SUSTAINING THE SPIRIT: Native American Heritage Month 2013
Foothill’s third-annual Native American Heritage Month (co-sponsored by the Center for a Sustainable Future) focused intensively on issues of environmental justice for all.
Highlights included a November 5 keynote lecture by Fond du Lac tribal member and eco-activist Rochelle Diver, a prominent sustainability advocate within the United Nations. As a lead staff member for the International Native Treaty Council, based in San Francisco, Rochelle described the Council itself as “an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific working for the Sovereignty and Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of Indigenous Rights, Treaties, Traditional Cultures and Sacred Lands.” Within her tribe’s own traditional homelands — where sustainable wild rice harvesting has nourished human cultures for tens of centuries — Rochelle has already spent a lifetime fighting for clean air, water and food security within the Great Lakes region. Further from home, she has also proudly represented the International Indian Treaty Council at the United Nations in New York (as well as at UN-sponsored events from Australia to South America). For Foothill students, one memorable highlight of her lecture was a direct challenge to identify which precise provisions of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples could best be invoked to help assure a sustainable future for us all.
Next Aleut tribal historian and documentarian Judy Young shared intimate glimpses of her own personal journey from Alaska’s remote archipelago to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district during the Summer of Love — along with wrenching tales of the environmental and social costs of Alaska’s colonization and exploitation (from the first Russian fur traders of the 1700s forward to the present-day petro-economy). Later Dr. Tharon Weighill, a member of the Chumash tribe, spoke eloquently of his lifelong work with the legendary American Indian Movement civil rights activists (from indigenous occupations of Alcatraz Island onward). To close out the month’s lectures, local Ohlone tribal elder Anne-Marie Sayers and her artist-daughter Kanyon Sayers both described their lifelong work of stewardship and restoration at the Indian Canyon Preserve south of Gilroy -- which ironically remains the only piece of land under the direct control of San Francisco’s original inhabitants, the Ohlone Tribe.
Framed by an ongoing series of films, photo exhibits, and live musical performances, virtually every aspect of Foothill’s Native American Heritage Month 2013 focused directly or indirectly on issues of sustainability and planetary survival — ranging from award-winning documentaries about Pocahontas and electric power generation to the eerie and ancient flute and drumming dance music of the Aztecan and Mayan ceremonies (not to mention the more contemporary eco-themed lyrics of the legendary Bay Area Native Rock band, Medicine Road).
