Tali Trillo, NEC Staff
On April 13, 2024, spring showers poured as elk stew and popcorn could be smelled from Arcata Playhouse. Over 150 community members overflowed the venue while organizers scrambled to find extra seats. A Tolowa cultural leader, his son and nephew walked on stage to open the space in prayer and song. The audience made a line to eat, while an auntie shouted, “Elders first!” And the event began.
That afternoon unveiled the first double film screening about Tolowa and Yurok Peoples protecting and preserving cultural lifeways after resisting genocide. Respectively about Tolowa language preservation and Yurok cultural fire practices, the short films entitled ‘A’-t’i’ Xwee-ghayt-nish (Still, We Live On) and Fire Tender were released last fall 2023, unavailable to the public and shown only a few times in private screenings. The film teams decided they wanted to join together to offer their stories with the community. We at the Northcoast Environmental Center had the honor of working alongside them to make this happen.
The event had four main components: a closing and opening prayer, a community feast, a double film screening, and a panel discussion. The audience got a special chance to listen and ask questions to integral people from the two films. Some of these panelists have been pivotal in ensuring local Native cultural practices survive; not only involved in language and fire, but also in food sovereignty, basket weaving, medicine making, ceremony, education, and more. In the space, hope for anti-colonial futures felt palpable. Panelists and audience members were moved to tears with the resonance of reflections and sharing of deeply personal, familial, communal stories; stories that will reverberate for generations.
The following are brief biographies of the panelists, including quotes from the discussion. Though the whole conversation was only experienced by attendees, the quotes offer a glance at the ingenuity and beauty of that day.
Elizabeth Azzuz is a Yurok Tribal member and Karuk descendant. From the village of Weitchpus. A cultural practitioner, mother, and grandmother, she gathers foods, medicines and basket materials. Elizabeth is the director of traditional burning for Cultural Fire Management Council.
“I came into [fire tending] at the age of four. My Karuk grandfather caught me playing with matches. He told me that as a true human being, I have a responsibility to my Mother [Earth]; how to care for her, how to be there for her. A four year old doesn’t know what a true human being is. You have to grow into that. As Margo said, I’m still growing into that. Those stories and those lessons from the elders are what carries me today. My father wanted to walk out in the forest and see as far out as he can see in any direction. I see that happening now. I feel that. Here. I’m blessed to carry that every day.”
“When we are putting up prayer [before burns], we are asking for permission from the trees, animals, water, and everything that’s there with us. We are asking permission to come to their home, restore their land, and for us to benefit from that. Not having English as my first language, as a young person born into the old village, and then having [the Native language] beat out of my mouth…Now I have to learn again. I see all these young people learning now – Oh my god! It just excites me so much. To see the little ones running around speaking our tongue. The most amazing thing we can do for our future generations is to give them our history.”
“Everywhere we travel, we are teaching people how to get their burning rights back. How to take care of the environment and land, and work with those agencies that tell them they can and can’t do something. The more of us that do that, the faster this will grow. The faster we can reproduce our heritage.”
Guylish Bommelyn descends from the Dee-ni’ and Karuk peoples in his ancestral homelands of Northern California. He is an enrolled citizen of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation. He grew up steeped in the culture and language of his people.
“Something I think has been guiding for me has been the word Nuu-k’wii-daa-naa~-ye’. It’s where our laws come from, but it also means the people that came before us. If you look behind you, you can’t see them. But they’re there. It’s everyone who has come before you. You are their living, genetic memory. Our language, our culture, our religion were derived from this land. We are a part of it. We are an extension of it. I think it’s important we carry our traditions because we care for the land. It’s our responsibility. If we don’t, then we see what happens.”
“I’m an outdoorsman. I get to spend all my free time in the wilderness and different forests. There’s a lot of good that comes with the burns and knowing the language. And both of them are practices that were illegal. It’s so beautiful that we can reclaim our language and our cultural practices to care. Our languages express how we care, and the burning is a physical representation of what we hold in our mind. They both are tied together, both are tied to the land, and both are necessary for us to succeed as humans on this planet. To reclaim our practices and express them.”
Loren Me’-lash-ne Bommelyn is a descendant of the American Genocide. He was born into Termination, spiritual and social chaos and into the rebirth of our linguistic and cultural revitalization that followed.
“I thought it was important to share this piece of our history – how we started, why we started. Then to try to give a shout out to our elders who were teaching us when they were talking to us [in Tolowa language]…Also, to share the understanding of worldview. When we are a mono speaker of one language, we don’t know that there’s another way to see reality. Another way to understand, describe, or participate in reality. The more languages you can learn, the more you can understand that.”
“The verb in Tolowa for a controlled burn is Xa’shlh-nvt. It’s different from a forest fire, which is Yaa-ghii~-lvt. Xa’shlh-nvt, you’re setting it on fire to produce something. Burning the fire on the ground versus something like the nuclear fires going on. That’s horrifying. The first time I drove through the 800-year-old forest, I couldn’t stop from crying. They were gone. Just black sticks. Had that been [controlled] burned, like it should have been, it probably never would have happened. So this is all tied together. Linguistically, historically, and culturally…For me, it’s all in one big basket; one big story. We’ve been in drought. We’ve let the land go to “hell.” Now it’s burned up like hell. So it’s time for us to knock it off, get real, and take care of Mother [Earth].”
“We are living in a community of ignorance about fire because everybody fears fire. What does Smokey do to you? Only YOU can protect the timber industry. Un-brainwash yourselves. Decolonize your brain about fire.”
Roni Jo Draper, PhD, is a member of the Yurok tribe, from the village of Weitchpec on the Klamath River. Her experience as a queer Yurok woman has influenced her work as an educator, scholar, and artist. Roni explores storytelling practices as a way to both educate and understand humanity.
“The entire time we were making our film, the title was “Good Fire.” Then, we spent an afternoon with awok Brian Tripp. I sat there, chatted with him by the fire, told him who I was, told him who my father was. It turned out, they ran around a little bit as young people. I’m sure they never got into trouble or anything. Just as I was sitting there, he busted out that poem [as shown in the film] – the Fire Tender poem – like it was right in the top of his head. At that moment, I thought “We have a different title for our movie.” After he told me that poem, he said “All of you are fire tenders. Bertha is a fire tender. Margo is a fire tender. You are a fire tender.” I felt the responsibility of that. I hope that I live up to that and can step into that in a good way.”
“Give [the Cultural Fire Management and Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation] all your money. Fund it. They’re employing people. They require resources. So give them cash.”
Dave Jannetta is an award-winning documentary and narrative filmmaker. His documentary feature “Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere” premiered at the Hot Docs International Film Festival and went on to play at many prestigious festivals.
“It took a really dedicated group of people over a year and a half to make [the film] happen. As somebody from the east coast, we don’t do land acknowledgments there. I don’t know anything about the Native culture around Philadelphia, other than some names of rivers. When I came here, it was surprising and really welcoming that at least it seemed that University in this area was trying to create some sort of connection with Native communities. It’s certainly not perfect, but hopefully it’s a long journey to get more significant. Through making this film, I feel grateful that the Tolowa welcomed me and our team and allowed us to serve as a convoy. Honor their story in a way that we can share it with as many communities in the country and world.”
“Me and Marva [Jones] have discussed future projects. A big part of that is trying to find storytellers within the community we can work with on a continual basis we can teach filmmaking to. So that you all can tell your stories from your perspective.”
Margo Robbins comes from the traditional Yurok village of Morek, and is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, co-lead of the Indigenous People’s Burn Network, and board member for the Indigenous Stewardship Network. She is a cultural practitioner, a mom, and a grandma.
“Cal Fire was telling me two days ago about an elder down in Southern California who was burning and was incarcerated as an arsonist. That’s still happening. Co-opting is happening too. There’s ranchers saying they are doing cultural burns because their grandpappy had been there for three generations. So we are starting to make distinctions between cultural burns…Tribes have their sovereign right to determine for themselves what they’re going to call a cultural burn.”
“We’re getting ready to build the Cultural Fire Training Center. We have the plans drawn out, the land picked out, getting ready to move forward. Ways you can help: in addition to high powered people, you can just talk to your friends and put it out on social media…Let them know ecosystems evolved with fire and need fire. Cultural lifeways depend on it. It’s meant to be part of the landscapes. As humans, we can’t just sit around waiting for lightning to strike. It’s always a possibility to make that happen.”
You can support the work of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and Cultural Fire Management Council by contacting them at:
Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation
2801 Mouth of Smith River Road
Smith River, CA 95567
www.tolowa-nsn.gov
www.weeyadvn.com
Cultural Fire Management Council
www.culturalfire.org
contact@culturalfire.org
