I was invited to speak at REI Manhattan Beach and Tustin stores in Southern California last week. These events were the first ones to share my project that includes my work from 2010 with Native American women activists in our parks. It wasn’t easy to come up with a speech that summarizes my experience from my 2010 journey. Simply because I am not done yet.
I am still in the middle of producing my video documentary called Alcatraz – The Rock That Hit The Water. The trailer of this documentary was released last December. My goal is to publish it by sometime this spring. After that, I want to finish a couple of videos: one shares the voices of 27 Gwich’in women from Alaska speaking their relationship with the caribou and their rights to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil development; another one shares the story of Jamie Valadez and how the removal of dams on Elwha River in Olympic National Park would revitalize the culture of her nation. My hope is that by sharing these videos, people everywhere become more educated about the history of our public land from indigenous women’s perspective and how they continue to be the stewards of our land today. This is the key message that I also want to deliver at every presentation.
At REI Manhattan Beach and Tustin stores, I stepped into the crowd of people and shared my slides, stories and videos. At REI Tustin, I met a science teacher from one of the last Indian boarding schools in California. She came to the event because she was so excited about hearing stories of American Indian women in our parks. She said, “My students need to hear these stories. I would love you to come to our school and speak. I would love to promote your Alcatraz film and I would love to have a screening of the film at our school.” Yes, I would love it. I would like to visit more schools to deliver presentations. I want our students, especially girls to see role models who look, sound and live like them so they know they can make a difference in their community and environment.
It was great to hear the feedback from the teacher. I often hear a word ‘inspiring’ from people who came to my presentation. When I hear that word, I know I am doing my job – to inspire people to overcome any challenges and reach for their dreams – after all, if she can do it, you can too. But I often don’t know how the inspiration actually change them.
A couple of days ago, I received an email from Jackie who came to REI Tustin store to hear my speech. She said, “I was inspired by your travels and how affected you were by the people you met on your trip. I too would love to learn more about the contributions women are making around the world. I also wanted you to know you have inspired me to pursue a masters in geography which I was going to postpone otherwise. Thank you again for your work in this area.”
This is what keeps me going. This is the ultimate reason for why I do this: I want people to pursue their dreams regardless of the challenges they face. When that miracle occurs, everyone becomes a role model for people who surround him/her. People around Jackie may think, “If she can do it, I can too.”
I am looking forward to more speaking opportunities in the future – at school, university, organization, company – pretty much anywhere. My next presentation is in March at Sierra Club. It is free and everyone is welcome!