The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
It’s been dubbed “Generica,” the pervasive sameness of a corporatized society, where one community is indistinguishable from another. In the wake of such perceived global uniformity, some people are left clamoring for something real, where community and culture are staid yet dynamic foundations of fulfillment and success, where sustainability is less a feel-good buzzword than a way of life.
The Gunnison Valley may be such a place, and proudly so. It is in recognizing the unique identity and against-all-odds resilience of mountain communities like ours that the Headwaters Conference was born 24 years ago.
This year’s conference, “Home/Land Security: Deep Sustainability in the Headwaters,” will highlight innovative solutions toward adapting to a world with decreasing resources and a changing climate. The 2013 conference takes place this weekend, September 20-21 at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison.
According to director John Hausdoerffer, the conference seeks to answer this fundamental question: “Who are we as a place, and how can our unique identity inspire people living in places that have been homogenized to find their own sense of place? How can communities cultivate talent and ideas at home? We’re celebrating mountain cultures and fighting to sustain them in the face of an ever homogenized world.
“Our region has historically been a colony,” says Hausdoerffer. “We’re an away place. Headwaters focuses on the places that are everyone else’s away.”
George Sibley is the founder of Headwaters. “It began as part of Western’s efforts in the late 1980s-early ’90s to create a clearer identity for itself,” he says. “It was my feeling that we were not just a little state college in Colorado’s hinterland; we were ‘the headwaters college of the American Southwest and Lower Midwest,’ the region where the all-important waters began for that region. It was a large region with an incredible and diverse natural and cultural history; the headwaters conferences would undertake to analyze and synthesize that diversity.”
Friday night, September 20 at 7 p.m. the conference begins with a free keynote address in the Taylor Hall Auditorium. Walter Echo Hawk (Pawnee) is a renowned Native American speaker, author and attorney. Throughout his distinguished legal career, he has worked to protect the political, property, cultural, and human rights of Indian tribes and Native peoples. He has also served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for the Kickipoo tribe, and as an adjunct professor at University of Oklahoma Tulsa School of Law. The Headwaters tenet to foster a sense of place demands “a globally groundbreaking indigenous voice,” says Hausdoerffer.
As colonies, headwaters communities thrive not only despite their extreme environments, but because of them. “There are innovative solutions coming out of our community,” says Hausdoerffer. He cites local successes with food and energy production and strides toward carbon neutrality. The Gunnison Valley is an ongoing experiment in sustainability, he says, a challenging Petrie dish. “Every other Petrie dish (represented by every other community) is easier.”
Two pathways toward security will be explored—energy and security. Panelists for each include scientists, artists, farmers and ranchers.
The Headwaters Conference promises hands-on learning throughout the day Saturday, September 21. Participants can help build a straw bale house. Tours include the Mountain Roots Community Food Project, Coldharbour Sustainable Living Center east of Gunnison, and a Fall Forest Security Tour.
Events culminate Saturday afternoon with Headwater’s elder Art Goodtimes and the “Passing of the Gourd,” a ritual that allows participants to share sentiments in any form on what they’ve taken away from the conference, with renewed energy directed toward community resilience in the face of change. The ceremony ends leaving time for participants to make their way to Crested Butte Saturday evening in time for the Vinotok Trial of the Grump.
Admission to the conference is $35 for students and alumni, $55 for WSCU staff and faculty, and $75 for the general public. Students can also receive credit for attending the Headwaters Conference.
For details on schedules and panels, go to www.western.edu/headwaters.
Learn more about Walter Echo Hawk at www.walterechohawk.com.
