Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Hosts Native Voices Poetry Festival
By Emily Clarke
On Saturday, March 11th, the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center hosted their “Native Voices Poetry Festival”. This year DRLC partnered with Idyllwild Arts Foundation and its Native American Arts Center to organize the seventh year of this event that returned after a Covid era hiatus. The event, although centered around the importance of Native American storytelling and poetics, included dance and song performances, Native food tastings, a panel discussion and film screening, and visual art made by Indigenous artists. In addition to these attractions, many organizations including The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, Morongo Reservation School, The Inlandia Institute, Idyllwild Arts Academy, and San Manuel Education Department also set up information booths. There were various activities throughout the day including poetry readings by Serrano and Cahuilla elder and Dorothy Ramon President and Founder Ernest Siva, traditional Bird Singing by groups including the Mountain Cahuilla Bird Singers and PainikTem Bird Singers and an opportunity to paint a community mural with artist Gloria “Toti” Bell.
One of the most valuable aspects of the event was the “Celebrate Native Languages” panel, which featured Aaron Saubel (Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians), Mark Araujo-Levinson (activist and student of Ernest Siva), and Joe Henderer (San Manuel Language Retention Specialist). The panelists spoke about the importance of language revitalization and the process of teaching Cahuilla and Serrano at San Manuel and Morongo reservations. Aaron Saubel brought up the importance of recognizing the similarities between Cahuilla and Serrano and encouraging students to be able to hold conversations with each other in both languages due to those similarities. Additionally, the panelists discussed the idea that language is ever changing due to the evolution of people and culture, and that learning traditional languages is far different for young kids today than it would have been in the past. Because the Native Voices Festival is primarily focused around poetry and storytelling, the language panel helped bring light to an important aspect of the poetry process, especially for Native writers. As someone who studied Cahuilla language as a kid and throughout college, I know that there are many examples of traditional poems written in the Cahuilla language that we have lost touch with today. However, with the work that the previously mentioned panelists are doing, as well as Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s dedication to Native culture, poetry written in traditional tribal languages seems to be resurfacing and becoming a larger part of Native culture than it has been in previous years.
The Cahuilla and Serrano people value oral tradition, which is something you can infer by the importance of Bird Songs and traditional storytelling. Because of this value, the Native Voices Poetry Festival is an event appreciated by many community members from near and far. By promoting Native arts and languages, the Native Voices event also encourages attendees to celebrate Indigenous cultures and traditions on a daily-basis and gives them the tools they need to feel supported in their creative learning processes. Dorothy Ramon Learning Center leaders, Ernest and June Siva, are proud to celebrate their 20th year of “saving and sharing Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.” The event was a wonderful way to showcase the work they have done in the past 20 years as well as to introduce the community to the joy of Indigenous creativity and joy.
