Reflections on Water: The Sharing of Intercultural Encounters

Saturday, May 10, 2014, 12:00 – 6:00PM, Rolfe Hall Yard

This summit provides an opportunity for individuals to share first-hand encounters around the theme of water and resistance. This year has been California’s driest year on record, a drought that resonates with similar extreme environmental changes across the world. The responses to the drought in California have been extremely variable and parallel other global concerns on water and the environment. Artist, Rigo 23’s exhibition From the Heart of Santa Madera, provides an opportunity to create a gathering that will explore ongoing indigenous issues around water and its importance. Water feeds the mountains, feeds the land, and feeds the human and nonhuman. These connected spaces are needed for the passing of language and tradition and life itself. Community speakers will lead the conversations within these themes to hear how they are engaging towards preservation of the land and water. It will not be a stagnate conversation, but invite participation to discuss and be a part of inspiring new ideas. It will be open to the public to attend and hear more directly from California native communities. Speakers include: George Blake (Yurok), Brian Tripp (Karuk), Thomas Poor Bear (Vice Chairman of the Oglala Lakota Tribe), Cindi Alvitre (Tongva), Craig Torres (Tongva), Kathy Bancroft (Lone Pine Paiute), and Annelia Hillman (Yurok).

Co-sponsored by the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Tribal Learning Community & Educational Exchange (TLCEE), UCLA Department of Gender Studies, and UCLA American Indian Studies Center