Documentary: Indigenous Speakers of the East Bay:Stories of Loss and Transformation
Join Indigenous speakers living in the East Bay and hear their stories of how colonization, including discrimination, has and continues to impact them and their communities. Beyond these losses of lives, land and culture, find out how you can participate in healing and transforming these legacies. The conversation includes a Q&A and ways non-Natives can work with Natives to create meaningful social change. Inspired by their participation in the Sacred Ground curriculum, members from the Church of the Resurrection, Pleasant Hill hosted this forum in August 2022. The first of two speakers is Sean Burke, the land programs director at Save Mount Diablo which preserves, defends, and restores those natural lands on the mountain and it’s foothills for both wildlife and people to enjoy. He volunteers at the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust which facilitates the return of indigenous land to indigenous people. And he works with Cal State University East Bay Indigenous Acknowledgement Council.
The second speaker is Robert Phelps, Associate Professor of History at California State University, East Bay and Director of Cal State East Bay’s Concord campus. Specializing in California and American West history, Phelps also works in public history, advising many historical museums. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Save Mount Diablo and chairs its Education Committee. Dr. Phelps is a member and former vice chairman of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians of California, part of southern California’s Kumeyaay Nation. In 2021, he was appointed by Governor Newsom to the California Truth and Healing Council, which explores the historical relationship between Native Americans and the State since 1850.
Listen to Indigenous speakers living in the East Bay and heart heir stories of how colonization, including discrimination, has and continues to impact them and their communities.