In summer 2019, Australia’s Miriki Performing Arts and California’s Northern Pomo Dancers came together on the UC Berkeley campus to raise awareness about two of the world’s oldest living cultures. A group of roughly 40 dancers ages 7 to 70 gave a performance titled Bayal Kaymanen, or “Dancing Smoke,” exploring the Australian Yidinji Nation’s and the Northern Pomo Tribe’s relationship to fire. Bayal Kaymanen is part of a tradition of honoring Native sovereignty and building global networks of kinship for people who continue to endure the colonization of their lands.

On February 1, Director of Miriki Performing Arts Pauline Lampton, cofounder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust Corrina Gould, and Northern Pomo dancer Erica Estrada will participate in a panel discussion on the role of cultural exchange on the UC Berkeley campus, which occupies Ohlone homelands in Huichin.

Lampton is a descendant from the clans and nations of Tweed River-Bundjalung and Mununjali-Yugembeh and the Wiangumban tribe of North Tanna Island, Vanuatu; she uses performing arts as a platform for healing and reconciliation. Gould is the tribal spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone; born and raised in the Ohlone territory of Huichin, she has worked to preserve and protect her ancestors’ ancient burial sites throughout the Bay Area.Estrada is from the Redwood Valley Little River Band of Pomo Indians; she is a traditional Pomo singer and dancer and teaches Northern Pomo language, traditions, history, and cultural competency in the community.

Presented by UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.