About this Event
Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate, Dr. Jessica Hernandez, discusses Growing Papaya Trees: Nurturing Indigenous Roots During Climate Displacement. She offers readers an Indigenous, Global-South lens on the climate crisis, delivering a compelling and urgent exploration of its causes—and its costs. She shares how the impacts of colonial climate catastrophe—from warming oceans to forced displacement of settler ontologies—can only be addressed at the root if we reorient toward Indigenous science and follow the lead of Indigenous peoples and communities.
Not every environmental problem is a result of climate change, but every environmental and climate change problem is a result of colonialism.
Growing Papaya Trees explores:
- Energy as a sociopolitical issue
- The interconnectedness of natural disasters, sociopolitical turmoil, and forced migration
- Our oceans, our forests, and our Indigenous futures
- Moving Indigenous science from mere acknowledgement into real action
- How to nourish Indigenous roots when displaced beyond borders
Dr. Hernandez asks: what does it mean to be Indigenous when we’re separated from our lands? How do we nurture future generations knowing they, too, will have to live away from their ancestral places? She illuminates that cultures are not lost, even amid genocide, turmoil, war, and climate displacement—and shows us how to be better kin to each other against the ecological violence, colonial oppression, and distorted status quo of the Global North.
Dr. Jessica Hernandez is a globally recognized Indigenous scientist, climate justice leader, and best-selling author whose groundbreaking work is redefining environmentalism through an Indigenous lens. Rooted in the Pacific Northwest, she bridges Indigenous science, traditional ecological knowledge, and Western frameworks to address the most urgent environmental crises of our time. She is the founder of Earth Daughters, a transnational Indigenous-led nonprofit that mobilizes rapid climate crisis response, cultivates grassroots leadership, and uplifts the voices and resilience of Indigenous women and youth across the Americas. Dr. Hernandez is also the acclaimed author of Fresh Banana Leaves: a best-selling, award-winning book that continues to influence global policy, academia, and activism. Her latest book, Growing Papaya Trees, explores climate migration, colonialism, and Indigenous resilience in the face of forced displacement. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental and Forest Sciences and dual Master’s degrees in Marine Affairs and Environmental Science from the University of Washington. In recognition of her visionary leadership, Forbes named her one of the “100 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Central America.” Her thought leadership has shaped global conversations on decolonizing environmentalism, and her work has been featured by NPR, Vox, Teen Vogue, Latino USA, Science Friday, and UN News, among others.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, United States
USD 0.00
