Storytelling Power!

Finding Medicine in the Arts

By Pat Murkland
Since they were in their teens we’ve been proud to share and support the passion that Isabella and Sophia Madrigal (Cahuilla/Turtle Mountain Chippewa) have for Native American representation in the Arts, and the ways these young women have found and shared power and healing in traditional stories that strengthen the community and revitalize Native American cultures.

We’re also proud to share today’s announcement that Sophia Madrigal has won the Misty Upham Award for Young Native Actors from the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program.

The sisters, tribal members of the Cahuilla Band, are now both studying at Harvard while they continue to lead the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit. Sophia founded the Storytelling Nonprofit in 2020 in honor of their late father, Cahuilla Singer and Culture Bearer Luke Madrigal.

The late Luke Madrigal continues to inspire. (Pictured at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Dargaonfly Gala, Carlos Puma Photo)

Dorothy Ramon Learning Center hosted storytelling workshops online during the pandemic with the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit.

The Nonprofit has become a home for the family’s artistic expression and storytelling projects that share ancient stories to teach and heal. The sisters are strongly supported by their mother, Renda Madrigal (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), a licensed clinical psychologist active in teaching and sharing mindfulness techniques and storytelling medicine, who is pursuing her own master’s degree in fine arts.

The late Luke Madrigal was inspired by Ernest Siva in his performance 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, explores the story of how the sister of a missing and murdered Indigenous woman finds healing and resilience through ancient Native American stories. The play resulted in Isabella’s winning the National Girl Scout Award. She also addressed the United Nations about missing and murdered Indigenous women. The play has been performed in more than 20 venues, most recently before the California State Legislature in 2022.

More recently, as part of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Native Knowledge 360° program, Isabella Madrigal was a panelist in a museum Webinar called, “Reclaiming the Stage,” a conversation with young Indigenous actors and playwrights who are reimagining Native representation onstage.

Coming soon!

Under the leadership and cultural guidance of Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), Dorothy Ramon Learning Center looks forward to working again with Sophia and Isabella Madrigal as they lead summer workshops in which participants create art inspired by traditional stories. Stay tuned for details!

“Stories always have been a vital part of my life, in my culture and family,” Sophia Madrigal wrote in the 2020 pandemic. “I have been taught that stories are medicine, culture is strength, women are leaders, and that we have a responsibility to our ancestors.”

Dorothy Ramon Learning Center also offered Sophia Madrigal’s play, Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit, online during the pandemic. The play explored a young girl’s journey through hardship and loss and how she finds courage and resilience. The playwright earned a Gold Award, Girl Scouts’ highest level. For her work, Sophia Madrigal spoke at the United Nations’ Day of the Girl Summit: Girls Speak Out Event in 2020. Wildflower also earned Sophia a Rupert Costo Medal in American Indian Affairs from the 2022 UCR Writers Week. (Design by Pat Murkland)

Sophia Madrigal called her pandemic play Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit a love letter to her father, who had died earlier in 2020. She said then she hoped that her work would help others dealing with loss. “The most important thing I can bring, as an Indigenous girl, is my deep-rooted ancestral memory, my voice, and my story,” she said. “This story helped me. I hope that it helps you.”

We’re looking forward to an in-person performance of Sophia Madrigal’s next play, now a work in progress.

Thanks!

We humbly thank you for your enthused response to our most recent News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center newsletters. Thanks for supporting our nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), now in our 20th year of saving and sharing Southern California’s cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.

As always, thanks from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland for reading, liking, subscribing, and sharing this FREE online weekly newsletter. We value you. We welcome your EMAIL. April 26, 2023.