FC Celebrates Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 11
It was about three years ago when Fullerton College joined hundreds of organizations around the nation in celebrating Indigenous People’s Day on October 11. This month, Fullerton College Ethnic Studies Department and the Cadena Cultural Center are excited to bring back the annual celebration with more opportunities to expand awareness, education, and activism for indigenous people in local communities and across the globe.
An Indigenous People’s Day virtual event featuring Journeys from the Past will be held on October 11 from 4 – 5:30 p.m. View a pdf flyer for this event here. Or register for this virtual event here.
“I think it is critical to have awareness and an understanding of the original caretakers of the land in which our campus and our district resides,” said Cadena Cultural Center Coordinator Gilberto Valencia.
“Facilitating events such as Indigenous People’s Day allows the campus to acknowledge cultures that are sometimes overshadowed. Events like these are crucial for educating people on campus and in the community about the history of the land we live on. It also allows us to honor the indigenous people and make space for them, which we should do more often,” added Zyrah Niazi, professional expert at the Cadena Cultural Center.
The event will feature guest speaker and presenter Jacque Tahuka Nunez of Journeys From the Past, who will speak about her life growing up in the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians/Acjachemen Nation. She will share stories of her people using indigenous tools, instruments, games, and clothing. The presentation will also feature Bird Singers. Bird songs are an ancient tradition from tribes in Southern California and parts of Arizona. They are characterized by men singing in a line to the beat of gourd rattles and are meant to restore balance in the community and encourage respect for all living beings.
An Indigenous People’s Day celebration is only one of many efforts the Ethnic Studies Department at Fullerton College has launched to help educate students and the community about Native American and Indigenous histories, cultures, and contemporary issues. Ethnic Studies Professor Amber Rose González has spearheaded the creation of one of a few courses to be offered in California that focuses specifically on American Indian Studies. The course currently has about 25 students enrolled.
González said the course gives students an opportunity to understand the intergenerational histories of North Orange County and surrounding areas, to counter the erasure of Native peoples in education and dominant discourse. “One of the central goals of American Indian Studies is to counter the erasure and invisibilization of Native peoples in our communities. To counter erasure. Counter settler colonialism.”
“Fullerton College is on Acjachemen land,” González said. “Our desire is to bring awareness to our community that we reside on their land. And that Native peoples are still here.” González signs all of her emails with “Fullerton College occupies part of the ancestral homelands of the Gabrielino-Tongva nation & the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians/Acjachemen nation. Let us respect their stewardship, cultural heritage, and lifeways by supporting contemporary struggles for tribal sovereignty #protectpuvungna.”
This fall, Fullerton College introduced the new American Indian and Indigenous Studies degree program. The associate of arts degree program plans to incorporate a variety of courses that cross multiple disciplines. For example, González said ethnic studies is currently working with disciplines such as fine arts and English to provide relevant elective courses.
“We understand the responsibility we have of not just teaching content but centering the knowledge of who we are teaching,” González said. “We draw on community-based Indigenous knowledge for the program. It’s not just a topic we cover, it’s a very specific method,” González added, referring to the instructional pedagogy of ethnic studies courses.
More information about the American Indian and Indigenous Studies degree program can be found by viewing the pdf flyer here. The new degree program is among the first programs in the California Community College system.
For more information on the Indigenous People’s Day event or American Indian Studies at Fullerton College contact Dr. Amber Rose González at agonzalez@fullcoll.edu.
