What is it?

The Seven Sisters Campaign is a National, multi-site public engagement and leadership initiative led by Se’Si’Le in partnership with tribal, environmental, and faith-based organizations. This campaign will launch events designed to elevate the leadership of Seven Indigenous Women whose work addresses the intersecting crises of biodiversity loss, climate disruption, and environmental injustice.

Why Now?

The campaign responds directly to an unprecedented ecological emergency by amplifying Indigenous women’s leadership—leaders whose approaches emphasize relational responsibility, ecosystem restoration, collective action, and long-term stewardship. By centering Indigenous ways of knowing, the campaign advances solutions grounded in accountability, resilience, and care for future generations.

The Sisters

Fiorella De La O. (Quechua of the Andes and the Amazon) is an environmental conservationist and artist who has supported the care of land, water, and wildlife from a young age. She is known for her deep care for animals and the natural world, and for the way she connects with both. Her work continues through science and art, supporting Indigenous-led efforts and helping others reconnect with the natural world.

Chenoa Egawa (S’Klallam/Lummi Tribes) comes from a long line of caretakers of Mother Earth. She is a ceremonial leader, medicine carrier, singer, speaker, published author, artist and nature photographer. She has traveled throughout North and South America working with Indigenous communities to protect their cultural and spiritual lifeways. She is also an accomplished Senior Level Qigong Instructor.

A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner (Lummi Tribe) is a multimedia artist, welder by trade, an experienced fisherman, a partner of Northwest Artists Against Extinction, and serves on the Board of Directors for Se’Si’Le. She is a lifelong advocate for our Mother Earth, the Salish Sea and our cultural ways of connection and expression.

Judith LeBlanc (Caddo Tribe) is Chair of the Board of the NDN Collective and the Executive Director of the Native Organizers Alliance (NOA), a national Native training and organizing network. In the last 10 years, NOA has built relationships with tribes, traditional societies and grassroots community groups in Native communities and on reservations through Native community organizing training, strategic campaign planning and support. She is a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow.

Robin Lovelace (Tlingit and Tagesh), Shuwátinée, also known as Kitchkashi (Tlingit and Tagish), is a transboundary Tlingit artist of the Wolf Moiety, Yanyedi Clan of the Taku River, and a grandchild of Deisheetaan with roots extending from Angoon, Alaska to the interior. Born and raised in the North with ancestral relations across Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory, she serves as a cultural archivist, researcher, and counselor for her First Nation. Her work is deeply grounded in haa shagóon and her responsibilities to the land, sea, and sky.

Alyssa Macy (Wasco/Dine/Hopi and citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs) is the CEO of Washington Conservation Action, the state's leading environmental organization. Her foundational work began with the International Indian Treaty Council in 2003, and she has devoted her life to protecting Indigenous rights, traditional cultures, and sacred lands, and ensuring we honor our collective treaties. She is the recipient of the 2023 Indigenous Leadership Award, a foster parent, and a cancer survivor.

Raynell Morris (Lummi Tribe) is a lifelong Salish Sea and Indigenous Sovereignty Advocate, Senior Manager for Children of the Setting Sun Productions, former Manager of the Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, the subject of numerous documentaries, and served in the Clinton Whitehouse. Raynell is a cancer survivor.

Modi Pontio (Papua New Guinea) has been Executive Director of the Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program since 2020, and is their first Papua New Guinean Director. Originally from Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, Modi is inspired and driven by the opportunity to serve an organization which is contributing toward best practices in Papua New Guinea’s conservation space, and empowering communities to take leadership in protecting their natural resources, livelihoods, and cultures.

Marilene Silva Kaikuxipa (Macuxi Tribe, Brazil) grew up among her people, known as the Guardians of the Savannas. She came to the Lummi Nation as a young girl at the request of her uncle and the invitation of the Lummi tribal Member Jewell James. Now a mental health therapist in Bellingham, Washington, Marilene aims to transform the oppressive ways of the mental health industry and provide wellness services that are relevant to Indigenous and other minoritized communities in their pursuit of community and collective healing. Her work is guided by sovereignty, relational accountability, and the belief that healing is both personal and collective, an act of liberation for communities.

Kayeloni Scott (Spokane/ Nez Perce) served as Communications Manager for the Nez Perce Tribe for five years before working at American Rivers as the Communications Director for the Northwest Region. She continued her work with the Nez Perce Tribe, providing communications consulting on Lower Snake River. She is a co-producer for the film, Covenant of the Salmon People and currently serves as Executive Director for the Columbia/Snake River Campaign. 

The Witnesses

• LeeAnne Beres, Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition
• Lia Brewster, PNW Campaign Strategist, Sierra Club
• Helene Cherullo, Executive Director, Braided River
• Lisa Dabek, Senior Conservation Scientist Woodland Park Zoo
• Britt Freda, Northwest Artists Against Extinction
• Amy Gulick, Nature and Wildlife Photographer
• Anna Johnson, Program Manager of Laudato Si Movement
• Lynda Mapes, Journalist, Nature Writer, Author
• Eva Schulte, Executive Director, Friends of the San Juans
• Bonnie Swift, Writer and Podcaster Producer

"Seven Sisters" - Fiorella De La O.

Inspiring Action, Accountability, and Hope

The Seven Sisters Campaign is a call to action. Through a series of public events, it will inspire engagement, foster cross-community dialogue, and offer pathways toward restoration and resilience. Participants will be invited to rethink their relationship with nature, with one another, and with the responsibilities we share.

Events will take place throughout Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2026, beginning in the Pacific Northwest, followed by gatherings in Washington, DC, and New York City—including an event marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The campaign will conclude in Seattle at Woodland Park Zoo, honoring Se’Si’Le’s Forests for All initiative. (Details to Follow)

Lasting Impact

The campaign will be documented as a book, extending its reach well beyond the live events. In addition, all attendees will receive a copy of Se’Si’Le’s recent publication, In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature (Braided River Publications), ensuring the ideas and teachings continue to inform and inspire.

Partners