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Mac Macartney

Mac Macartney is a writer, an eco-peace activist, and an international speaker. He is

the founder of Embercombe, a centre located in the UK that seeks to inspire and

empower people to live in close relationship with nature and co-create a

regenerative, flourishing future for all species.

Mac was a member of Danone North America’s Advisory Committee (2017-19) as

they made their journey towards attaining B Corp accreditation. In the past he has

also sat on the sustainability advisory panels for Lafarge, Lend Lease, and Procter &

Gamble.

Over a period of twenty years Mac was mentored by a group of indigenous elders.

During this training and ever since, he has attempted to bring two worlds together –

an ancient world-view that emphasizes relationship, interdependence, and reverence

for life, together with the significant challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first

century. Mac is the creator and mentor of a group called Kith & Kin. The purpose of

Kith & Kin is to deepen connection with our own land, rediscover our songs, dances,

and ceremonies, and bravely bring our gifts forward for the benefit of all.

Mac is the author of two books, the most recent being The Children’s Fire, heart

song of a people. He has delivered four compelling TEDx talks.

www.macmacartney.com

www.embercombe.org

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Children's Fire Ceremony, with Mac Macartney

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Children's Voices on the Climate Crisis 

Videos with host Linda Sever

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Youth speaker

Merry Sams

Paul Powlesland:
Founder of Lawyers for Nature
Paul Powlesland is a barrister at Garden Court Chambers who specializes in upholding the rights of environmental activists to protest and protect the natural world, and uses environmental law and regulations to defend trees, rivers and wildlife. As a boat dweller for many years, he is also determined to protect the rights of boaters and other Traveller groups.[1]
On 12 September 2022, Paul Powlesland was threatened with arrest in Parliament Square in London for being a Blank Paper Protestor in relation to the #NotMyKing campaign.[2]
In March 2023, Paul Powlesland was one of more than 120 lawyers who, organized by a group called Lawyers Are Responsible, published a Declaration of Conscience in which they said they will refuse to act for new fossil fuel projects or to prosecute members of campaign groups opposing new fossil fuel projects, such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.

The Stars
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Gillian Kavanagh

Artist / Activist Druid and Dowser; - Co Founder of “The Warriors Call”-"Druid/Anti Fracker ", Founder of Chorley & South Ribble Anti- Fracking group, a Nana of Lancashire, Member of the Bards, Ovates and Druids, Founder of Facebook page “Druid Shaman- Call of the Wild,” Published Poet working with scientists to highlight global issues we face using activism as words in the Hot Sparks Poetry book.  Just finished working on the recently released Documentary “Never Forget Tibet” featuring HH the Dalai Lama and the challenges facing Tibetans today, and a member of the British Association of Dowsers. 

Gillian is a strong believer in the power of ceremony to bring community  together in harmony with the earth and water, organized several ceremonies and rituals at PNR, with pagan groups and at sacred sites like Castlerigg stone circle, and in Glastonbury,  brought the Dalai Lama’s Guyto monks and Lakota Medicine Man, William Hawk,  to the gates of PNR to bless the community and bring prayers of protection and healing to the land and sentient beings. A keen wild swimmer and singer of sacred chants and mantras, Gillian is an Earth and Water protector bringing the sacred into the everyday.


Photo: Gillian Kavanagh w/shamanic drum, walking with other Nanas from Maple Farm to PNR gates of hell of Cuadrillas test site in Preston New Road, Lancashire.
Photo taken by Peter Yankowski 

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Les Malbon

My name is Les Malbon. I am of Scottish, English, Irish, and Scandinavian descent. I am of the Patterson clan. I live, work and play in the Snuneymuxw  First Nations territory.  I am a professor in the Kinesiology department at Vancouver Island University. My core teaching concentrations are Human Wellness, Health of the Human Spirit, Nature and Health, and Nutrition and Local Food Systems.
 At the heart of my practice is the realization that everything is interconnected and that deep learning must be holistic and reflective. When we care for our own health and well-being we create healing in the world. One of the foundational frameworks that informs my life is from the Earth Charter; it suggests that we must join together to create a sustainable global community based on the principles of: Respect for Nature, Universal Human Rights, Social and Economic Justice, and a Culture of Peace.
In 2020 I received the Provost teaching award for excellence in (Indigenous Ways of Being and Knowing). I recently completed a United Nations diploma at the University of Peace (Earth Charter Institute in Costa Rica) in Sustainability and Peace Studies. I am a permaculturist and a trained herbalist from both a Western and Indigenous perspective. I have been engaged in Indigenous ceremony for over 30 years and it has become a way of life for me and my family.  It has been a great joy to spend time with Elders that have shared their wisdom teachings. I am dedicated to the truth of oneness and the unity that exists between all things. The earth is but one country and we are all related as one human family.

Cave
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Will Falk

Will Falk is a writer, lawyer, and environmental activist. The natural world speaks and Will’s work is how he listens. He believes the ongoing destruction of the natural world is the most pressing issue confronting us today. For Will, writing is a tool to be used in resistance.

Will graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School and practiced as a public defender in Kenosha, WI. He left the public defender office to pursue frontline environmental activism. So far, activism has taken him to the Unist’ot’en Camp – an indigenous cultural center and pipeline blockade on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in so-called British Columbia, Canada, to a construction blockade on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, to endangered pinyon-juniper forests in the Great Basin, and to Thacker Pass in northern Nevada where Will is trying to stop an open pit lithium mine from destroying a beautiful mountain pass..

His writing has been published by CounterPunch, Earth Island Journal, CATALYST Magazine, Whole Terrain, Dark Mountain Project, the San Diego Free Press, and The Wayfarer among others. His first book How Dams Fall was published in August, 2019 by Homebound Publications. His second book When I Set the Sweetgrass Down, a full-length collection of poetry, was released by Homebound Publications on April 11, 2023.

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Pella Thiel

Pella Thiel is a maverick ecologist who works with relational, systemic activism, change processes and leadership för a society in harmony with nature. She is a knowledge expert in the UN Harmony with Natureinitiative and co-founder of swedish hubs of international networks like Swedish Transition NetworkEnd Ecocide Sweden and Save the Rainforest Sweden. She also teaches ecopsychology and is a part of the eco-psychology/art/activist NGO Lodyn. Pella coordinated the first Earth Rights Conferences in Sweden. She has an MSc in Ecology from Stockholm University with the thesis on rainforest restoration in Ecuador. She enjoys pigs, having her hands in the soil at the smallholding in the archipelago of Stockholm where she lives, whisky and playing with people who truly love what they are doing.

 

Awards:

2023: The Martin Luther King Award from the Christian Council of Sweden and the Uniting Church of Sweden

2021: A Sustainable Prize from A Sustainable Tomorrow

2019: Environmental Hero of the Year from WWF Sweden

2013: The Environmental award of Värmdö

Selected works:

2022: Naturlagen – om naturens rättigheter och människans möjligheter (med Henrik Hallgren, Volante)

2022: Faith Voices for Ecocide law. Editor, End Ecocide Sweden.

2021: Naturens rettigheter – regler for en vill verden. Chapter in Naturtro – Om å dekolonisere naturen (Concerned artists Norway)

2021: Människans vilja och det levande sammanhanget. Chapter in Fri vilja och mänskligt ansvar. Fri tanke.

2020: Rights of Nature as a prerequisite for sustainability. Chapter in Strongly sustainable societies – organising human activities on a hot and full Earth. Routledge.

Bonfire

ORDER of the OAK
Conference Team

Hosts of the Conference

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Stuart Jeffrey has been a Druid for nearly 30 years and he currently convenes the Order of the Oak. He is an activist and an elected politician with his deep connection to the sacred Earth running through both. He lives in Britain in the land of the Cantiaci where he loves to walk on the North Downs and along the River Medway.

 

Stuart has been involved in the green movement all his adult life. Having worked in healthcare as a nurse, then a manager and then 10 years on NHS boards as an executive director, he has also developed his green credentials outside of his day job, setting up organizations, speaking to schools and groups on sustainability and getting involved in green politics.

NHS Executive Director (Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust 2010-2016 and Medway CCG 2016 to 2020)
NHS Manager (2000-2010)
Registered nurse (1992-2003)
Climate speaker (2010 – )
Management Consultant (2008 – )
Honorary / visiting lecturer in NHS management studies at University of Greenwich (2007-2009)
Druid: Full member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
National Policy Development Coordinator for the Green Party (2012 – 2014)
Green Party Executive Committee (2012 – 2014)
National Spokesperson on Health for the Green Party (2007 – 2012)
Founder of Sustainable Maidstone (2006 – 2010)
Chair of Pagan Aid (2018 – )
MSc (Health Research)
PG Dip Management
Qualified Nurse: BSc (Nursing Studies)

For more information about me, visit my personal blog.

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Mari Fix McEwen

Mari Fix McEwen is the daughter of Carolyn & granddaughter of Beatrice Ewing, from lineage Clan Ewing of hamlet Kilfinan in Alba (Scotland). Clan Ewing is of the Yew Tree, the world tree of everlasting life and death.  Her Grandfather is Henry Young. Her patralineal line is Clan Wasson (Beatrice) and Fix, father Jack, son of Jake. Currently residing in Los Angeles in the Kavitian, Chumash and Topanga tribal areas, she was recognized as an Elder by Peruvian Elder and Maestro Hermano Vidal and his counsel of Peruvian Elders in 2015 and was given the task to bring her People back to their roots.  She has spent years studying with 3 indigenous and 3 Pagan medicine lineages and was an active dancer with an indigenous Danza group from Mexico.  She is also a direct apprentice of Taoist Master Ching Fung Dao Shr and a Tai Chi Student in the lineage of Grand Master Kai Ying Tung.

A Ceremonialist, Ordained Minister and Alternative Medicine Practitioner of various energetic modalities, she has been facilitating Sound Healing journeys since 1991 & spiritual workshops since 2015.  She holds Certifications from various Universities in Therapeutic Arts, Sound Healing, Mindfulness, Irish Mythology, Celtic and Scottish Studies, Stonehenge, Star Carr Archeology, Magic and the Middle Ages, the Book of Kells, the Norse Sagas, Ancient Greek Medicine, Archeoastronomy, Ancient Architecture and Archeology.

As a sitting Grandmother, circle co-facilitator and Counsel member with the Indigenous Women / Grandmothers of Europe, she is representing Folk Scotland as well as supporting Indigenous Women of Europe Overseas, to revive their roots, connect to nature and honor the ways of Spirit. She is dedicated to unify with our other relatives to create healing, understanding, solidarity, balance and connection.

Founder, Initiator and Facilitator of the Ancestors of the 4 Directions and the OOWS, she is a member and active participant of these organizations: Order of the Oak, Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids UK,  Celestial Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (Southern California),

Romuva-Siaures Amerika, Four Worlds Foundation with Chief Phil Lane, Tiyoshape Spiritual Family with *Chief Rueben George, Four Worlds Women’s Talking Circle with Joan Henry, and a member of the Circle of Friends. She is a facilitator with associate Choctaw-Navajo/Chahta-Dineh Elder Patricia Anne Davis of the “Indigenous Change Process, ” and dedicated to extricating the out of balance condition within herself and humanity for the good of all.

Conference Branch Team
& other Contributors *

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Harriet Sams

Linda Sever

Merry Sams

Samantha Bodwell

Travis Elieas

Anne Patterson

Barry Patterson

David Ledger

Cynthia Klatte Cunningham, Tech - A4D *

Saga Bond, Tech

Ingrid Fortmeyer, Tech with Sine Network *

Karen, Tech with Sine Network)

Elle

Kite

(my apologies if I forgot to include anyone in the list above)

ORDER OF THE OAK

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