Native Voices Festival!
Native Voices Festival!
March 11, 2023, LINEUP!
Discover and explore the joy of our Southern California Native American cultures at the free and family-friendly NATIVE VOICES POETRY FESTIVAL, March 11, 2023, 10 am to 4 pm, Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA 92220. Celebrate the Native voice in all the arts. Create your own stories and art in our popular workshops. All are welcome!
Here’s the lineup!
Theme: Ayaqaych, Gathering Mountain
Ayaqaych (Pat Murkland Photo)
Join Artist Gloria “Toti” Bell at the Festival in painting a community mural celebrating San Jacinto Peak. The Serrano name Ayaqaych means “Gathering Mountain,” and as Ernest Siva explains, “This is where our people would go to gather and process foods and medicine. People of spiritual power would also go there to learn their songs.”
Festival Performances
Throughout the Day
Bill Madrigal and family sharing traditional bird songs (Carlos Puma Photo)
Bird Singing and Dancing Groups:
Mountain Cahuilla Bird Singers (Bill Madrigal)
Painiktem Bird Singers (Eli Andreas)
Traditional Cahuilla Bird Singers (Kim Marcus)
Terrance Guardipee painting (Courtesy of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center)
Festival Songs & Stories
Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano),
president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center
Elder Kim Marcus (Serrano-Cahuilla)
Storyteller Kat High (Hupa descent)
More Stories & Songs
Family Fun: Coyote Tale, a one-act short comedy play in Serrano, starring audience members and the San Manuel Band of Serrano Indians Education Department.
Dorothy Ramon’s cultural stories,
Shared by family members Ernest Siva and Carolyn Horsman.
Sharing by Festival Workshop artists and poets!
Flute music: Dragonfly Wind Flute Ensemble
Hoop dancing: Nanabah Kadenehii (Navajo)
Special guests: The Young S.A.M.O.A. dance group of San Bernardino
Explore!
Native Plant Discovery Area
Join Mother Earth Clan & Friends, Morongo Cultural Department, and Kat High in exploring our relationship with our unique and beautiful Southern California landscapes, and the many Native American uses for native plants as tools, medicines, and foods. Taste the original California cuisine, Native foods.
White sage (Pat Murkland photo)
SPECIAL ATTRACTION: Screening throughout the afternoon of Saging the Wild, a short documentary film on white sage produced by Rose Ramirez, Deborah Small, and the California Native Plant Society, followed by Q&A with filmmaker Rose Ramirez. Accompanied by a special mini exhibit.
Read All About It
Visit our BOOK NOOK and Heyday books and News from Native California magazine, Inlandia Institute with poet Ruth Nolan, a mini exhibit of hikers’ poetry written on a hike with the Native American Land Conservancy, and much more.
SPECIAL ATTRACTION: A Festival Free Little Library hosted by Friends of Banning Library and Banning Library District.
Celebrate our Native Languages
11 am-noon. A language panel will share how Serrano and Cahuilla languages are experiencing revitalization at San Manuel and Morongo reservations.
Enjoy Community Displays and Exhibits
Join Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, San Manuel Band Education Department, Morongo Reservation School, California Indian Nations College, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Gilman Historic Ranch and Wagon Museum, San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society, Riverside Arts Council, and more.
Create Your Own Stories, Poems, & Art
in Workshops for Children and Everyone Else
Design Your Life
11 am-noon
Kim Marcus leads you in exploring the ancient rock art of pictographs and their deeper meanings, using slate as your tablet and willow sticks for your brush.
Six-sided Stories
afternoon
Create a story in a cube! Led by Juan Delgado.
Poetry ‘N Art Workshops
all afternoon
Leeanne Methot and Juan Delgado lead family workshops in creating stories, poetry, and art. Come share your work in the performance hall afterward!
Food!
Super Subs: across the street at 112 N. San Gorgonio Ave.
Food Truck: Q &A Tacos de Birria
Candy store: La Carreta Dulceria, 89 N. San Gorgonio Ave.
Coffee shop: A short walk to Jitterz, 42 W. Ramsey St.
More information HERE.
Thank you and see you soon! This year Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is honored to partner with the new Idyllwild Arts Native American Arts Center, also our major sponsor, to bring our family-friendly Festival to you. We also thank California State University, San Bernardino, Social Sciences, Public History, and English departments for their support. We are deeply grateful for all our volunteers from Cal State University, San Bernardino, and from throughout the region. Thanks to all for helping us keep the Festival FREE.
And thanks to you, the 501c3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), is in its 20th year of saving and sharing Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
Please share our FREE online newsletter, News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, and thank you from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva, and Editor Pat Murkland. We value your ideas: Please EMAIL. March 1, 2023.