Ernest Siva: A Song, A Story, and A New Year
Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, sings in Serrano about Ayaqaych (San Jacinto Peak), and about the mischief-making Little Bear. He tells the stories behind the song, along with his wishes for 2021.
(For the music, words, and more information, see: Siva, Ernest H. 2004, Voices of the Flute: Songs of Three Southern California Indian Nations, CD and book, “Little Bear Song,” Ushkana Press.)
Story Medicine
Throughout 2020, the Learning Center’s News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center and online workshops have explored different ways of finding strength and resiliency through Native American culture. Our next workshop is 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 5, 2021, “Story Medicine in the Time of the Pandemic.”
An illustration by Sophia Madrigal using the symbol of a moccasin flower, a Chippewa story also featured in her recently performed online play, “Wildflower, Indigenous Spirit.”
The Culture Bearers who developed our first 2020 online workshop last July, Storytelling as Medicine, have been meeting to develop this story medicine. Using Native American traditional stories, songs, dances, or cultural memories, they worked together on the stories’ wisdom, especially focusing on loss and isolation during the pandemic.
From teenagers and ages on up, participants include sisters Sophia and Isabella Madrigal and their mother, Renda Madrigal, of the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit, along with Jim Fenelon, Vince Whipple and daughter Valerie Whipple, Betsy Davis, Michael Madrigal, and Mauritza Zaragoza Castellano.
They found and assembled an uplifting and comforting “tool kit” of healing and hope, beauty and balance, to offer to our community.
An illustration by Renda Madrigal shows a symbol of resiliency in her Chippewa-based story.
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center will offer this uplifting Dragonfly Adventure, “Story Medicine in the Time of the Pandemic,” via Zoom at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2021. FREE. Donations welcomed to the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.
To register, sign up here. You will then be sent your personalized link to the event.
Promises of the New Year
White sage growing back, amid December’s snow and from charred landscape, after the Apple Fire.
(Pat Murkland photo)
Throughout the pandemic, thanks to all of you, News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center and our video messages from our Elder Ernest Siva have enabled us all to save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. We are grateful for this gift from you of subscribing, reading, and sharing the News, and giving us suggestions, ideas, and articles. Even after it’s safe to resume our events, we look forward to the opportunities of the News continuing to grow and learn from all of you. Thank you! Happy 2021!
Sunset in the canyon (Pat Murkland Photo).
We welcome your ideas and contributions to News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center: EMAIL. Please consider subscribing. It’s FREE. (G-mail users, please check your promotions folder.) Pat Murkland, Editor. Dec. 30, 2020.
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Join us at dorothyramon.org and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center on Facebook.