June 1, 2019: California Indian Arts & Culture Festival at Ohlone Park’s 50th Anniversary

On June 1st the California Institute for Community, Art & Nature and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in cooperation with Friends of the Ohlone Park, Heyday Books, and others, will be putting together a festival to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Ohlone Park. This event will bring to Berkeley the best and most accomplished artists, basket-weavers, boat builders, storytellers, singers, and other traditional artists from many parts of California. Central to the event will be the refurbishing and enhancement of the Ohlone Mural painted years ago by Jean LaMarr (Pit River and Paiute), which depicts members of the Native Muwekma Ohlone tribe and has been cherished by members of that community as one of the few public acknowledgments of their existence in the entire East Bay. The dedication will take place from 11:00 am -12:00 pm at the corner of Hearst Avenue and Milvia Street.

The California Indian Arts and Culture Festival will be from 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm near the corner of Hearst Avenue and McGee Street. It will be part of a larger community festival of history exhibits, music, children’s play areas, food vendors, etc. For a complete description of programs, see http://ohlone.transbay.net/index.php/50th-anniversary-of-ohlone-park-june-1st/.

The goal of the California Indian Arts & Culture Festival is to support political and cultural advocacy and make known to the general public the wealth and beauty of Native arts and the knowledge imbedded in them. Miraculously after 250 years of oppression and genocide, these arts, language, and culture have not only survived but have been revitalized in recent years. This festival aims to support the communities that have kept these arts alive and have brought them into the modern world, and to introduce others to California’s oldest and deepest sense of itself.

This festival will be a prototype of what we hope will be an annual festival in the Bay Area. It was inspired by memories of the Festival at the Lake in Oakland, which ceased operation in 1997. The event is free, open to the public, and children as well as adults are welcome. On the last page of this document you will find a map with directions and parking information. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the event, you can contact info@californiaican.org.

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Native California Demonstrators

The following have been invited to share their knowledge and demonstrate their skills:

Carson Bates – Central Sierra Mewuk
Making Hemp String

Carson is proficient in the art of string making. He is also skilled in making twined baskets, toys, musical instruments, and many other items of Native material culture. Much of what Carson has learned is from the redoubtable Dorothy Stanley, his grandmother, his father, Craig Bates, and his mother, Jennifer Bates, as well as a host of aunts, relatives, and friends. Carson continues the legacy of passing on traditional knowledge by holding presentations and demonstrations, and teaching.

Ursula Jones – Mewuk / Paiute / Pomo / Coast Miwok
Making Tule Twined Work

Ursula comes from a family rich in history, skilled in Native arts, and wealthy in knowledge. Her grandmother and grandfather, Julia and Ralph Parker, as well as her mother Lucy Parker, are responsible for instilling an understanding of ancestral ways, including basketry, Native foods, and other material forms of culture. She is a basket weaver, dancer, singer, and teacher of the Native world.

L Frank Manriquez – Tongva / Ajachmen
Building the Ti’aat (Canoe)

L Frank is a dynamic artist in many media and is well known for her magnificent work with the Ti’aat (canoe). She is a graphic artist, cartoonist, painter, and muralist. L Frank is a founder and co-founder of many organizations dedicated to Native languages and material cultures. Although versed in traditional arts, she is anything but predictable. In her art, as well as in her personal life, she lives in the margins but has made these margins seem like the center of the world.

Vincent Medina – Chochenyo Ohlone
Language Arts

After awakening his language from 75 years of silence, he speaks it fluently with passion and deep reverence for the history it conveys and for the courage of the people who preserved it into this century. Eloquent, he captivates the audience with his moving presence and his strong love and understanding of place. Vincent continues giving life to his language by teaching it to other members of the community. California Indian cuisine, a specialty of Cafe Ohlone (founded by Vincent and his partner Louis Trevino), is another platform through which Vincent strengthens the Native connection to ancestral ways and shares the vibrancy of their culture with the rest of the community.

Rico Miranda – Rumsien Ohlone
Teaching Native Games

Rico is versed in the history of his ancestors and keeps their language alive by speaking it himself. He is active in preserving Ohlone history and culture and shares his historical expertise and cultural knowledge with the rest of the world by leading presentations and teaching in an outdoor education program.

Kimberly Stevenot – Central Sierra Mewuk
Cooking Nupa (Acorn Soup)

Kimberly is gifted in the central Sierra Native cuisine, sharing her knowledge of Mewuk culture with her community through demonstrations and lectures. Kimberly learned from her mother, Dorothy Stanley, her grandmother, and aunties the process of cooking nupa (acorn soup) and many other traditional Mewuk foods. Her craft is not limited to the culinary arts but extends into the world of Mewuk basket weaving and jewelry making, both of which are made with traditional Native materials.

Julie Tex – Dunlap Band of Mono
Making soaproot brushes

Julie has practiced her Mono cultural traditions since early childhood and shares her knowledge through teachings and demonstrations. As a jewelry-maker, she is known for her vibrant Mono necklaces. Through her fine beading, Julie is dedicated to keeping the practice of making and wearing traditional beaded collars alive. She also makes baskets, native string sashes, soap root brushes, and much more. She speaks her native language fluently and along with other family members travels all over the country to meet new people and share the beauty of her culture.

Fred Velasquez – Central Sierra Mewuk
Crafting Clamshell Beads

Adopted into the Central Sierra Mewuk, Fred has been fully integrated into the traditional ways. He is versed in the skills of California Native material culture, exemplified by his magnificent clamshell and magnesite bead making. He takes part in dance groups throughout the Central California Area, participates in song and ceremony, and has dedicated his life to learning, demonstrating, and teaching the traditional old ways.

Linda Yamane – Rumsien Ohlone
Weaving Ohlone Basketry

Linda has long been an inspiration for others seeking to revitalize their culture. She is well known for her beautiful baskets. Her work has been featured in museums throughout California – including the Oakland Museum – and around the world. In addition to basketry, she has resurrected her Native language, customs, and traditions. Through poetry and art she has managed to live a culture that anthropologists had declared extinct in the 1920’s. She communicates her love of the old ways and of a generation now gone through her stories, writings, singing, graphic design, jewelry making, and tule boat building.

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Native California Artists

The following are artists who are bringing samples of their work to sell:

Johnny Clay – Pomo / Maidu
Graphic designs, stationary, T-shirts, musical instruments, other works reflecting his heritage

Johnny excels in crafting objects of traditional California Indian life such as clapper sticks and drums. He also uses his artistic skills and cultural knowledge to create stationary, stickers, t-shirts, and other modern items. His art has been used by many California Native businesses and associations to express their debt to their living Native cultures.

Stephanie Ferris – Dry Creek Pomo
Beaded jewelry

Stephanie is well known for her beautiful beadwork. From the tiniest of beads she creates worlds of magic with animals, birds, and basket designs. Her colors are bright and her art is joyful.

Jean LaMarr – Paiute / Pit River
Graphic designs and prints

Jean was raised in Susanville, in Lassen County, one of the most remote areas of California. She grew up in a world where Bear Dance heralded the New Year and Native languages were still spoken. Carrying that depth of tradition and feeling, she studied art in the Bay Area in the early 1970’s, and along with Frank LaPena, Harry Fonseca, Brian Tripp, and others helped shape modern California Indian Art. A person of great artistic versatility, she has been a print maker, painter, muralist, teacher, and cultural activist. The event at Ohlone Park is organized around the mural that she did on the Bart vent.

Alice Lincoln-Cook – Karuk
Baskets and jewelry

Alice makes unique and highly sought after jewelry by using the traditional Karuk basketry braiding techniques. She is also a basketweaver and, in addition to representing her own work, she will be representing the work of the California Indian Basketweavers Association (CIBA).

Meyo Murrufo – Eastern Pomo
Graphics, books, cards, stationary, dolls, toys, jewelry, and baskets

From her ancestral home in Clear Lake, Meyo makes dolls, jewelry, and graphic arts. Her prints depict her Pomo culture with knowledge and spirit. She also makes colorful children’s books for teaching numbers and ABC’s in her Native Pomo language.

Nancy Napolitan – Coast Miwok / Pomo
Graphic arts and watercolor

Nancy, a descendent of the Smith family originally from Bodega Bay, works in water color and oil to produce accessible and evocative paintings. She will be exhibiting them along with her sister Kathleen Smith, mentioned below. She enjoys including in her art many of the native plants and flowers of her tribal lands.

Julia Parker and Family – Coast Miwok / Kashaya Pomo
Basket weaving and other traditional skills

Julia is a National Endowment of the Arts recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship. She is regarded everywhere as a living treasure. Born in Sonoma County some 90 years ago, she spent her early life in boarding schools removed from her natal culture. There she met Ralph Parker whose family had lived in the Yosemite Valley since time immemorial, and from Ralph’s grandmother, Lucy Telles, she learned basketry, acorn processing, and many other skills of the Sierra. She studied basketry under Mabel McKay and studied baskets in museums throughout the world. She still makes baskets, gives talks, and graces us all with her astounding presence. Her skills have been passed down to her daughter Lucy, her granddaughter Ursula, and her great-granddaughter Naomi, all of whom will be with us for this event.

Wanda Quitiquit – Eastern Pomo
Gourd carvings and bowls using Native basket designs

Wanda is talented in many things, regalia, jewelry, but is best known for her beautiful gourds that she burns with the basket designs from the Pomo and other tribes around the state. She has also incorporated acorns and oak leaves into her gourds that are a reflection of the essential food of the Native people throughout central California. She is exceedingly skilled in what she does, and her skill is only exceeded by her generosity of spirit. 

Dixie Rogers – Karuk / Modoc
Basket weaving

Dixie, former Board Member of the California Indian Basketweavers Association, is a talented artist, skillful in making traditional Karuk baskets. The Karuk people were known for extraordinary baskets and produced some of the greatest basketry artists the world has ever seen. Dixie has devoted a large part of her life to carrying on this tradition, and travels across the country sharing the beauty of her culture’s artistry by holding California Indian Basketweaving demonstrations. She also makes magnificent jewelry using abalone and glass beads. 

Kathleen Smith – Coast Miwok / Pomo
Graphic arts and artworks using watercolors and oil

Kathleen, a member of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, grew up in the Healdsburg area of Sonoma County. An artist from early childhood, she graduated from San Francisco Art Institute in 1977.  Her watercolors depict traditional dances, baskets, ocean life, animals, and the old landscapes of California. Kathleen is also a writer who for years authored a food column for News from Native California and has written a book about Native foods called Enough for All. Now much to her surprise she is an elder of the tribe and has been passing her knowledge on to the younger generation.

Vivian Snyder – Yurok
Baskets, dolls, and jewelry

Vivian grew up along the Klamath River in a historic Yurok village that dates from the earliest times. She moved when she was 13 and her memories of that village and her relatives there have not been tainted by the passage of time. She’s a great pleasure to talk to, and carries with her a sense of warmth, kindness, and dignity that are very reminiscent of an old world of California. As an artist, she makes miniature baskets, jewelry, and beautiful, playful clay dolls that are dressed in the fashion of the Yurok people. She excels in many artistic media, but her greatest accomplishment is in the art of being fully human. She recently moved back to Hoopa.

Eric Wilder – Kashaya Pomo
Graphics, cards, and other pieces depicting his Pomo heritage

For historic reasons Eric’s tribe, the Kashaya Pomo, kept itself apart from the rest of the world for years. The language, songs, roundhouse traditions, and knowledge of everyday life survived there much longer than anywhere else. In the current cultural revival of California, much of the inspiration has come from Kashaya. Eric is a skilled illustrator and a student of his culture. His design work reflects both modern tastes and startling accurate evocations of the Kashaya past.

Various native cultural & activist organizations will also be displaying their work.

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Map and Directions:
Free parking is available at the North Berkeley Bart Station. Better yet, take Bart.