Activists and Peace Builders coalition
SPEAKERS
Sachem Maqua - Chief Dwaine Perry serves as “Ngeckeeyiiee”, or “Chief”, and “Sachem”, to the Ramapough Lenape Nation, The aboriginal people of New Jersey.
He is an active proponent of Human rights while focusing primarily on Aboriginal rights. He has served on numerous Boards of Directors, Councils, and Committees in a variety of capacities.
In his capacity as Chief, he has availed his many assets and resources in the areas of Community Economic Development. Recently, he has traveled to the Himalayas, South America and Throughout Turtle Island, building and/or renewing Government to Government relations. He proudly represented his Nation, at symposiums and networks locally and nationally to develop joint community and sustainable growth projects.
Chief Perry works tirelessly to develop programs and to assure equal service delivery for the benefit all of the Ramapough Lenape People, as he continues to serve the cause of Humanity.
He currently resides at his childhood home, in the Ramapough Lenape’ “Deer Clan” community of Hillburn, New York. In residence is his wife, Pat. He is the father of two daughters, Susan, and Leah, and Grandfather to a beautiful Granddaughter Madison Hubbard.
Srimati Shahina Lakhani is the founder of Global Peace Rising, a coalition of peace builders and activists. It is an interfaith, intersectional organization charged with bringing together peace builders, activists, organizations and people from all walks of life to a common platform. Shahina Lakhani is also a Tantric Sadhika, coach, mystic and teacher. She has Masters in Nursing from Emory University and has trained in various healing arts. She coaches and teaches about creating Inner Ecology, dynamic peace and connecting with the wisdom of our own individual soul as well as the soul of the earth and the Universe so that we can partner in creating thriving abode for ourself and all living beings during these evolutionary times.
Clara Soaring Hawk Hasbrouck
Deer Clan Chief
Ramapough Lenape Nation
I am an activist that believes Climate Change is real! That the continued use of Fossil fuels will surely end the health of Mother Earth and all that live upon her, in her and around her. We must stop this path that leads to destruction! Sustainability and accountability for the preservation of life is a must. I believe we are only here to prepare Mother Earth to be able to care for our next 7 generations and the 7 generations beyond that!
I believe Spirituality will play a Major role in seeing for the continuation of life much better than we know it to be now!
Rabia Terri Harris Founder of the Muslim Peace Fellowship,
MPF was launched in 1994. It was the first Muslim organization specifically devoted to the theory and practice of Islamic nonviolence, and continues as an organizing hub for Islamic peace building and multireligious solidarity for justice. Currently Rabia serves as Chaplain and Scholar in Residence at the Community of Living Traditions at Stony Point Center an Abrahamic residential community devoted to the pursuit of peace and justice through the practice of hospitality and the care of the earth. She writes extensively and has lectured and offered workshops nationally and internationally. You can contact Rabia at MPFrth@gmail.com.
The Reverend Kathryn Rivera Torea
Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Stated Supply Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church of Haverstraw
I was born and raised in western Ohio. I gained a Bachelor of Arts in English at the College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio. I followed a friend to Washington, D.C. after graduation and took a job at History Associates, Inc. in Rockville, Maryland. While living in D.C., I entered a time of discernment to become more attuned to God's plan for my life, which led me to Louisville Seminary, a Master of Divinity degree, and ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2004. I met my husband while serving my first church in rural, central Ohio. We worked together to facilitate the development of a new immigrant fellowship that had begun to emerge in the fields outside Willard, Ohio. I came to Hudson River Presbytery in 2010 to serve the United Presbyterian Church of Middletown as their first installed solo-pastor. In 2017 I took on the Stated Supply Pastor position at Central Presbyterian Church of Haverstraw. It has been wonderfully fruitful work thus far. At the very end of 2017 I concluded work for the Synod: I was the moderator for the Albany SARC (Synod Administrative Review Commission - yes, it is as ominous as it sounds). I serve on the Hudson River Presbytery Commission on Ministry. And I volunteer with Proyecto Faro of Rockland County in a support capacity.
Nick Mottern has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer and political organizer over the last 30 years. While in the US Navy he was in Viet Nam in 1962-63. He graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1966, and he has worked as a reporter for the Providence (RI) Journal and Evening Bulletin, a researcher and writer for the former US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, a lobbyist for Bread for the World and a writer and co-organizer of speaking tours in the United States on US involvement in Africa for Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. In this job he visited a number of African nations and war zones in Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mozambique as well as Israel and the West Bank. He is the author of “Suffering Strong”, recounting experiences of his first trip to Africa. He has also been involved in grassroots action in the Lower Hudson Valley. He manages www.KnowDrones.com a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance. He was director of the 2012 national Know Drones Tour and was an organizer of the 2013 April Days of Action and 2014 Spring Days of Action, and he publishes “The Drone Organizers Bulletin”. He is also an organizer of the Boycott and Divest Honeywell campaign, begun in 2014 because of the firm’s involvement in drone war. http://www.badhoneywell.org/ His articles have appeared in Truthout.
Sara Jolena Sequoia Wolcott, M.Div, is a minister, healer, writer/artist and entrepreneur in service to the Divine Feminine. Deeply steeped in Quakerism, a mystical experience in her early 20s led her to seek to enable the beloved community amidst climate change. That journey has taken her from working as a social science researcher co-leading a program on ReImagining Development at the Institute of Development Studies in England to becoming a traveling singer/musician in India to studying eco-theology at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. There, relationships with indigenous peoples in North America revealed to her the inaccurate and violence-perpetuating historical stories we have been telling about the origins of our present moment. Her thesis, ReMembering the Anthropocene Age, wove together historical threads too often left scattered and dismembered. Via her eco-theology company Sequoia Samanvaya, LLC, she now teaches spiritual/religious leaders and others keen on deep change the historical colonial and theological roots of our present moment. Her students find that ReMembering can be a transformational process helping them deepen their call to be bridge-builders, pollen-bringers, and peace-risers. For over 17 years, she has practiced 1-1 healing work in what she currently calls Sacred Bodywork. A northern Californian born on Ohlone territories, she currently lives in the Bronx, NY, in the historical homeland of the Lenape/Siwanoy peoples.