When you think about home, you might think about… A house, furniture, maybe even a backyard. But for some, the word means something much more.
The people we surround ourselves with, the animals we live with, and even the land that we stand on right here, right now. That’s what home is to the indigenous people who have lived here long before it was colonized.
“We got invited by, through the tribe, and the parks to be out here today. We’re pretty active in the community, you know, and we’re doing a lot of things,” said Dennis Garcia, Fernandeño Tataviam tribe member.
“We enjoy making awareness for our tribe and sharing our culture with the people,” said Garcia.
Joined by Fernandeño Tataviam, Tongva, and Chumash people, Dennis Garcia celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day this Sunday at Vasquez Rocks for their monthly ‘Fireside Night’ celebration.
“So we like doing a smaller indigenous people’s day right now, and then in April, last Saturday in April, when the weather is as dependable as we can try to figure out, uhm, we do a big open house celebration event with the tribe too,” said Sarah Brewer, Regional Park Superintendent.
Celebrating the rich, full history of the indigenous peoples who live here, Vasquez Rocks hosts this event every year, helping indigenous and non-native people connect with this culture.
“He wasn’t even really able to connect or was connected to his heritage until he was in his mid-forties, going through a rough time, a divorce,” said Brewer.
“For a long time, it was finding grandparents, great grandparents, because there weren’t a lot of records sometimes. And fortunately for us, because my people were taken to the San Fernando Mission, they kept great records,” said Garcia.
He hopes that celebrations like this one will help lead others to embrace native culture and that the future for indigenous people will be bright.
“Take what we can now, now that it’s given to us, now that people are aware, now that there are non-natives alike supporting us, you know, take that rather than be negative and, you know, resentful of what happened to us in the past,” said Garcia.
