Contemporary Indigenous Voices of California’s South Coast Range: Enduring Relationships with the Land

Contemporary Indigenous Voices of California’s South Coast Range: Enduring Relationships with the Land is a project featuring a traveling exhibit of photography and short film interviews, presented as in-person events with Panel Discussion, demonstrations and Q&A discussions. It explores tribes' land-based culture, the perspectives of elders and youth, and barriers to cultural expression in the modern world, cultural connections to the land; rematriation: restoring the relationship between Indigenous people and their ancestral land; and ecological and climate breakdown.

Renowned Photographer and documentarian Kirti Bassendine has a traveling exhibit consisting of photography and short films. The project will interview and document tribal participants from the 6 Indigenous community members from the ancestral homeland of the Ohlone territories from California’s South Coast Ranges. Kirti's work offers an intimate insight into Indigenous leaders' connections to their land and ecology, their intergenerational relationships, and their vital role in cultural revitalization.

By sharing the voices and images of her subjects, Bassendine seeks to foster a more compassionate society by enlightening viewers about this challenging subject. Kirti’s dedication to cultural sensitivity and trust-building has allowed her to bring together an unprecedented number of Indigenous community members for this project -Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Indian Canyon Nation,' the 'Indian Canyon Chualar Tribe of the Costanoan-Ohlone People' is situated within the Mutsan linguistic territory, Salinan Tribe of San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties, Esselen Tribe of Monterey County. Rumsen Ohlone Tribal Community, Salinan T'rowt'raahl tribal community. Kirti has recently been awarded a grant through California Humanities, which requires additional funding to complete this important project.

Colonization, missionization, and capitalism have all worked in tandem to erase the diverse Native American tribal groups from existence across the nation; however, their resilience has defied these attempts, and the Ohlone people of California have an urgent message: “We are still here.” This project will help tell the stories of their experiences expressing, re-learning and restoring their culture within a modern world that denies their existence and heavily restricts their access to land and existing in two worlds.

Kirti explores cultural identity, repression and women's expression in indigenous and immigrant communities– focusing on cultural storytelling in formats that combine still photography, storyboards, videography and in-person dialogues. Intrigued by human relationships and how they interweave within social and cultural contexts, she has explored womens’ sense of identity and belonging within their culture and the wider world; how homelessness and nomadic ways of life are perceived; and how subcultures integrate or conflict with modern society.

Kirti was born in Kenya and emigrated to England at a young age, graduating with BA Honors in Fine Art Photography from Derby University, UK.

Header Image: Photograph by Kirti Bassendine, Kanyon Sayers Roods- Indian Canyon Nation- ICN Tribal Chairwoman and CIR President