Long Beach Opera acknowledges that our company occupies the Traditional Territory of the Tongva people.

A homeland that stretches roughly 4,000 square miles from the Los Angeles Basin to the Southern Channel Islands.

We acknowledge the centuries of genocide inflicted upon the Tongva people,

that enables Los Angeles

to be the metropolis

it is today.

A genocide that began with the violent & racist Spanish practices of brutal Christian missions & enslaved labor fundamental to this city’s founding and creation.

A genocide that carried on through the systematic displacement & attempted erasure inherited and continued by Mexican & American settler societies.

This land acknowledgement is a small concerted effort to disrupt our company’s participation in this attempted erasure.

This is our attempt,

To step into our own shadow.

and begin

To. Do. Better.

We acknowledge our responsibility

in claiming, naming and being responsible

to this history and legacy of settler colonialism.

We acknowledge our responsibility

in claiming, naming and being responsible

to and for our own privilege.

That ultimately has allowed us to benefit from this genocide,

colonial violence

& displacement.

We. Are. Clear.

This was and remains Tongva land.

Where Tongva offerings are left along waterways and ecosystems from which medicines, traditional foods and weaving materials are gathered and stewarded.

Ancestral natural landscapes

that defiantly preserve

in the face of dismissive

and entitled American

development & greed.

This was and remains Tongva land.

Whose city streets and neighborhoods cradle vibrant murals of the

beloved ancestral Tongva

Land Defender,

Resistor and

Holy

Matriarch

Toypurina.

May we

pause.

Feel the ground under our feet.

Root into WHO

this land continues

to truly belong to.

The Tongva people.

The Tongva ancestors.

Future generations of Tongva children.

We acknowledge their unprecedented resiliency

Local Indigenous communities.

Who, like the landscapes they are made from…

Are. Defiantly.

Still. Here.

Thriving.

In the face of settler nationalism

and an assumed entitlement

to all things Indigenous.

We at the Long Beach Opera recognize,

that we are not entitled to the spaces

within this land from

which we work and reside.

We recognize that we are but

Mere Visitors

within their traditional territories.

And so,

With this acknowledgement,

we dedicate this project

to the Tongva people.

• • • •

We also acknowledge

that this project

was filmed in

so-called

New Mexico.

Lands that are

Northern Tewa

Southern Tiwa,

and Jicarilla traditional territories.

Lands that are

the ancestral Sacred Spaces

of Pueblo, Apache, and Diné peoples.

We acknowledge these Indigenous communities,

whose lands we also exist as

Mere Visitors

within.

We extend our gratitude to the Pueblo, Apache, and Diné people of these southwestern lands.

Who

like the Tongva,

Are. The. Land.

Whose title to and inherent rights embedded in the Land…

Predate and Outweigh

any and every colonial claim.

Indigenous peoples who equally continue

to resist and persevere defiantly

against and through Spanish,

Mexican and ongoing American

settler colonial impositions.

Whose resiliency equally outshines

the violent histories & ongoing settler legacies this country insists on pushing away and

safe-keeping within our

collective shadow.

In light of these acknowledgments,

we present this project,

as a gift.

A sort of love letter.

Dedicated to the Tongva people.

To the Pueblo,

Apache, and

Diné people.

To the land.

It is an understatement to say,

That we have much to learn from the

Original People, Communities

Traditional Territories.

Indigenous peoples and landscapes that exemplify what it means to persevere through shadow.

– What it means for human beings and land to remain loyal to, and interdependent upon, one another.

– What it means to remain loyal to ourselves and our journey against all odds.

This is not cultural appropriation disguised as a love letter.

This is not an attempt to qualm white settler guilt, by attempting to behave in a woke manner.

This is an acknowledgement of the

genius,

honor,

beauty,

wisdom and

sophistication

of Indigenous peoples

and Lands.

That settler colonialism brazenly and ignorantly undersells and disregards.

This is also simultaneously

a gesture of resistance

against the tendencies

of modern society

& capitalism

to distract us

from inward

journeying.

This project is a gift,

a sort of love letter.

Guided by a sense of urgency,

overdue humility

and intention.

An acknowledgement

that now

more than ever,

we must

pause.

Root. In.

to Earth Mother.

Who, like the LA neighborhoods and streets

that cradle the blessed murals of Toypurina…

Also tenderly hold and cradle us.

As we dare move through

the parts of shadow

we each uniquely

carry.

Constituting the collection of narratives that

—when woven together like local, native Tule grasses used in Tongva basketry—

Make up and tell

the larger stories,

histories & human landscapes

that sit within the spaces

of these occupied

territories.

As we pause,

to recognize whose lands we occupy…

May we dare to also

fully reoccupy the

internal territories

we carry within

ourselves…

Shadow and all.

May we take ownership of this journeying.

Navigating the many neglected layers

of our own shadow work.

Uncovering Truer,

more accountable

Selves.

And as we do so,

May we also retrieve

Our Responsibility

and Kinship

To and with

communities,

peoples,

ecosystems

& lands

That expect nothing less of us

Than to

Do. Better.

Humanity…

Shadow Walking…

With grains of light

in our palms.

Daring to step forward

into the darkness.

To retrieve

the parts of us

that have been waiting

for the arrival of our Audacious

Courage,

Truth

Telling

& Integrity.

— BlueBird, October 2021