2017 Refinery Healing Walks

We are a group of Native Americans and allies who are for clean air, water, soil and a vibrantly healthy future for those alive now and for those yet to come.   In 2014 we organized a series of healing walks along the Northeast San Francisco Bay which is home to five oil refineries, Tesoro, Shell, Valero, Conoco Phillips 66 and Chevron, as well as a Koch Bros. petcoke facility.  

We made a commitment to conduct these healing walks for four years.  This year, 2017, is the final year of our commitment.  The 2017 Refinery Healing Walk dates are: April 8th, May 20th, June 11th and July 16th.

Praying in front of the Richmond Chevron Refinery

There are between 75 and 150 people at each walk who walk between 9 and 14 miles, depending upon the walk.
We begin the day with prayers for the water.  We walk in prayer, contemplation and quiet conversation from one fossil fuel impacted community to another.   We close the day with a prayer, a feast and an art project where walkers draw or write their visions of a future beyond fossil fuels on muslin squares.  These squares are sewn into quilts as you can see in the photo below.


The funds from this campaign will go toward the feasts at the end of each walk which cost $500 for each walk, announcement postcards, and snacks for walkers during the day.

Feast & art at the end of the day

Our group is called Idle No More SF Bay.  We are all volunteers with regular jobs and range in age from 22 to 72.  We are all very grateful for any assistance you would like to offer.  We send you much gratitude and join our prayers with yours for a beautiful future for all of our children.