Native leaders, experts address grave desecration, water, land issues

Winnemen Wintu chief Caleen Sisk, Chochenyo Ohlone community leader Corrina Gould and Woodland Community College student Johnella LaRose will speak about water, land and grave desecration in Northern California on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at UC Davis and Woodland Community College.

The conversation on protecting water and impacts on community will begin with Sisk from 9 to 10:20 a.m. in 1001 Giedt Hall at UCD. Sisk, who is a regular speaker at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, is environmental commissioner for ENLACE Continental and is a leader of an international network of indigenous women, will discuss the reasons and strategies for restoring water, salmon and native ceremonies.

Then a reception, poster displays and a showing the American Indian Festival film “Buried Voices” will take place from noon to 1 p.m. in Community Room 800 at WCC. “Buried Voices” represents the Ohlone and Miwok people’s contemporary struggle to protect one of their most sacred places, Brushy Peak in Livermore.

Following the reception and film, a panel discussion will feature Gould; LaRose; Beth Rose Middleton, an assistant professor of Native American studies at UC Davis; and Sisk on the process of raising awareness about indigenous perspectives local and globally.

Gould is the co-organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change and Title VII coordinator at the American Indian Child Resource Center’s Office of Indian Education. LaRose has assisted and led various movements on grave desecration, and Middleton has worked on tribal land conservation and is the author of “Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation.”

The presentations at both campuses are free and open to the public. They are sponsored by the WCC Ethnic Studies Cross Cultural Series, the UCD department of Native American studies and the UCD Environmental Justice Project at the John Muir Institute of the Environment.

For more information, visit wcc.yccd.edu/campus/cross-culture-events.aspx or contact Melissa Moreno, a professor of ethnic studies at WCC, at mmoreno@yccd.edu or 530-661-6217.

UCD is at One Shields Ave. in Davis; WCC is at 2300 E. Gibson Road in Woodland.