Unrestricted and Flowing
Tina Calderon
Can you imagine free flowing rivers, unrestricted and gracefully streaming to their own energetic rhythm? Can you envision those rivers flowing across the lands of what is now called Los Angeles County and Orange County?
There are four sacred rivers in the ancestral lands of Tovaangar: Paayme Paxaayt, our west river; Totootnga Paxaayt, the rocky San Gabriel River; Chinuuy Paxaayt, the smaller Rio Hondo River; and Kahoo Paxaayt, the long river now called the Santa Ana River.
Before the large ships graced our shores there were creaks, streams, tributaries, and rivers which followed separately and merged at strategic places. The rains joined the dance and the rivers swelled with joy and changed course from time to time — because they could.
The waters were generous and flowed into the many wetlands in our territory offering a thriving ecosystem and supporting so much life. We called these ever moist areas miiche paar, acknowledging the little bit of water that would remain constant.
As underserved and oppressed peoples across the lands call for acknowledgement, equity, inclusion, healing, respect, safe and unpolluted neighborhoods, and the like — which should be the norm for all — their demands fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts.
Those who have a voice are unheard, so it is a given that the nature who is barely seen and rarely considered by the dominant culture would not be given much thought.
My heart is connected to our water and earth relatives, and I firmly believe there can be no healing for humanity until there is healing for these powerful elements.
Adaptability
Uprooted and tossed aside
Not expected to survive
Convert and reform
Or hide and assimilate
Invisibility achieved
Memory seeds – wind blown
Familiar lands repopulate
Earth mama nurtures us
Sacred elements strengthen us
Reemerged we thrive
Though unseen by the masses
Unacknowledged by dominant culture
Until indigenous knowledge is desired
Grabbed, poked, and prodded
Give all you have without compensation
5 to 15 minute allotments - make it count!
Give more because loss of land and culture wasn’t enough
Release the hidden gems which have sustained you
Spiritual understanding they crave
We are unappreciated as intelligent peoples
Good thing resilience doesn’t require ego
Ancestors continue to guide us
We are deep rooted like the California Black Walnut tree
Poetry © Tina Calderon, July 2022
I will continue to speak to the rights of nature. I will rally for those who are environmentally aware to remember these relatives are alive with oppressed spirits that need to be freed. I will help our communities to see clearly the climate issues they are addressing are directly related to the damned, concreted, and controlled water systems. That drought is exacerbated by the ailing water tables. I will continue to offer prayer for the healing of all life and encourage caring people to do their part. I will trust that we can begin to repair the damage we humans have caused. I will hope the future will be fruitful for those souls yet to enter this realm. Paviinok ~ unrestricted energy, love, and reciprocity will flow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tina Orduno Calderon (she/her/Auntie) is a Culture Bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme descent. She is also a traditional singer & dancer, storyteller & poet who strives to honor her ancestors and inspire others to respect the lands, water, sacred elements, and environment. Find her on Facebook @Tina Orduno Calderon or Instagram @lalas_song
COVER ART
Video still of shadow artwork of a flowing river in Tongva Land from Paviinokre courtesy of Tina Calderon and Jess Gudiel.
