Can Sustainable Creativity Create Circular Systems?

Explore how creative entrepreneurs are building sustainable futures through circular systems that honor both ancestral wisdom and innovative solutions. Featuring Tamara Stands and Looks Back-Spotted Tail on bridging Lakota values with renewable energy technology, and Jonelle Dawkins on creating financial independence through creative reuse.

• Traditional ecological knowledge meeting modern sustainability solutions
• Creative reuse as economic empowerment for artists
• Building circular economies that serve communities
• Indigenous entrepreneurship and cultural preservation
• Removing barriers to creative independence
• Sustainability as environmental, social, and financial interconnectedness
• Community-driven renewable energy projects
• Creative problem-solving for systemic challenges
• Cultural authenticity and certification processes
• Multi-disciplinary creative entrepreneurship

Tamara Stands and Looks Back-Spotted Tail - Founder of Lakota Women Business (LLC) and Lakota Women Initiative (nonprofit); Member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe; Renewable energy advocate and Indigenous women's empowerment leader

Jonelle Dawkins - Executive Director at Scraplanta; Multi-disciplinary creative entrepreneur; Creative reuse movement leader

"As Lakota people, we utilize the buffalo for our robes, for our tepees. So a tepee is our home and reaching out to the earth to build a sustainable home is where we're at in the future, especially as climate changes and the earth changes and how do we meet that change as it's coming into the future." - Tamara Stands and Looks Back-Spotted Tail

"At Scrap Atlanta, we are taking art supplies from people who no longer need it... instead of us putting it to the landfill and it no longer having a useful life, they can bring it to a creative for reuse center and somebody else who maybe they want to get started in sewing... can use that they make that piece that helps them get that job that helps them build independence." - Jonelle Dawkins

• Tamara: https://www.lakotawomenbusinessllc.com/ and Lakota Women Initiative
• Jonelle: @scrapATL on Instagram, @scrapatlanta on Facebook, and @scrapatl on TikTok

• Tucker Creative Reuse Center
• Adair Park Creative Reuse Center
• Duluth popup location

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Sustainable creativity, circular economy, Indigenous entrepreneurship, creative reuse, renewable energy, Lakota culture, community empowerment, creative independence, traditional ecological knowledge, upcycling, social sustainability, financial sustainability, cultural preservation, creative problem-solving