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Unsettling Ramona Salon Series: Unsettling Sound
August 27, 2020 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Missed it? Watch here!
Heidi Duckler Dance hosts Indigenous artists, activists, scholars, and thought leaders this 3-part series of virtual programs amplifying the histories and contemporary experiences of Native Americans in California through art, music, conversation and a deep dive into the story of Ramona.
These conversations are working towards a retelling of “Ramona,” considered the quintessential Californian novel written in 1884, culminating in a contemporary production at the Southwest Museum. Already performed in 2018, HDD is revisiting “Ramona” a second time around, this time involving more direct Native voices, as we work collaboratively to reimagine and “unsettle” a story that was both important in creating visibility for the issue of Native rights in America and also problematic in that it romanticized California’s history and ultimately failed to create political change.
August 27 – Unsettling Sound with Kristy Martinez, Dr. Theresa Gregor & Esmeralda Pum
Join us for “Unsettling Sound” featuring scholar and CSULB Assistant Professor Dr. Theresa Gregor (Iipai/Yaqui), singer/songwriter and Musicology Ph.D. student Kristy Martinez (Chicanx & Yoeme), and scholar Esmeralda Pum (Mayan-Quiche/K’iche).
Dr. Gregor will share her reading of Ramona, and her insights about how we can decolonize the fabrication of California’s mythical past created by this novel, and shift the conversation to focus on the lived experiences of California Indian women, their struggles, resistance, and survival.
Martinez will be presenting on her archival work of Indigenous punk music and subcultures, as well as her experience in academia and studying punk music. She will also be sharing her band and their song writing process explaining their aim of amplifying Indigenous communities, the land they reside on, and communities of color.
Pum will unpack settler colonialism in regards to California based on the settler colonial mentality of manifest destiny and the erasure (genocide) of Indigenous people through the California arch dream of fantasy escapism, during which Ramona was written and the problems of romanticizing these settler-colonial fantasies.
