Recognizing Native American Heritage Month
Our country commemorates the month of November as Native American Heritage month.
We at Brightworks continue to honor and celebrate our indigenous communities year round.
Although this work is continuously in development and a work in-progress, we are committed to decolonizing frameworks that harbor racial inequities and injustices.
Our middle school bands have committed themselves to diving deeper into Indigenous Peoples' studies while exploring the testimonies and stories of indigenous authors and artists.
Across Brightworks, we are finding new ways to honor, acknowledge and bring into our bandspaces the testimonies of our indigenous communities.
This November, we encourage our community members to continue uplifting and elevating indigenous voices, traditions and perspectives.
Books that some of our bands are reading:
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Tracy Noble
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard
Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America edited by Sara Sinclair
America is a vast land of many cultures dating back thousands of years to the original inhabitants of the land. During National Native American Heritage Month, we explore the heritage, culture, and experience of Indigenous peoples both historically and in American life today.
About Ramaytush Ohlone, from https://americanindianculturaldistrict.org/ramaytush-land-acknowledgement
“The Ramaytush (pronounced ‘rah-my-toosh’) are the original peoples of Yelamu, the San Francisco Peninsula. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1769, the Ramaytush Ohlone numbered approximately 1500 persons and lived in ten small tribal groups. Today, the four family lineages documented are from one single person, “Leandra,” who survived the colonization of San Francisco.
The Ramaytush Ohlone people are still here today and work to preserve their cultural knowledge, expand knowledge of their history, revitalize their language, and protect wahrep, mother earth, and serve the communities in San Francisco. We are honored to work beside them as guests and American Indian relatives on their ancestral home land.”
For more info visit the Ramaytush Ohlone Association’s website here.
Further Reading and Local Organizations
San Francisco Library Events and Programs
5 Things You Should Know About San Francisco’s Indigenous Past & Present
SF Bay and Water Trail give you the most unfettered observation of our unique cultural roots.
The citywide Indigenize Project is a placemaking and place keeping initiative that focuses on honoring and celebrating American Indian culture, history, people, and contributions through art works, pole banners, a genocide mapping project, and QR walking tours. This four part project is intended to create an interactive experience that will confront systematic erasure and add to the rich cultural heritage of San Francisco by expanding public awareness and elevating Native visibility through an Indigenous lens.
The Indigenize Project will create educational destinations throughout the city mapping out a cultural trail for residents and visitors to learn and experience American Indian culture and history through the voice of the people. The Ramaytush Ohlone of the Bay Area, and greater Native population are not a people of the past, but an integral and active community in San Francisco.
Local Organizations
http://www.ramaytush.com
http://amahmutsun.org
http://muwekma.org
https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/purpose-and-vision/
Get Involved
http://amahmutsun.org/land-trust
http://protectjuristac.org
https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/ohlone/
'We Are Here and Present': New Native American Mural in Golden Gate Park:
For Indigenous Peoples Day we, at Paint the Void, are grateful for our partnership with @aicd.sf and their work to empower the American Indian voice of the SF Bay Area.
This mural, “We Are on Native Land: Honoring the Original Stewards,” marks the entrance to Golden Gate Park at Stanyan. The intention of the mural is foster a collective understanding of being on and connected to the land and honors Indigenous animals, plants, and people as the first stewards of Golden Gate Park in Yelamu.
The “We” reminds us that we are never alone in the park which was created to welcome and foster recreation and enjoyment from people of all Nations and to honor our unique and shared relationships, responsibility, and connection to the plants and animals in GGP.
Organized by @aicd.sf designed by native artists, realized by the AICD community and artist @rachel.z.art WE are grateful for the beginning of many more partnerships.
Take the moment to go outside, and be grateful for the contributions and wisdom of Native people and their many gifts. Connect with the land, animals, plants and people!