magazine, Vice, USA Today, Atlantic Monthly, NPR, BBC, National Journal, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Canadian Broadcasting, and a host of local newspapers and radio segments.
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