SHEROES Justice, and the Environment SHEROES

women leaders for peace, SHEROES justice, and the environment SHEROES

Artist Statement:

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” - Joseph Campbell

This exhibit, by artist April Waters, consists of seven large-scale portraits of larger-than-life women. The paintings of Vandana Shiva, Wangari Maathai, Malalai Joya, Helen Caldicott, Amy Goodman, Cindy Sheehan and Maude Barlow are of women who have bravely raised the flame for humanitarian and environmental justice. They have taken a stand to protect people and/or resources. Most of the women have made contributions to the equitable sharing and protection of clean water.

Over a six-year period, April Waters traveled throughout the US to meet each woman. Friends of the artist who traveled to India, Africa, and Afghanistan brought back stories and images that were woven into these works.

Waters’ major work has focused on rivers, creeks, and oceans. Like strong rivers that converge and flow together to bring life to the world, these women move our world toward greater justice, peace, and a more equitable sharing of nature's resources.

She has been featured in numerous one person and group exhibitions over the past twenty years including a one person show in the office of Oregon’s Governor. Her work is included in public and private collections throughout the United States and Mexico including The Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Oregon State University, Salem Hospital and Western Oregon University, among many others. Reviews:

“The Sheroes are wonderful portraits of contemporary women leaders ….the exhibition (at Willamette University) attracted thousands of visitors.”

- John Olbrantz, Director of the Hallie Ford Musuem of Art

“The paintings looked spectacular”

- Tom Manley, Director of Pacific Northwest College of Art

“The show is fabulous. You have found a magnificent way to honor these women of courage.”

- Shelley Curtis, Director of Art About Agriculture Oregon State University [email protected] www.AprilWaters.com 503.569.7681

For more than three decades Maude Barlow has worked to safeguard the fundamental human rights to fresh, free water. Her recent book, Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis & the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, highlights the dangers inherent in the commodification of water and the need for all of us to recognize and save the vital supplies of fresh water for all across the planet.

Because of her global work to preserve access to water, Maude Barlow was nominated for the 2005 “1000 Women for Peace” Nobel Peace Prize. She is also the 2005 recipient of the Right Livelihood Award given by the Swedish Parliament, as well as the 2008 Canadian Environmental Award. She is co-founder of the Blue Planet Project which works internationally for water rights and served as Senior Advisor on water to the United Nations in 2008 and 2009. Barlow is the recipient many honorary doctorates as well as additional awards, including the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award, the 2009 Planet in Focus Eco Hero Award, and the 2011 Earth Care Award, the highest international honor of the Sierra Club (U.S.).

She urges all of us to become “keepers of the fresh water systems” in our localities and to take back control of this most vital, life sustaining resource. “Equal access to water is absolutely central to both life and justice.” - Maude Barlow, Canada

On April 4, 2004, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan was killed near Bagdad, Iraq. By October, 2004, his mother Cindy Sheehan felt her son’s death must move her to action. She said “I was ashamed that I hadn’t tried to stop the war before Casey died...I have dedicated my life to making reparations to my son by trying to enlighten other people to the evils of war....”

In August of 2005 Sheehan, known now as “Peace Mom,” began camping near the home of President Bush in Crawford, Texas. She sought to meet with the President to understand the “noble cause” for which her son had died and to call for an end to what she felt was an unjust and immoral war.

Because of her activism, Sheehan has met with leaders from all over the globe to press for peace, and helped to revitalize anti-war protest in the United States. She has published three accounts of her life since her son’s death, most recently Peace Mom: A Mother’s Journey through Heartache to Activism. “Being an instrument of peace is immensely more important than working for peace. Our entire lives must radiate peace. We must be peace to have peace.” - Cindy Sheehan, USA

Amy Goodman is an award-winning internationally known journalist and host of Democracy Now, a daily radio and television program broadcast on more than 800 stations. Upon accepting the Right Livelihood Award she described her work and responsibility “to give voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, beaten down by the powerful.” To that end she has brought the stories of hundreds who work for peace, justice and the environment to her audiences.

Included in her interviews are the stories of the women whose portraits join hers in this exhibition. Goodman has interviewed and brought us the inspiring stories of Helen Caldicott, Cindy Sheehan, Malalai Joya, Wangari Maathai, Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow and many more. She has been arrested multiple times and has risked her life to tell their stories so that truth can survive. She has received multiple awards including being the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as “The Alternate Nobel Prize”, and is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: The Exception to the Rulers, Static, and Standing Up to the Madness. “Now more than ever, it is imperative that we defend our liberties, speak truth to power, fight for those who can’t, demand peace and save our struggling planet.” - Amy Goodman, USA

An activist and a dissident in a country where women’s voices are harshly silenced, Malalai Joya has been described as “the bravest woman in Afghanistan”. In 2005 she became the youngest person and one of the few women elected to Afghanistan’s Parliament, the Wolesi Jirga. An outspoken critic of her county’s current leaders, warlords and drug barons, she has been suspended from her seat in Parliament for her outspoken criticism and has survived several assassination attempts.

Though embattled in her homeland, she has been recognized internationally for her work for human rights and peace. She has received multiple awards including the South Korean Gwangju Award for Human Rights and England’s Anna Politkovskaya Award (which is given to courageous women who defend human rights). She was the subject of the award-winning documentary Enemies of Happiness and has just authored her first book A Woman Among Warlords. TIME magazine named Malalai Joya to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Foreign Policy Magazine listed Malalai Joya in its annual list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. “It will be a long struggle. A river is made drop by drop. But if we can unite for justice and democracy, our people will be like a flood that no one can stop.” - Malalai Joya, Afghanistan

Dr. Shiva has become a world- renowned environmental leader who articulates the inherent connection between the environment, agriculture, spirituality, and the rights of women and the poor. Shiva has served as an adviser to governments in India and abroad as well as non governmental organizations, including the International Forum on Globalization, the Women's Environment & Development Organization and the Third World Network.

In 1982 she established the Research Foundation on Science, Technology and Ecology to study the ecological value of traditional farming and to fight destructive development projects in India. Shiva’s work includes the promotion of biodiversity, use of native seeds, water use and misuse, and the impact of globalization and industrial agriculture on the poor of the world. She was awarded the 1993 Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize) for her work with national and international environmental organizations and in 2003 Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an environmental hero. Dr. Shiva has authored over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals and 20 books including “Water Wars”. “Throughout history, water sources have been sacred, worthy of reverence and awe. The advent of water taps and water bottles has made us forget that before water flows through pipes and before it is sold to consumers in plastic, it is a gift from nature.” - Vandana Shiva, India © 2013 April Waters WANGARI MAATHAI

Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was recognized around the world for her work for environmental conservation, democracy, and human rights. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate, she became chairperson of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi in 1976. Her international work for the environment and democracy began modestly when she became active in the National Council of Women in Kenya to promote a program of community-based tree planting. As the grassroots organization developed to focus on poverty reduction and environmental conservation, it became known as the Green Belt Movement and expanded in time to become the Pan African Green Belt Network. Despite intense political pressure from interests opposed to her work, threats of violence and imprisonment, and personal loss, Maathai remained committed to the forests of Kenya and social justice for its people. The 2004 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she addressed the United Nations on behalf of women and the important connection between environmental health and social justice. She wrote Unbowed, The Challenge for Africa and Replenishing the Earth.

At the 2012 African Union Summit, the Heads of State of Africa voted to change the name of ‘Africa Environment Day’, March 3rd, to ‘Wangari Maathai Day’`. “A great river always begins somewhere. Often it starts as a tiny spring bubbling up from a crack in the soil, just like the little stream on my family’s land which starts where the roots of the fig tree broke through the rocks beneath the ground. But for the stream to grow into a river, it must meet other tributaries and join them as it heads for a lake or the sea.” - Wangari Maathai , Kenya © 2013 April Waters DR. HELEN CALDICOTT

Dr. Helen Caldicott has worked for forty years to educate the world about the medical threats of the nuclear age and to articulate the ways in which we must change our behavior if we are to avoid environmental destruction. While living in the United States from 1977 to 1986, she co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of over 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and the global risks of nuclear war.

Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling, Caldicott has received the Peace Medal Award from the United Nations Association of Australia and the Integrity Award from the John-Roger Foundation, which she shares with Bishop Desmond Tutu. She is also the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize, The Lannan Foundations 2003 Prize for Cultural Freedom and 21 honorary doctorate degrees. The author of nine books and numerous publications, and the subject of several films, the Smithsonian Institution named her as one of the most influential women of the 20th century. “Hope for the Earth lies not with leaders, but in your own heart and soul. If you decide to save the Earth, it will be saved. Each person can be as powerful as the most powerful person who ever lived—and that is you, if you love this planet.” - Helen Caldicott, Australia © 2013 April Waters SHEROES VENUES

Willamette University Salem, Oregon

Living Futures, ‘Women Reshaping the World’ Conference Dr Vandana Shiva was the keynote speaker Approximately 1000 in attendance Portland, Oregon Sheroes at The Artist Repertory Theater Portland, Oregon

Sheroes at Pacific Northwest College of Art Portland, Oregon