By Alice Phillips

“Life isn’t a spectator sport,” former Green party vice-presidential candidate and environmental activist Winona LaDuke told upper school students Monday, urging them to affect change in our society.

“We are people who have a chance to transform this society,” she said.

LaDuke, a graduate of Harvard College and Antioch University, spoke at the annual Women’s History Assembly held in Taper Auditorium on March 16.

LaDuke’s message was one of integrity and the fight for social change, saying that “in having integrity and standing up… we become better humans.”

LaDuke spoke about her personal struggle to transform her native Ojibwa reservation into a sustainable entity.

“We didn’t want someone else to control our own destiny,” said LaDuke. “We’re the ones who live here so we’re going to make a future.”

LaDuke was referencing the struggles the Northern Minnesota Ojibwa tribe has had against the former owners of her reservation. The Ojibwa people had to buy back their land and even a school to keep the United States government from controlling their destiny. The Ojibwa have recently gained permission from the FCC to broadcast their and radio station and have developed a sustainable food program, developing an independence that not many Indian tribes achieve.

LaDuke’s efforts include testifying before the United Nations and Congress, demonstrating at nuclear power plants, and protesting in front of a GTE Corporation phonebook factory here in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t think a 1,000 year old tree should be a phonebook,” LaDuke said.

One of LaDuke’s primary concerns is the importance of eating and buying food that is as close to the way nature intended as possible. Her stance on genetically modified food is unwavering. When asked during the question and answer session after her speech whether she saw any benefit to genetically modified food in developing countries where there are people starving, she maintained her position that the keystone to being able to feed the world is agricultural impendence and self-sustainability.

“The words ‘wild rice’ shouldn’t be associated with ‘genetically engineered’.”

LaDuke was introduced by members of the Gender Studies class as well as two videos: one on the meaning and importance of feminism and the other on LaDuke’s life and tribal life.