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More about: DAVID LUBORSKY

Dave Luborsky

IDEM – Identity Through Initiative

Ø     Born on 02/07/81

Ø     July – August 1998 – Participated in Earthquest, a one-month experiential-learning program for high school students focused on learning about social and ecological problems in Venezuela.

Ø     June 1999 - Graduated from Kimberton Waldorf High School

Ø     Started career as an activist and itinerant farm apprentice.

Ø     June – October 1999 - worked as a garden apprentice at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, Kimberton, PA, a community based on working with special needs adults.  

Ø     July 1999 – Attended Vision in Action, a youth conference in Santa Cruz, California

Ø     October 1999 – hitchhiked cross-country to New Mexico.

Ø     November 1999 – took part in the demonstration against the WTO in Seattle.

Ø     December 1999 – April 2000 – worked at a small farm near Santa Fe, NM

Ø     June – August 2000 – hitchhiked through Europe.

Ø     August 2000 – September 2001 – worked at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills as a garden apprentice.

Ø     March 2002 – September 2002 – apprenticed at a farm near Hamburg, Germany

Ø     December 2002 – Took part in the protests against nuclear waste transports in Wendland, Germany.

Ø     Winter 2003 Took part in protests against the Iraq war in Berlin and elsewhere.

Ø     May – September 2003 – apprenticed on a small farm in southern France.

Ø     September 2003 – February 2004 – apprenticed on a small farm in the black forest, Germany.

Ø     February – July 2004 – apprenticed on a farm near Lake Constance, Germany.

Ø     August 2004 – June 2006 – lived and worked at the farmer’s market in the town of Constance, Germany.

Ø     June – July 2006 worked in the alps tending cows.

Ø     July 2006 – Attended Connectivity2006, a conference for youth in Sao Paulo, Brazil organized by IDEM.

Ø     August – December 2006 – Lived and worked in the town of Hudson, NY.

Ø     January – February 2007 – Attended an international planning meeting for youth involved in IDEM and the Youth Initiative Meeting of the Youth Section of the Anthroposophical Society.

Ø     February – July 2007 – lived and worked in Columbia County new York, organizing this summer’s volunteer project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

YOUTH TO BUILD AT

LAKOTA WALDORF SCHOOL

The building site near Kyle, South Dakota,

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

This summer, youth from Columbia County will be participating in a youth volunteer project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The project, organized by Dave Luborsky and Juliana Hepp of IDEM - Identity Through Initiative, an international volunteer organization, is designed not only to aid the Lakota Waldorf School, but also to give youth new experiences and knowledge of ecological building techniques.  “We want to give youth the opportunity to put their ideals into action,” says Luborsky.

Eliot Wilson, graduate of the Hawthorne Valley School and architecture student at Hampshire College, will be participating in the project. “Ever since my first visit to Pine Ridge two years ago, I have been waiting to go back. Now that day has come, and it happens to coincide with another of my interests, which is straw-bale building,” says Wilson. Nicole Tranchita, in training as a nurse at Columbia Greene Community College, will also be attending. “We don’t realize how different the world is that they live in. Our realities are so different. I think it’s important for those two realities to meet in the middle and balance each other out. I think this trip will help do that,” says Tranchita. Participating from this area will also be Hawthorne Valley graduate Alex Schifano and Molly Hansen of Canaan, both trained EMTs.

The Lakota Waldorf School is located in the heart of the Oglala tribal reservation, in the Pejuta Haka, one of the nine districts of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. While other reservations are getting rich from gambling, the Lakota reservation remains the poorest area in the United States.

Surrounded by desert and wasteland, the Lakota (Sioux) people retain a deep sense of identity and their tribal history, including the pain of the massacre at wounded knee. In the sacred Black Hills lies a small non state-run school, the Lakota Waldorf School. It is a small school with a strong vision of resurrecting the native culture and language of the Lakota people. Here lives the vision of a school where the Lakota language and culture can find a place in an education that prepares children for life in the modern world. It supports each child to grow to its full spiritual potential.

The school originally opened its doors to children in 1994, and grew through the 5th grade with financial support from the U.S. and Europe. In 1997, it suffered the tragic loss of one of its founders, and, after struggling for a few more years was forced to close in 2003. While the school closed its doors, the community’s dream never died. This Fall, the school will open its doors to a new class of kindergarten children.

As the school grows and strengthens, the community will be adding different elements. A cultural center to support the artistic expressions of the community as well as ceremonies will open its doors. There will be a garden and a variety of workshops. A café will use the local produce as daily fare, and bread from the bakery. Trade workshops will provide opportunities for young people to apprentice with carpenters, metal workers, gardeners, potters and bakers. These opportunities are essential to developing skills in a trade as well as for working with masters and elders. . These relationships between the generations are essential to the survival of cultural identity among young Lakota children.  

Students at Lakota Waldorf School

The school is not the only thing that is being built from the ground up this year -

The housing situation on the Lakota reservation is in sad repair. According to the National Center for Environmental Research: “The Pine Ridge Reservation, located in rural South Dakota, is plagued with deteriorating infrastructure, poverty, lack of local employment and high utility bills. Many of the residents, the Oglala nation, live in mobile homes or substandard housing and spend nearly 25% of their income on utilities. Few people on the reservation have the resources or construction knowledge to improve their current residences or build energy-efficient, culturally appropriate houses.”

So for this small school, there will be a house for the new kindergarten teacher. The house will be a straw bale house, setting an example for what is possible in the realm of ecologically and economically sustainable housing. The house will also incorporate solar energy.

This project is not a solo event - the participants in raising this roof will include members of the board of trustees, carpentry students from Oglala Lakota College, as well as young people from around the world. The work will be filmed by documentary-filmmaker Brian Gray and used as a prototype for developing sustainable, affordable housing opportunities on reservations. Building will begin the third week of July 2007 and run through August. Johannes Lauterbach of Tuebingen, Germany, is doing the building design. Henry Red Cloud, a straw-bale builder who is also experienced in leading projects at Pine Ridge, will lead construction.

For more information on the Lakota Waldorf School and this summer’s project, contact dave@idem-network.org.

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-        Professional straw bale builder