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Sunday,
August 7,
5
PM
-
6:30 PM
, Meeting Rooms 210a-b and
210e-f, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Opening Ceremony featuring F. Henry Lickers, Director, Department of Environment,
Mohawk Council of Akwesasne
Performance
by La Baratte à Buerre – Traditional French Canadian Chansons
Public
Plenary Address by Cristian Samper, Director of the
Smithsonian
Museum
of Natural History
The
Public Plenary launches and provides a context for the entire meeting that
follows. Organized by the
ESA
Public Affairs Committee and open to members of the
general public, this session will include both French and English language
presentations, carrying on the tradition of opening our meeting by acknowledging
indigenous peoples and their relationship to the natural environment as well as
the cultural heritage of Québec. The Public Plenary will also feature a talk by
Cristian Samper, the distinguished and engaging Director of the
Smithsonian
Museum
of Natural History, which
will be presented in English with French translation.
F. Henry Lickers is a member of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan. He has been the
Director of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Department of the Environment, for
the past 28 years. During this time, he has been principal investigator on the
EAGLE (Effect on Aboriginal in the Great Lakes Environment) Project, the
Naturalized Knowledge Systems Project, and the First Nation’s Community Health
Indicators Project. These projects are investigating First Nations Environmental
issues.
La Baratte à Beurre
(the churn) is all about Québec revisited and tradition rediscovered. Offering
a feast of well known and rare tunes, the group is comprised of Robin Servant,
Yoland Henry, and Étienne Boucher. Founded in 2000, the trio has become one of Québec’s
most dynamic traditional ensembles will enchant listeners with their French Canadian music and singing.
They will provide a sample of the music and storytelling that has been part of
the cultural heritage of French Canada for centuries at this event and continue
their performance during the Opening Mixer following the Public Plenary.
Dr.
Cristian Samper,
Director of the
Smithsonian
Museum
of Natural History has dual Columbian and
U.S.
citizenship and is fluent in both Spanish and
English. Educated at Harvard (Ph.D. and M.A. in Biology) and in
Columbia
(B.Sc. from the Universidad de los
Andes
), Dr. Samper has been the Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution since 2003. Prior to that he was Deputy and Acting Director of the
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in
Panama
, served on the United Nations Convention on
Biological Diversity, and chaired the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical,
and Technological Advice. He serves on various boards including the World
Conservation Monitoring Centre – UNEP, as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory
Council, Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union, as
Vice-chair of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is a member of the
Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Panel,
World Resources Institute, and Global Council. Among the many awards he has
received, Dr. Samper holds the National Medal for the Environment from the
Republic
of
Columbia
.
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