A night out immersed in indigenous culture
By Alex Wilson 08/07/2008
Visitors to the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center near Thousand Oaks will be treated to a free musical performance and interactive natural history exhibits on Saturday, Aug. 9.
High school students from Oxnard and East Los Angeles working for the Santa Monica Mountains Youth Program will engage the public with displays including animal skins and rocks as part of a program called “We Go Eco!”
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Plant Ecologist John Tiszler says the diversity outreach program known as SAMO Youth hires about a dozen young people each summer and trains them for possible careers in the park service or other environmental work.
“They do things like trail work and weeding and planting of native plants, but they also each weekend do what we call interpretation, which is public education programs,” says Tiszler. “They have a traveling education van with all kinds of exhibits in it, and set up what we call curiosity cards for people to touch and examine. They have various kinds of games related to park themes, and they set all that up and meet whatever visitors come along and stop and are curious.”
The L.A. students are selected from Woodrow Wilson High School’s Environmental Careers Academy, and officials with the Oxnard Union High School District work with the park service on finding students for interviews.
Tiszler says it’s a great real-life work experience opportunity that’s also rewarding and enjoyable. “For a lot of these kids, it’s actually their first job outside of working for their parents. It’s certainly a very different job from what they typically have, like working in a department store or fast food restaurant,” says Tiszler. “We try to convey the sense of mission we feel, and they often come away feeling they’ve done work that’s important but at the same time it turned out to be a lot of fun.”
The group recently traveled to Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands National Park, where they camped out while performing conservation work. “There’s a sense of adventure to it. They very much enjoy working with the park staff. There’s a real sense of camaraderie,” says Tiszler.
It’s an eye-opening experience when participants realize a future career might involve being outdoors and helping the environment. “It’s nice for them to actually have a job where they can do this sort of work. That gets them kind of excited. It broadens their horizons where they say, ‘You could actually get paid for doing this, that’s kind of cool,’” says Tiszler.
The “We Go Eco!” demonstrations will be staged between 2 and 6 p.m., to be followed by the free concert starting at 7 p.m. It features music performed by a Hopi Indian named Eric “Medicine Wind” Alvarado. The center is located at 4126 Potrero Road near Wendy Drive.
Park Ranger Ken Low says Alvarado plays inspiring and relaxing flute music on several instruments long used by native cultures and also speaks about their significance. “He plays about six different flutes and gives some insight about his culture,” says Low.
Tiszler says it’s a beautiful outdoor setting for live music with a stunning mountain backdrop. Coyotes have occasionally howled along with the tunes during past concerts. “It’s quite beautiful. The sun was setting and the fog was rolling in on the mountains, and it’s just a lovely setting to be in,” says Tiszler.
Please contact Outdoor Observer with details and contact information about environmental events, volunteer opportunities and adventure sports at outdoors@vcreporter.com.
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