Earth Stewardship Conversations, Dinner & Concert

Join us at the start of SF Climate Week for an evening of conversation on Indigenous wisdom & living embodiment, dinner and sacred concert with the Yawanawa, local Indigenous leaders and the scientists, builders, and practitioners working to protect our ecological future.

Whether you live in a city apartment or have acres of land beneath your feet, the question is the same: how do we care for the living world around us? Not just as an environmental obligation, but as an expression of love - for the land, for future generations, for every living being we share this Earth with.

Our speakers include:

Rasu, Chief of the Yawanawa, grandson of the great medicine man and xinaya Tata Txanu Natasheini, who was one of the most respected elders and wise men of the Yawanawa.Oona Chaplin, Actress of Avatar 3, Game of Thrones - a dedicated activist and environmentalist focused on supporting Indigenous rights, Amazon rainforest protection, and regenerative systems Bita Zahedi Majd, a Rights of Nature advocate, Biodiversity Conservation & Indigenous Sovereignty Director of Aluna Alliance, and advisor to Sierra Club. Edward West, Founder and Principal of Applied Alchemy, a venture studio & strategic consulting agency that helps founders, companies, and funders to design, build, and launch high-impact regenerative initiatives.Will Grant, Pachamama Alliance Director of Climate Action

*Only 65 spots available for Panel + Dinner

Schedule

4:00 – 4:30 pm: Tea lounge & arrival

4:30 – 4:45 pm: Opening ceremony

4:45 – 5:45 pm: Moderated panel featuring Chief Rasu Yawanawa (Amazon tribal leader & forest defender), Oona Chaplin (Avatar 3 actress), local Indigenous leaders, and scientists, activists, and builders

5:45 – 6:45 pm: Dinner & Speaker Project Spotlights

6:45 - 7:30pm: Yawanawa Concert

7:30 - 9:00 pm: Open Music (lineup to be announced)

About the Speakers

Chief Rasu Yawanawá is a spiritual leader, healer, and cultural guardian of the Yawanawá people — known as the "People of the Wild Boar" — who have called the Rio Gregório Indigenous Land deep in the Brazilian Amazon home for millennia. The grandson and spiritual heir of the great pajé Tata Txanu Natasheini, Rasu was chosen from an early age to carry forward the sacred lineage of healing, songs, and forest knowledge, undergoing rigorous initiations in deep communion with the spirit of the plants. A visionary bridge-builder, he was the first to weave new musical elements into traditional Yawanawá sacred song, rekindling younger generations' connection to their language and culture — and bringing ancestral Amazonian voices to global audiences through his collaboration with Brazilian artist Alok. Chief Rasu comes to this gathering as a living testament to the power of rootedness: a guardian of the forest and all the wisdom it holds.

Oona Chaplin has recently lit up the screens world wide as the Avatar franchise’s fiery new villain, Varang, where she has showcased her skill as an actress in a film that so vividly captures the battle between indigenous cultures and the colonial, extractivist forces that destroy the world. She is an artist, a cultural bridge, a land steward and a mother, and has been an ally and advocate for the Huya Aniwa family for many years.Bita Zahedi Majd is a Rights of Nature advocate, Indigenous sovereignty director, and lifelong student of the living world. With a background spanning environmental policy, anthropological studies, conservationism, and legal advocacy, she has spent nearly two decades as a personal student of Indigenous leaders, wisdom keepers, and plant medicine teachers across North and South America, India, and Africa. Fiercely dedicated to the protection of Earth's sacred elements — its waters, forests, soils, wildlife, plant medicines, and First Nation peoples — she brings both academic rigor and deep embodied commitment to the work of planetary stewardship.Will Grant is the Director of Community Action & Strategy at Pachamama Alliance, where he leads Climate Action Trainings and designs strategies for community-led climate change. As co-creator of Pachamama Alliance's Community Action Training program, he has cultivated grassroots leaders across 15 countries, integrating political strategy, somatic awareness, and community building into a globally scaled movement. Rooted in the belief that local action is the most powerful lever for systemic change, Will works to shift people from paralysis to purpose — turning individual commitment into collective transformation.Edward West is the Founder and Principal of Applied Alchemy, a venture studio and strategic consulting agency building high-impact regenerative initiatives across built environment, AI, clean energy, regenerative agriculture, and cultural preservation. He co-founded Mission Motors, whose electric powertrain work helped give rise to the Harley Davidson LiveWire, and Hylo, a social network for collaborative communities. A Director at Children of the Rainforest, Edward has a deep, six-year relationship with the Yawanawá people — visiting their villages, raising funds for cultural preservation, and supporting the creation of Isku Vakehuhu, a school to preserve the Yawanawá language and traditions. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Yale and an MBA from Presidio Graduate School.

Dinner

We are offering a vegetarian dinner for 65 guests from Enjoy Veggie in Chinatown SF. Reserve your ticket early to secure your spot.

Enjoy Veggie is restaurant that has a diverse and flavorful menu that draws specific inspiration from our Buddhist roots. Our menu is based on high-quality, healthy and environmentally friendly ingredients.

Questions We’re Exploring Together

How do we, as individuals, participate in protecting the Earth and all its living beings?How can we steward our lands with love rather than ideology?How can we learn to weave stewardship into our everyday being from ancestral caretakers of these homelands who have practiced this for millennia?What does it mean to make a place home as people who are non-Indigenous to the land we live on?What active stewardship projects in the Bay Area and beyond can we collectively support?What emerging practices exist for caring for the living things around us?

Why We're Creating This Event

Protecting the Earth has never belonged only to scientists and policy makers. Long before climate reports and carbon markets, Indigenous communities understood stewardship as a way of life - a primary language for how humans relate to each other and to the living world. That knowledge has been carried and practiced across generations, and it is precisely what the dominant climate conversation continues to overlook.

We are building an evening that begins to change that — placing Indigenous stewardship knowledge in genuine conversation with Western climate science, not as a cultural add-on, but as a foundational voice in how we understand and respond to the crisis we are living through together.

Because stewardship doesn't begin with ownership. It begins with attention - to the street tree outside your window, the creek buried beneath your block, the soil under the concrete, the birds still navigating by stars above the city lights. It begins with the relationships we choose to tend, wherever we are.

This evening explores what that looks like in practice: how Indigenous frameworks of land relationship can open new ways of seeing and acting, and what it means to be a caretaker of this Earth - from a rural homestead, a suburban backyard, or a third-floor apartment in the Mission.Whether you are a scientist, a city dweller, a farmer, or someone who simply loves this Earth - this evening is for you. Come ready to be in relationship, not just informed.

This event is hosted in partnership with Aniwa Digital (www.aniwa.co) and Huya Aniwa Foundation (www.huyaaniwa.org)

Huya Aniwa partners with Indigenous collectives to protect sacred lands, revitalize cultural heritage, and restore ecosystems. By integrating Indigenous wisdom with sustainable land stewardship and reforestation, we support ancestral lifeways rooted in reciprocal relationships with the more-than-human world.

Tickets: Price $45-$200 | Capacity limited to ~65 for Panel + Dinner