Indigenous Co-Innovation of Food, Energy and Water Systems (CoInFEWs) Workshop

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Indigenous nations and communities in the US face unique food, energy, water security (FEWS) challenges due to multiple factors including sovereign relations with the federal government, land based values, deep cultural relationships with the environment, lack of access to educational and economic opportunities, and low funding. Opportunities exist for universities to partner with tribal leaders to co-innovate on appropriate and sustainable FEWS solutions. An Indigenous Co-Innovation of Food, Energy and Water Systems (CoInFEWs) workshop will take place on-line from June 15-19. This workshop will be training students on systems thinking applied to co-design with Indigenous communities. The CoInFEWS workshop was originally to take place at Diné College on the Navajo Nation over four days. However, due to the circumstances under COVID-19, the shelter-in-place conditions, and the particularly negative impact that COVID-19 has had on the Navajo Nation, the CoInFEWS workshop has transitioned in two ways:

1. launch the workshop, initially online over a week, to be then continued with focused activities, over the summer
2. include resiliency to COVID-19 as an urgent topic area, in addition to Food, Energy, and Water Systems.

The contributing Universities and Partnerships are:

• University of California at Berkeley’s Blum Center in partnership with Pinoleville Pomo Nation
• University of Arizona in partnership with Diné College
• The University of South Florida and University of the Virgin Islands

The agenda for the meeting is as follow:

If interested, register by June 8, 2020: Register Here.
Information about the workshop is available on the website: https://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/academics/infews/workshop/agenda/