November 14-16, 2019: California Indian Conference | California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature

The California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature will have a major presence at the California Indian Conference to be held at Sonoma State University from November 14-16, 2019. In addition to having a table that will have information on our various California Indian programs and projects, we’re sponsoring the following two panels:

Panel I: Memories of Pomo Life | November 15 at 1.30pm

In the mid-1980s Vic Bedoian, a staff member of KPFA in Berkeley recorded 37 hours of interviews with legendary Pomo elders and younger tribal leaders. Annie Lake, Elsie Allen, Salome Alcantra, Bernice Torrez, Edna Guerrero, Frances Jack, Priscilla Hunter, Lanny Pinola, Susan Billy, Barbara Graumann, Carmen Christy, and Eddie, Angelo, and Ronald Knight. Panelists will listen to these voices and discuss how this moving archive can nourish our understanding and enrich our imagination.

Panelists will be: Malcolm Margolin, Executive Director of the California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California I CAN) in Berkeley; Vic Bedoian, Independent Radio Journalist with KFCF in Fresno; Sherrie Smith-Ferri, Curator of Education and Exhibits at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah; and Victoria Patterson, Professor of Sociology, Mendocino College, Ukiah.

Panel II. Remapping the California Landscape | November 16 at 1.30pm

The names of Christian saints, Army generals, successful merchants, and the like that crowd a map of California, represent acts of cultural vandalism, robbing the land of its history and erasing Indian presence. This panel will cover research on the roles indigenous names played in preserving the stories and spiritual history of a place, in linking the place to the people who lived there, and efforts to re-establish these names in today’s world.

Panelists will be: Malcolm Margolin, Executive Director of the California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California I CAN) in Berkeley; Jason MacCannell, Special Assistant to the Director of California State Parks, Sacramento; and Kaylee Pinola (Kashia Pomo/Coast Miwok), a Museum Studies Graduate Student at the University of San Francisco.

For more information about the conference, including registration and panel locations, please visit http://web.sonoma.edu/nwic/cic2019.