Looking up to Stars and Stories

Strength, Medicine, Hope, and Healing

As Dorothy Ramon Learning Center approaches our 501(c)3 Nonprofit’s 17th-year birthday, we’re thrilled that our Gathering Hall in Banning, California, has become a place where people of all ages have come to save and share Native American cultures, stories and songs, languages, history, and traditional arts. In the time of the pandemic, News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is one of the ways we share a virtual Gathering Hall. We’ll also be gathering online on November 6, 2020, for the premiere performance of the play, “Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit,” and we invite you to join us.

In this News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, stories again share the relationship we have with the power of the natural world. Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) shares a beloved memory and a song, and 16-year-old Sophia Madrigal (Cahuilla-Chippewa) tells about how her new play honors her late father, Luke Madrigal, and how she is sharing hope and healing.

Ernest Siva:
Memories and the Morning Star

Sophia Madrigal:
A Love Letter to My Father

Luke Madrigal performing as the character Dreamwalker in Redlands in 2019 with daughters Sophia (center) and Isabella Madrigal in Isabella’s play, “Menil and her Heart.” The play, which premiered at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in early 2019, resulted in Isabella’s winning the National Girl Scout Award. She also addressed the United Nations about missing and murdered Indigenous women. Isabella and Sophia won $10,000 in fellowships from the Dragon Kim Foundation in 2019 to develop “Menil and her Heart” and their Native storytelling projects.

By Sophia Madrigal
I am passionate about Native representation in the arts and cultural revitalization and strengthening through stories, currently as an 11th-grader at the Orange County School of the Arts, residing in the acting conservatory. I am a member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians on my father's side and Anishinabe, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, on my mother's side.

Stories always have been a vital part of my life, in my culture and family. I have been taught that stories are medicine, culture is strength, women are leaders, and that we have a responsibility to our ancestors. We live in the time of a global pandemic, a time where grief and loss is touching every community. We, as Indigenous people, have stories about this. And we have known this constant visitor too well for the past 500 years. For too long we have listened to a narrative that begins with Columbus or colonization and ends with the Indian Termination Policy, yet that is not our narrative. Our stories begin with creation and end with activism.

“Healing Medicine for the World”

I am one of 24 Cahuilla grandchildren, most of whom are girls. As a Native American girl I feel personally connected to human rights issues addressing the safety and security of women from all forms of violence. As I develop my own leadership, I aspire to apply these teachings: story, culture, and responsibility to tackle the unfathomable issue of violence against Indigenous women, children, elders, and the Earth. Indigenous peoples, from across the globe, their wisdom that honors women, are being erased, their voices silenced, their stories untold. To address these wounds in Indigenous people we must understand that Native peoples need to return to the traditional form of healing, which includes storytelling. We hold a responsibility to receive, preserve, and promote our stories; without them, we are lost. But our wisdom also offers healing medicine for the world.

Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit

I love performing and writing healing and social justice plays. “Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit” is a culturally strengthening play that deals with a girl’s journey through grief and loss, and offers hope to anyone who has ever lost someone. Stories are healing. I know this strongly. My father passed away earlier this year and it is through story that I am able to stand here today, strong.

My father told me that, “The greatest loss in life is not loss itself, but who we forget when trying to erase who we are.”

While staying in character as Dreamwalker, Luke Madrigal tells a traditional Cahuilla story in 2019 at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Dragonfly Gala. (Carlos Puma Photo)

“Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit” is a love letter to my father that honors who we are. I founded the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit in my father's name. I envision a home for artistic expression of Indigenous voices. The Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit aspires to bring Native art forms inspired by social justice and healing to indigenous peoples dealing with universal themes of hardship around the globe. This is especially relevant now as we together face a global pandemic.

The most important thing I can bring, as an Indigenous girl, is my deep-rooted ancestral memory, my voice, and my story. This story helped me. I hope that it helps you.

Sophia Madrigal (in red dress) and Isabella Madrigal (to her right) with the cast of “Menil and her Heart.” Some of the actors are returning with Sophia and Isabella Madrigal in the video performance of “Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit.” (Pat Murkland Photo)

Watch the video performance

You’re invited to the play’s premiere (online) hosted by Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, partnering with the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit.

DETAILS: 7 p.m. Friday, November 6, 2020
Online via Zoom. Here’s your invitation. Once you sign up, you’ll be sent your own personal link to connect with the performance.

Thank you!

We welcome ideas for News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center: Email. Subscribe and get a little Native American culture in your inbox every week. (Gmail users, please check your promotions folder.) Thank you to all for your support! Pat Murkland, Editor. Oct. 28, 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.