Vera Longtoe Sheehan is an educator, activist, and artist who serves as the Executive Director of the Vermont Abenaki Artist Assocation, the Founder of the Abenaki Arts & Education Center, and is the curator of the traveling exhibit Nebizun: Water is Life. Vera also serves on the Executive Board for the Vermont Humanities Council.

Nebi is the Abenaki word for water, a fundamental element that is necessary for all life. As stewards of the environment Native American people know the importance of clean water in everyday activities and understand its healing properties. This discussion will focus on Abenaki relationship to water, concerns that water pollution may change traditional lifeways, as well as the health of all our relations, human and animal.