Go Native! Sept. 1

Come join us, the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center, for our sixth annual Go Native! This one-day outdoor event on Sept. 1, from 10 to 5 p.m., features hands-on activities with California's indigenous artists, vendors, drummers, singers and dancers. This is a free public event, fun for all ages, in Tehachapi's Philip Marx Central Park, 311 East E Street.

We have invited at least 40 Native American traditionalists from a variety of tribes to demonstrate their arts and to provide hands-on activities to guests. To name a few, artists will include: Bobby Robinson, Kawaiisu, teaching how to make elderberry clapper sticks; Sandy Clark and her daughters Stephanie and Jordan, North Fork Mono, teaching coil basket starts and rawhide rattles; Jennifer Malone, Wukchumni, teaching basket making; Eddie Sartuche, Waksachi, teaching how to make tule duck decoys; Stan and Marta Rodriguez, Kumeyaay, demonstrating how to make Kumeyaay boomerangs, bows and basketry; Carmen Moreno with her grown daughters, Tachi, teaching tule crafts; and Gary Pickett will demonstrate and teach flint knapping to make arrowheads. Bring your lawn chairs or blanket. Spend the day enjoying this rare opportunity to hear intertribal drumming and singing and to watch the dancers. Traditional storytellers will be sharing throughout the day. All of our artists donate their time and materials to our event. These folks are the cultural bearers of their communities. Without them preserving our traditional ways of art, song and dance, we would lose our identity as native people.

Red House BBQ and the Kern Valley Tubatulabal Tribe Indian taco stand will provide food for sale to those attending the event. We will have a shaded seating area in front of the drummers and dancing area for anyone who wants to listen, rest and visit.

The long-term goal of Go Native is to create positive perceptions of California's living indigenous cultures. This will help them survive when individuals, families, communities and local and state governments decide to support them. We also seek to provide people who may wish to become new learners of endangered California languages or traditional arts with opportunities to meet the indigenous language speakers who make up a large number of the artists at Go Native.

We at the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center would like to thank all of our sponsors: Alliance for California Traditional Arts, The Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation, Tehachapi Heritage League, Owens Valley Career Development, Tomo Kahni Volunteers, The Loop Newspaper, Sim Sanitation and the Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District. Many thanks as well to all of our indigenous Californian traditional artists, native vendors, museums, drummers, dancers, singers, storytellers and volunteers. Without you all we would not be able to have this wonderful event.