Social Justice Awardees
“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit, and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”
CONGRATULATIONS to the 2022 Awardees!
These are the narratives submitted by nominators.
Paul Chiyokten Wagner of Redmond is a member of Saanich First Nations and has been
speaking out on social environmental issues since he was a boy. He’s a strong advocate of
ancient ways and teachings of the circle of life. In 2013 Chiyokten assisted with Idle No More
rallies and actions in Seattle as well as speaking at them. In December 2015 he was honored to speak alongside Jill Stein and Deborah Parker at the Cop21 Climate Talks in Paris. After participating in the Seattle to Standing Rock Canoe Journey in Late August 2016 he and volunteers built Tarpee shelters (88 to date) gifting them to Indigenous Water Protector families. Chiyokten formed Protectors of the Salish Sea, an Indigenous led organization dedicated to ending the era of fossil fuel in our Salish Sea. In 2019 Protectors occupied the front steps of the Olympia state Capital for 8 months pressuring the government to declare a Climate Emergency. Currently Protectors are creating a Tribal Youth Canoe alliance. Chiyokten has organized numerous walks and rallies, co-authored the Tokitae/ Salish Sea Whale Sanctuary Proclamation to recognizing our Salish Sea as a Whale Sanctuary to save our Wild Salmon and Orcas from extinction.
As a family, Darren & Benita Moore, with Mariah LaPointe-Stafford, created Native Daily Network. Through videos and written accounts, NDN documents social issues affecting our indigenous relatives. They all devote their lives and energy to advocate for the environment and Tribal Treaty rights and Tribal Sovereignty. Darren, Benita and Mariah are Water Protectors and part of a global family working to heal Unci Maka, grandmother earth and all life. As quoted from their website, “Through trial and tribulation and since time immemorial, we have retained an ancient understanding. Our way of life provides workable solutions to modern problems.” Darren, Benita and Mariah are veterans of front line activism. They have been at Climate and No LNG rallies, and prayer vigils to protect mother earth. They produced a film, Ancestral Water, to highlight the injustices to the Puyallup Tribe Treaty rights with PSE’s LNG refinery. Again I quote “We believe that our indigenous communities are the key to a sustainable future.”
Les Pogue has been a strong and clear voice for equity in Tacoma for years. He is a father and a role model for many. Les has organized events both large and small to listen to community needs in areas of housing, food and racial and environmental justice.
A few ways he impacts others:
Met with Hilltop community members and affordable housing residents to discuss their needs.
Served on the education committee for the Black collective
Organized social gatherings in Hilltop for children and their families to listen, play music, share stories
Guest speaker at several events like Northwest Detention Center, Black Lives Matter, Environmental Justice is Racial Justice and more.
Marched to support the Puyallup Water Warriors in their effort to stop Puget Sound Energy’s LNG refinery.
Les works to bring to the forefront both local and national injustices about how corporations are licensed to pollute the land, air & water at the expense of Black and Brown communities. The voices of community members left behind are dear to him and he listens to them with an open heart.
Andreta Armstrong, a lawyer, mentor, manager, and justice entrepreneur, has spent her life animating spiritual principles to support people who are discarded at the extreme margins. As the City’s Human Rights Manager, Andreta uses her platform as a lawyer and natural leader to empower her team in the cause of housing and employment justice. Those seeking help from discrimination receive the leveling impact of law and advocacy from Andreta personally and from her team, collectively.
Andreta brings love and mindfulness to clients and staff and imbues each with a sense of inherent value. She provides wisdom and guidance through her words. In addition to her management role, Andrea serves as the Executive Sponsor of the City’s Women of Color affinity group. Each of these women receives her deep care and attention.
In the 1980s, Andreta refined her vision after working with inmates studying at Pierce College at McNeil Island Correctional Center. She developed a business to build a support system to create sustained housing for these individuals and others. This led Andreta and her spouse to establish The One Group, devoted to providing housing and life coaching support for people transitioning from the Department of Corrections, or perceived to have undesirable rental histories, or suffering from a history of mental illness, or be dealing with other outcomes of systemic oppression.
That business now thrives. Residents in her numerous rental properties can depend on high-end living environments, along with life and career coaching opportunities and a sense that their lives and futures matter.
Karen Vargas is Founder and Director of Living Life Leadership, a youth mentoring program with the New Life Community Development Agency in Kitsap County. She founded Kitsap Equity, Race and Community Engagement (ERACE), a collective of organizations and community members working for racial equity in Kitsap County. She is a trained facilitator for the Strengthening African American Families program and Co-Chairperson of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Council for the Bainbridge Island School District. She is founder of the Living Arts Cultural Heritage Center in Bremerton. She has advocated for youth and their families in our Kitsap schools and community for over 25 years. She has organized many Kitsap community events such as 9/11 SOS, Celebration of Hidden History, Healing our Land, Healing Our People and the Weaving Histories Celebration. She is a past recipient of the Linda Gabriel Award for Human Rights and the Woman of Achievement Award among other honors and is an ardent human rights and civil rights advocate