Global initiative event Awakening the Dreamer symposium will be held at the San Luis Obispo Library Sept. 29.
The interactive presentation is co-sponsored by the San Luis Obispo HopeDance organization and Paso Robles’ Institute for Sustainable Living.
The symposium was created by the Pachamama Alliance, a non-profit partnership that works primarily with the indigenous groups in the Amazon of Ecuador and Peru.
The Pachamama Alliance was formed through the union of native tribes and environmental activists to legally protect tribes’ land ownership and their way of life.
“The symposium is both a presentation and interactive event, reaching out to people to create a grassroots movement. The goal is to show what is happening in our world; the degradation of the environment, human rights violations, people losing spiritual connections,” said Rosalie Wolff, 66, member of the Institute for Sustainable Living.
“We want to inform people, to bring together all the beings on this earth and create a vision for tomorrow. To activate realization and what is possible, to create a whole new dream.”
Awakening the Dreamer has been held in six countries and will be the second visit to San Luis Obispo.
“The goal is really in the title,” said Maggie Macro, 63, vice president of the Institute for Sustainable Living.
“The indigenous people say we’re living in a dream and we need to wake up.”
The Achuar tribe of Ecuador knew of the destruction of other indigenous tribes. Groups were forced to leave by companies in search of land abundant in oil.
The Achuar contacted Californian activists for help to legally protect their land and preserve their way of life.
The symposium was created to show their fight for preservation against technological and economic demands in relation to the rest of the world.
“Humans can live more successfully and honor the environmental and human rights we’ve been given. We can preserve a way of living and stop killing ourselves off,” said Wolff. Awakening the Dreamer will be held at the San Luis Obispo Library, 995 Palm Street, Sept. 29 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is a $15 donation, $10 for students with ID.