Safari Park honors Kumeyaay culture during inaugural Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration
BY LAUREN J. MAPPSTAFF WRITER
SOURCE
The all-day event featured storytelling, archaeological hikes, bird singing and native-inspired dishes
ESCONDIDO — Guests at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park Monday experienced and learned about Kumeyaay culture in a novel fashion during the site’s first ever Indigenous Peoples’ Day event.
Hungry visitors snacked on dishes made with traditional Kumeyaay ingredients, including the tart but sweet prickly pear lemonade, mesquite pancakes drizzled with sage-infused syrup, crispy frybread topped with prickly pear jam and nopales tacos.
Native artists displayed their traditional beadwork, basketry and jewelry at the Mombasa Pavilion, as groups of school children viewed their pieces in awe.
Crowds of people from a vast array of cultural backgrounds watched the opening ceremony and blessing and listened to the creation story as told by Kumeyaay Community College professor Stan Rodriguez of the Kumeyaay–Iipay band in Santa Ysabel.
“It was more than what I was hoping for,” Johnny Bear Contreras said. “Walking through it I felt proud, proud of what we all were able to accomplish and pull together. It felt good.”
Dozens of people participated in a 2.5-mile hiking tour led by Kumeyaay historian Mike Miskwish, of the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians, that went past the California condors and burrowing owls enclosures, up to an archaeological site and to the edge of where the park’s public and the preserved conservation spaces meet.
During the hike, Miskwish discussed the traditional uses of local plants, told the history of Kumeyaay in the region, how the mission system that oppressed their communities, how to fish using bent cactus needles as hooks and the traditions involving burrowing owl feathers.
“In our cosmology, the owl feather headdress was actually a representation of the dark areas of the night sky, or the nebula,” Miskwish said. "(Owls) were also considered messengers, they could be messengers of good or bad. If a barn owl hangs around your house, that could be a sign that someone’s going to pass away soon.”
The inaugural celebration even grew past the planners’ expectations throughout the day, as singers and dancers of all ages gathered in corners across the park to share their traditional bird songs with visitors, not just in the planned performance space.
“I think that’s something that speaks to the resiliency of our people, we’re good and that’s how we have survived,” Contreras said. “You can look at it in the bigger picture that we’ve sat in pockets and entertained, shared and taken care of one another, and that’s coming out into the larger populace, so it’s a wonderful thing.
For nearly a year, San Pasqual Band tribal elder, artist and cultural committee member Contreras has worked to organize Monday’s celebration with staff at the Safari Park, which lies on land that was his tribe’s original homeland.
During her opening speech, Safari Park Executive Director Lisa Peterson recognized the San Pasqual Band as the original caretakers of the land where the park lies today. San Diego is the most biologically diverse county in the contiguous United States, she said, and learning from these first stewards is important in helping the region’s conservation efforts.
“Nature has a rhythm or a balance,” Peterson said. “It provides us with cues and notes, a beautiful concert of lessons for us to learn from, and in doing so, we learn from one another while experiencing diversity and beauty that is found within all our humanity.”
In planning the event, Contreras’ hope was to demonstrate to San Diegans that the Kumeyaay people and their culture continues to thrive in the modern day, while also inspiring younger generations to learn and advocate for both conservation efforts and their culture.
“When it comes to conservation and people being involved with it, it’s our customs and traditions to take care of our brothers and our sisters, all species of animals,” he said.
In future years, Contreras and park staff hope to involve more people from the other San Diego area tribes in the event planning and schedule, and possibly plan a similar event at the San Diego Zoo.