“If you’ve ever heard a good story told, especially a Native story, the cosmology of the universe were the props,” says Andrew Galvan, an elder in the Ohlone community, and panelist at the June 9 premiere of the new planetarium show “Mur Taaraxtak”—or “Ohlone Skies”—at Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland hills. The museum’s domed theater explores the science of the moon and sun, mars, the Milky Way Galaxy, and cultural topics like the Mayan astronomy and the Zodiac. A collaboration with Café Ohlone, “Mur Taaraxtak,” looks at the skies from the perspective of the first people ever to do so, the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone of the East Bay.
Vincent Medina (who runs Café Ohlone with partner Louis Trevino), shared what this educational show means to the community. “As a kid, I came to the Chabot [Space] on field trips, and as much as I enjoyed it, it’s common to feel like we are often left out of the story altogether, even though right here, where we’re sitting, is in a very specific area of the Redwoods we’ve always lived in. This area right here is called Huichin.”
Combining descriptions of ancient traditions and beliefs about the night sky with 20th century photos of Ohlone community and footage of Trevino demonstrating acorn processing, “Mur Taaraxtak,” shows the fortitude of the Ohlone people. That even enduring the genocide of the Mission system, they are still living and observing their culture in an unbroken connection with their land. Medina says, “Anthropologists would erroneously write us off and make it sound like we left the earth, even though we never did. When we walked into different institutions throughout our homeland, we seldom would see ourselves being represented at all. And if we did, it wasn’t in a factual way.”
“Mur Taaraxtak” explores how Ohlone people tracked the Sun and solstices, the phases of the Moon, the Pleiades, Milky Way, and even eclipses. Much of this knowledge serves a practical purpose, as the Moon influences the tides and the best times to fish in the Bay and harvest oysters. Images of the natural landscape and Ohlone basketry are incorporated with the projections of the sky over the Planetarium dome. Chochenyo (with English translation) is used at various points in the program. Near the end is a recording of Ohlone community members Tina Laudani and Stacie Hungerford singing a Chochenyo lullaby. The word “Osse” describes both a star and the act of rocking a baby to sleep, and the song repeats, “My star, to you I rock to sleep.” Laudani and Hungerford also performed the lullaby to kick off the day’s events.
Due to a large turnout, the show was screened three times on June 9. In addition to the shows, Karuk weavers demonstrated traditional basket making, and display tables for the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center and for Native artist Jean LaMarr.
Of course, some beliefs and practices are for the Ohlone community only. But there is much knowledge the community is happy to share so that everyone can appreciate the language and storytelling, technology, culinary arts, and fortitude of the first people to ever live in the Bay Area. As the Ohlone community works to make sure their story is told, more people will be aware of the cruelty and injustice in local history. But the public will also know more about how the original people of this area have always lived.
Vincent Medina noted, “Change doesn’t have to be adversarial or scary. Change could be something we all benefit from together, where everybody is uplifted…Nobody wants to be fed lies, and nobody wants a sugar-coated version of history. But when we can acknowledge the truth and the beauty that’s indigenous to this area right here, us Ohlones are uplifted. And the public who’s not Ohlone is reminded in a positive way that this area has never been a new world, that this place is old and ancient, has an original identity that persists on.”
For more on Andrew Galvan, read the story by Hugo Vera on the preservation of the Ohlone Cemetery in our April 5, 2022 issue: https://tricityvoice.com/04-05-22/.
Chabot Space and Science Center
chabotspace.org
