Stories are the heartbeat of Native American cultures. Here are a few ways to invite cultural stories into your own heart:
1. “Dragonfly Memories With Ernest Siva”
Idyllwild Arts Native American Arts Program recently spent some time listening and recording memories and stories from Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. Join Ernest Siva and Idyllwild Arts in a free online Webinar at 7 tonight, California time, Wednesday, January 26, 2022.
Ernest Siva at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in a storytelling session. (Idyllwild Arts Photo)
From Idyllwild Arts: ”The Native American Arts Program is proud to re-launch the Indigenous Virtual Intersections webinar series with a new season entitled, “The Art of STORYTELLING: Telling OUR Stories!”
“Please join us for these online engagements led by Native American artists, scholars, and advocates.
“The series will kick off on Wednesday, January 26th [2022] at 7pm PST with Ernest Siva (Serrano and Cahuilla), a historian, bird singer, linguist, and the founder & president of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning, CA. He will share intimate stories about his experiences as a storyteller to his people, the creation of the Dorothy Ramon Center, and his time at Idyllwild Arts.
“Ernest shares an intimate journey down memory lane at Idyllwild Arts that started in the late 50s. His stories connect communities and generations, orally illustrating the context to our existence on this beautiful mountain as he explains that Mt. San Jacinto has always been a place to gather and share creatively.”
More on the Idyllwild Arts storytelling program and upcoming speakers HERE.
In this Dorothy Ramon Learning Center video, Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) tells why storytelling is essential.
He tells a story about the day he realized (at Idyllwild Arts) that he needed to learn Native American cultural songs and stories.
2. Sharing with New Generations
The Los Angeles Times continued its coverage about Elder Ernest Siva’s work to save and share the Serrano language with this Jan. 24, 2022, PODCAST, “An Indigenous Language, Back from the Brink.”
3. Storytelling as Medicine
Among our most popular News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center newsletters and Center events are those in which sisters Isabella and Sophia Madrigal (Cahuilla-Chippewa) share creative Indigenous storytelling as medicine, for healing.
“Our world needs Native voices telling Native stories,” they said in one of our first newsletters, Storytelling as Medicine. “We need youth and adults experiencing together, and bringing forth, the Indigenous voice of the ancestors as guidance for our lives today.”
Both sisters are featured writers in the upcoming UC Riverside Writers Week Festival on February 12 and 14-18, 2022. Explore the schedule for all the free online seminars that include many other Indigenous writers HERE.
Thank you!
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center thanks you for saving and sharing the wonders of Southern California Native American cultures with us. Please subscribe, read, and share the News. We welcome your EMAIL. — Editor Pat Murkland, January 26, 2022.
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. We welcome your donations. (MORE INFO.)