“IndigeFest is to acknowledge that we see our Native students and we are doing our best to bring their cultures to campus,” said Ezekiel Salazar, an event lead and American Indian Resource Center (AIRC) intern at IndigeFest 2024.
This year’s IndigeFest was held at the Quarry Amphitheater on April 27 by AIRC. IndigeFest, formerly known as Drum Feast, is organized in honor of Sophía García-Robles, who was an active staff member of the UC Santa Cruz community and the Santa Cruz Indian Council who passed away in 2010.
A dancer performing the Prairie Chicken Dance.
The AIRC is a space for Indigenous students as they transition from home to campus life. By focusing on Indigenous knowledge and practices in their activities, the AIRC hopes to preserve the culture and heritage of Native students. They serve as a liaison between Native communities and UCSC. The AIRC is home to the People of Color Sustainability Collective (PoCSC) and works closely with The Student Alliance of Native Americans & Indigenous Peoples (SANAI). These two organizations sponsored the event along with Cowell Coffee Shop, the division of digital arts and new media, and the Quarry Amphitheater.
“It’s really important to have [non-Natives] see multiple versions of us and to see all of our beautiful cultures,” Salazar said. “[Indigenous People] are not a monolith. […] [IndigeFest] is open to the community, friends, families, invite your boss and neighbor. This is what we want to share.”
Salazar is affiliated with the Diné (Ashiihi) tribe and is Chicano. Along with being an AIRC Intern, he is also the primary chair of SANAI. Salazar finds the AIRC and IndigeFest to be necessary steps in creating community for Indigenous students.
“To be a Native student is very difficult […] we are constantly overlooked and heavily underserved, sometimes it really does feel like it’s only SANAI and the AIRC supporting us,” Salazar said.
IndigeFest platformed Indigenous creatives including Nativemade44, Sawabeads, and student Camilo Arvizu. Organizations tabling at the event included PoCSC, SANAI, the Ethnic Resource Centers, Mauna Kea Protectors, Friends of Juristac, Estudiantes Oaxaqueños de Ahora, and Mixed Ethnic and Cultural Student Association (MECSA). IndigeFest also hosted Uncommon Denominator, a local hip-hop and groove collective, and Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas de UCSC performed dances from the Hidalgo and Jalisco regions of Mexico.
John Brown Childs, a retired Professor Emeritus of Sociology at UCSC who is affiliated with the Massachusett Tribe of Indians at Ponkapoag, has been attending IndigeFest for several years.
“I think there’s been a really positive change through struggle, people had to fight for this,” Brown Childs said. “There was a lot of struggle for even a land acknowledgment.”
Lily Pregerson, a second-year and an AIRC intern affiliated with the Ojibwe tribe, believes IndigeFest is an important progression in dismantling prejudice against Indigenous people.
“There’s a lot of stereotypes. People who aren’t Native have an idea of what a Native person is and what they’re like […] a lot of those are harmful,” Pregerson said. “We’re people and we exist.”
The performances began with Lorenzo Holguin, a friend of the AIRC, who opened the event with a prayer and songs from California Native tribes. Grupo Nauhcampa followed, performing their Danza Azteca-Chichimeca de Concheros, an Indigenous Mexican tradition consisting of devotional dance and music practiced in communal prayer. The Cowell Coffee Shop provided free vegetarian tamales, rice, beans, and jamaica for attendees to enjoy throughout the event. Homemade Peruvian coffee was also offered by Grinchos.
The event closed with headliner Mato Wayuhi, a multidisciplinary artist from South Dakota who works as a producer, musical composer, and songwriter. Wayuhi composed for the award-winning FX/Hulu series “Reservation Dogs” and the feature-length film “WAR PONY.”
Mato Wayuhi, an Oglala Lakota musician from South Dakota. Wayuhi is the composer for award-winning TV show, Reservation Dogs, and featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Hollywood and Entertainment category.
“If you’re an Indigenous person in any form of higher learning or any educational system within a Western framework, it feels very isolating, alienating, and marginalizing because those systems were designed without us in mind and also designed against us,” Wayuhi said. “Any time we have community and celebration of our struggles, our culture, and our privileges in a college setting — we are all embracing it, and it’s rejoicing because it’s what was sacrificed for us to be here.”
Macuilxochitl Ponce, a member of Grupo Nauhcampa, came to IndigeFest to showcase her culture. Ponce led Grupo Nauhcampa in prayer. She spoke of the importance of visibility and cultural expression.
“It’s very important to have these spaces for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color,” Ponce said. “We are glad to share the space with our brothers and sisters from other Indigenous cultures. We have strength together, and we can not be afraid to ask for justice and dignity in our lives and for [other’s lives].”