Refinery Corridor Healing Walks 2017

Welcome to the 2017 Connect the Dots
Refinery Corridor Healing Walks

#1 - Saturday, April 8th
#2 - Saturday, May 20
#3 - Sunday, June 11
#4 - Sunday, July 16

There are 5 oil refineries along the Northeast San Francisco Bay
Tesoro - Shell - Valero - Conoco Phillips 66 - Chevron
Plus a Koch Bros. Petcoke Facility & proposal for the WesPac oil terminal in Pittsburg
WesPac Oil Terminal NO LONGER PROPOSED - THE PEOPLE WON!
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These are Nonviolent Walks Led by Native Americans in Prayer
Join us as we walk in prayer & conversation for:

Clean Air, Water & Soil
Safe Jobs, Roads, Railroads & Waterways
A Vibrantly Healthy Future for All Children
A Just Transition to Safe & Sustainable Energy
Join us:
You can join us at any time during the day of the walks.
Call this number for questions about the walk and to find out where we are the day of the walks
Please do not call to ask WHEN we will be at a certain place because we won't know!
(510) 619-8279 - Melinda Micco, Idle No More SF Bay

We would like to thank our sponsors for helping make the walks happen:
The Peoples Life Fund

And 350.org for sponsoring the travel for our Indigenous frontline warrior guests:

Sweetwater Nannauk, Water protector, Idle No More Washington, signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth

Cherri Foyntlin, Pipeline fighter, water protector, Bold Louisiana and signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty

Isaiah, Suzaatah Horinek and sweet Lola

Lakota Harden at an Idle No More Rally in Sacramento, CA, 2013

Gloria Ushigua Santi Gloria Ushigua is Coordinator of the Sápara women's organization Ashiñwaka, which defends Sápara people's ancestral land and environmental rights in the province of Pastaza, Ecuador. Since 2010, the human rights defender has been invested in the defense of her community. Her life is threatened because of her work in defending her community from the fossil fuel industry.

In January of 2014, Idle No More SF Bay, a group of Native Americans and our allies, decided to bring awareness to the five refineries along the Northeast San Francisco Bay which most people living in the Bay Area were not aware existed. Many people were aware of the Chevron refinery in Richmond because it exploded on August 6, 2012 sending over 15,000 community members to the hospitals. After the first year we decided to complete a series of four years of the walks from 2014 to 2017. This is our final year of organizing the walks.

Our intention was to raise awareness of the fossil fuel corridor, the communities in these sacrifice zones, and the devastating health effects of those living near the refineries. We walk along the land in prayer for those living near the refineries, including our non-human relatives who are also impacted, the refinery workers, and for high levels of maintenance at the facilities so that what happened in 2012 would never happen again. We also pray for a just transition toward a safe and clean renewable energy future, a transition to healthy jobs for people who work in the fossil fuel industry and an immediate transition off of fossil fuels in order to preserve a survivable climate.

The day begins with prayers for the water. Participants are invited to bring water from their watershed to join the waters that are collected from the Bay or Delta.   The water is carried in a bucket along the route with everyone encouraged to take a turn carrying the bucket and offering their prayers to the water. The day ends with joining the water in the bucket back to the Bay. It is our understanding that the spirits of the water which we have carried communicate with the spirits of the water in the Bay to let them know that there are human beings working to protect and renew them.

We walk in prayer, contemplation and quiet conversation for clean air, water, soil and a vibrantly healthy future for those alive now and those to come.

There are medics and support vehicles along the walks. Walkers are encouraged to take a break in the support vehicles as necessary. There is also a feast at the end of each walk and an art project where walkers are invited to draw or write their visions of their communities beyond fossil fuels on muslin squares which are being sewn into beautiful quilts.

We invite you to like the Refinery Corridor Healing Walk Facebook page for current information about the walks, photos, updates, etc.

Indigenous guests are invited from communities on the frontlines of the struggles with the fossil fuel industry to make the connections across the Americas that all of our struggles are one.   This year, all of our guests are signatories on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty and include:

Walk #1: Sweetwater Nannauk is an Idle No More activist who lives in Washington and works on keeping the Salish Sea fossil free.   She also travels the country conducting workshops on decolonization, non-Native allyship, tribal sovereignty rights, and traditional culture.   She has organized over 50 nonviolent direct actions addressing local and global issues.

Walk #2: Cherri Foyntlin is the Director of Bold Louisiana and is fighting the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which is the end of the Dakota Access pipeline in Louisiana. According to Cherri, Louisiana is losing an area the size of a football field every 45 minutes along the coast due to sea level rise. She is a journalist, mother and kick-ass warrior for Mother Earth and the sacred system of life. Her daughter, Jayden Foyntlin, is one of the children suing the current administration over their right to a livable climate.
Cherri was at the People's Climate March in Washington, DC on April 29, 2107 and inspired the crowd during a press conference that can be found here: Indigenous Women Press Conference in front of the White House

Walk #3: Casey Camp-Horinek is an internationally known elder and Tribal Council member of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, which has been devastated by fracking. Casey is also an actress and we just found out that she has a movie she will be working on and won't make the walk.    Her daughter, Suzaatah Horinek, Suzaatah's partner Isaiah, her 3 year old daughter, Lola, and Lola's brother and cousin will all be coming out instead. While we will miss Casey, we are so happy that her family is able to come.   Make sure you talk with them about what is happening in their territory!

Walk #3: Lakota Harden was a long-time Bay Area resident until she moved to Alaska a couple of years ago. She has a rich history of activism, is the niece of Russell Mean and grew up in the Lakota Survival School. You may recognize her from the many years she has organized the "Unthanksgiving Day" ceremonies on Alcatraz, as well as her work on "Bay Native Circle" on KPFA. We are excited to welcome her back to the Bay Area to join us on this walk! Her photo is on the left.

We also just received some exciting news that our Maori friend, Tina Ngata, who has been in the United States for meetings at the United Nations, will also be joining us on June 11th! Tina has been campaigning to stop the seismic testing for oil and gas (Statoil & Chevron) in waters off the east coast of our North Island.

Walk #4: Gloria Ushigua Santi is a leader of the Sapara tribe in the Amazon of Ecuador. Her community has been under attack by the fossil fuel industry for decades. The country of Ecuador has been involved in a lawsuit against Chevron - from the Chevron Toxico website: "While drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990, Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater, spilled roughly 17 million gallons of crude oil, and left hazardous waste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor." Gloria has spoken internationally, including at the United Nations, on behalf of her people and the living jungle which they are part of. She is an original signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty.

You are invited to join us on the walks. For current information please like our Facebook page: Refinery Corridor Healing Walks

Contact us at: [email protected]
English: (510) 390-0386 - Español e Ingles: (510) 269-7135
On Facebook at: Refinery Corridor Healing Walks