I am thankful to have the opportunity to write to you again as I complete my fourth year as Executive Director of Bioneers. What a journey the past few years have been for people and planet.
Most of all, I want to thank each of you, the members of the Bioneers community, faculty and staff for making each of these years possible with the tapestry of support you provide.
Bioneers have been gathering for 28 years, ever since Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons launched this remarkable event, this “movement of movements” and “network of networks,” and the guiding principle was to reveal to world the most promising solutions to humanity’s most pressing crises and to help propel those solutions forward.
We Bioneers enter into 2018 against the backdrop of a great deal of uncertainty and upheaval all around us, marked not only by ever more unprecedented climatic events but by more global political turbulence than we have seen in generations.
But this era has provided the potential for deep positive transformation, for a new era based on clean energy, social justice and awakened compassion. And that era is ready to be born out of this seeming chaos.
I mentioned at Bioneers this past October that I had the great honor of being hosted by several members of the Navajo and Hopi Nations on the rim of the Grand Canyon in the Four Corners region as part of the Bioneers Kinship Circle — a trip organized by the Bioneers Indigeneity Program in partnership with the Colorado Plateau Intertribal Conversations Group.
In these front line communities that have often born the brunt of the worst racism and injustice our society could throw at them, there is, at least among the elders I met, an inner core of extraordinary calm, centered resilience.
Their people survived an attempted genocide and have lived under brutal oppression for hundreds of years, and they have, as a result, developed a very long, broad view of the sweep of history.
These elders made it clear to me by their living example that we must never forget to love the Earth, the land and its bounty, and the glorious magic of life as often as we can even in the midst of crisis.
I take this lesson with me as we turn the Gregorian Calendar page into 2018. I hope you will join me in staying anchored by this inner resilience.
Thank you for being such a vital part of the Bioneers community, and especially for your support and investment and partnership in making Bioneers a vibrant, healthy organization.
Sincerely,
Joshua Fouts
Executive Director, Bioneers
