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One Village Many Peoples: Humboldt Multi Cultural Festival comes to McKinleyville's Pierson Park on July 5th · KMUD News

• 0:01
  Speaker A: One Village, Many Peoples. The Humboldt Multicultural Festival is coming to Pearson park in McKinleyville this Saturday, July 5th. This will be the first ever edition of this festival and it will take place from 11am until 6pm this festival celebrates the diverse cultures we have in our community and brings us all together for a full day of learning, playing and celebrating. Hosted by the Humboldt Creative alliance with funds from the county's Transient Occupancy Tax from Measure J, the Humboldt Multicultural Festival has collaborated with many different groups, including the Arcata, West African Drum and Dance Ballet, Folklorico, Bandemonium, Black Humboldt, Centro Del Pueblo, Hip Hop, Humboldt Humboldt, Taiko Makenu, Two Feathers, the White Lotus, Cultural Dances, many more. One thing that makes the Humboldt Multicultural Festival stand out from other festivals is that it is much more than just vendors and performers. While there will be both those things, the Humboldt Multicultural Festival also includes a number of workshops. One of those is with Yurok basket weaver Teresa Serbaugh, who will be displaying her basketry as well as doing demonstrations and lessons. We caught up with Teresa to learn more about her work and what she will be doing at the Humboldt Multicultural Festival.
• 1:26
  Speaker B: Weaving is an art that takes a lot of years to perfect and you really need a teacher. It's really difficult for us in this society now because so many people don't know where to go and gather. And of course then they don't know what to gather and they don't know the season to gather in. And so it takes up to a year to gather one year's worth of material. And then if you're a beginner, you don't know how much you're going to gather. And so. So you need an instructor to help you do all those things. And where it used to be, as we grew up in our, you know, in the year two, we would all have our grandmothers and our mothers right there present to help us to gather. And because they were doing it and so we were watching them all the time, excuse me. So they would. It became. It was normal to see it. It was normal. It was a living thing that you. You. It was practical. So. But we through annihi and assimilation that has severed that relationship to Mother Earth and to know the seasons of when we should gather and what we should do and even the teachers, because there was a period of time that people, parents, grandparents didn't want to teach their children the old ways because when that. They saw that as dying and we were told that was dying and that. And much of it did die. But so because of that disconnect we're now in a whole different place as far as where we are with basketry. So now when we go back and do baskets, it's different because it's an art form which used to be more practical. So baskets were in everybody's house and life, and everybody used them for everything. It was a main source of life. So then it brings us more up to date as far as what we're doing today and why so many young women are trying to get back to their cultural roots. And there's so many things that are going on nowadays that wasn't going on when I was a young lady. So it wasn't uncommon or unusual for me not to know my culture, because assimilation into a white culture is what I was. That's what it was intended to do so that I would not know my culture. So I was really ashamed of that for a long time because I didn't understand. Understand. I was just a young kid growing up. And then somebody would say, well, she's a native. Ask her a question. And I think, don't ask me, because I don't know, because I wasn't raised around my dad and I wasn't raised. I wasn't raised in Hoopa or on the river. So I subsequently did come to connect with all these things, but it took me quite some time. And so here I am today. I kept weaving and I kept at it, and I kept asking questions and I kept trying to find other people that were weaving and doing things, things that I was doing. And so in my desire to just get better, which took years because I had a teacher, but like I said, it takes at the beginning of the year, which we're at now, we'll just start talking now about gathering materials. In first of the year, in March and April, we gather. Well, we gather hazel sticks and willow root. I mean, willow sticks. Those are two different sticks. One's out from the willow tree and one is from the hazel bush. Okay. So that happens in March and April, and we just go hog wild trying to get as much as you can get, because it's basically that time of the year that you can get all your sticks for a year. And that's pretty much it. Wow. And if you don't get enough for yourself or for somebody else, then they're not going to get to weave. And you're, you know, it depends on what you are going to weave, because it depends on. This basket that we're looking at right now has well over 100 sticks in it already. And I've Got many sticks to put in it still for its fruition. So it takes really a lot of sticks. And every one of these sticks has its bark removed. So it all has to be peeled individually. And each one of those takes hours and hours. And when you're having a pile of them that's this big, right? Meaning like the diameter of the base of a tree. Right. So then, so after, then comes the next couple of months, say in June, we'll be gathering black fern and we can gather, I like to gather a spruce root at that time, at this time of the year, because the soil is really nice and loamy, still lifts up really easily and you don't get wet. You know, you can gather it all year long. But on the other hand, there are certain seasons that are much easier for you to gather. So, so we gather that. And again, we have to make all these. And this is this what you're seeing right here? These small pieces like this is what we have to make. Sometimes we can get them right out of mother Earth like that, but sometimes, a lot of times we can't. And again, debarked. So each one of these, it's a lot of process. But in order to make a basket that is really fine, like this one, like you're seeing here, this is all the same root. And we have to make them. Everything we do, we have to make. So then again, now we're adding more hours and hours and hours. And so that's just the spruce. And that doesn't have any of the time that it takes for the black hair. The maidenhair fern. Maidenhair fern is a black fern that most people know as a five finger fern. And it is a fern that you have to half. So you gather it and you squash it, flatten it, and then you half it and take the membranes horizontally. Half it. That's right. And then you take the membranes out of the middle of it. And therefore you have. Then you scrape out all the fine things out of it so that it can wrap around your finger and not break. Fine finger fur is one of the two things that's the hardest thing for us to use because the material is so fragile. The other difficult thing is porcupine quills. And that's difficult because they're slippery and they don't want to stay in. And it's one of the hardest things to use in your weaving. And so you'll see a lot less of that. There's more of an accent because every weaver through all ages have always saw it as beautiful. And the most Expensive baskets have the quill in them. However, it's still difficult even if you're a master weaver. So then we move on. Let's see. I don't want to forget any of the materials, but just basic kinds of stuff. Moving on to after that, we have an opportunity to gather sticks again, the same sticks. And then we move into fall, say in September. Then we would gather the woodwardia fern. That's one of the most giant ferns on the planet. You can get as taller than we are six foot or so. We take those and we're having harder and harder time finding them because of the global warming. They like their feet in the water. The more things dry up, the smaller they get. And so that can be an issue. And we have to go. I have to go a long ways to get them, but when I do gather them, then I have to actually pound. You take the fronds off and then you take the very middle base of it and you pound it all the way up the length of it. And like you're pounding probably three, four, five feet in in that one frond. And then inside of it is two strings. And you take those two strings out and then you let them dry. And once they dry, come the spring, this next spring, you will actually create an alder dye and you'll dye. Put those in there and dye them a reddish orange color, whatever the. The alder tree offers as far as the dye. So that's another lesson in itself, right? Like I say, you gather it at one time of the year, but then you have to wait until and then for the appropriate time to gather the other materials to actually prepare and to be able to use that correctly. So then that's the end of the year, basically. So we've gone over, except for I skipped one. Excuse me. Back in July, we can go up and get bear grass if it has been burned or if there's been wildfires or if the tribe has actually gone and burned where years ago. You know, everybody now is talking about prescribed fire and how good that is. But there was a huge long period of time that we would get killed if we started fire. But before that, all these prairies and all the things that went all the way down Sacramento, I mean Sacramento, but all the way down California, were all groomed by fire from natives before white men ever got here. So that was just a natural thing that we did. And it actually helped preserve our food groves for. From pests and also helped the deer and helped all kinds of different things, but it helped our bear grass so we had to have that bear grass. And the fire does certain things to the plant that makes it more usable, more user friendly. And that's in July. So I think I covered all the things. One is what we use as the under the overlay. So now I'm talking about when we weave, there's always a root, which is, let's say the spruce root. And then on top of that spruce root is these other materials, because they're not strong, but the spruce root is. So then they lay together. And so you have to learn how to lay that together and then weave each individual stitch, because every stitch counts. So we have bear grass, we have black, black fern or woodwardia fern. We have the woodwardia to weave with. And then those are the basic kinds of things for closed weave. And then we have open weave also.
• 12:16
  Speaker A: We also asked Teresa why she chose to be a part of this year's Humboldt Multicultural Festival, which takes place on July 5th at Pearson park in McKinleyville.
• 12:26
  Speaker B: Because I feel like it's important for the native community to be seen in a world that is constantly overlooking natives because they think that we are not here.
• 12:36
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:37
  Speaker B: So. And because of annihilation and assimilation, brown people all over the world experience this. But it's just another opportunity to say, oh, we're doing what we've always done in some senses, and we're just. We're just part of the brown community doing what we do. And so being a teacher, I want to. I want to bring goodness and beauty to my students. I want it for myself, I want it for my students. And therefore I think I want other people in the community to see that we're doing good things, you know, and healing things for ourselves. And so for where we've come from and where the pendulum swung so far the other way, because of how poor, because of genocide. How a culture comes back from them takes so long. And there was a lot of alcohol and abuse and all of those kinds of things that are. That natives were looked down on because of it while they were trying to understand and deal with their own trauma. And so now that that's gotten so much better and like that these kinds of things, our art can come forth.
• 13:59
  Speaker A: You can find more about Teresa's workshop and access a schedule of events for the Humboldt multicultural festival@playhousearts.org communityevents. The Humboldt Multicultural Festival, which takes place July 5 at Pearson park in McKinleyville, is also working with the local organization Hip Hop Humboldt to bring hip hop culture into mix. We spoke with David from Hip Hop Humboldt to learn more about how they will be involved.
• 14:26
  Speaker C: Thank you. So I'm David and I am the founder and host of the Hip Hop Humboldt Podcast. Hip Hop Humboldt is a local media organization with the goal of giving more exposure and spotlight to the hip hop scene in Humboldt County. We've been doing, myself and Albert, that is, we've been doing the Hip Hop Humboldt Podcast for about four years now where we interview local hip hop artists, graffiti artists, dancers, even people inside of the area and a few people that have been outside of the area with again, with the goal of giving these people some media exposure. A lot of the times, some of these artists, it's their first time getting any media exposure in the local community. And so that's what we've been doing for the last about four years now. We also do a radio show every other week on Saturdays at 8pm on Humble Hot Air, aka KHHA 94.7 FM Eureka Arcata, where we do the same thing. We talk about hip hop. We also have local hip hop artists as guests on the show. And you know, it's all about a, you know, just a bit of a deep dive into the local community and other hip hop topics that we may, you know, decide to bring up on a more mainstream level as well. It's all hip hop the whole time. And so other than that, we've also been doing events in the local community for about three years now at different venues from Louise, all the way from Louise to Blue Lake, all the way out there, not, it's not that far, but. And even down, you know, in Eureka and Arcadia, we've been doing events and just trying to again, give a chance for local hip hop artists to get some exposure in the local community. And it's been really fun. There's a lot of really talented hip hop artists in this area and it's just been great to listen to their different stories, watch some of them even grow in the last few years, getting better with performing, making their music better. And so that's what we've been doing over the last few years. I wanted to first give a quick shout out to Playhouse Arts and Humboldt Hot Air for giving us a chance to perform for the community for this multicultural festival. We're going to be doing two different stage shows on Saturday, July 5th in Pearson Park. We have a afternoon show that's going to be happening on the main club stage. It's going to be featuring two of the best MCs in the local county, in the local community. And I'm talking about Knack1 and Flo J. Simpson, these couple guys, these are some really some legends in hip hop. NAC1 started doing different work work for, for the Hip Hop Pillars, different hip hop pillars down in the bay. He is a really great graph artist and one of the, like I said, one of the best MCs in Humboldt County. He used to freestyle down there and he brought that talent, his talent up to Humboldt county years ago and has been doing freestyling for the Fat Bull Ciphers for some years now. He is the cipher general cipher general knack1 and he's, he's really talented and so is Flo J. Simpson. Both highly skilled on the mic. They can both freestyle for, like I said, at the Fat Bowl Ciphers they do for about two to three hours straight. And so, you know, these guys have incredible skill and they're going to be doing a really cool show with along with Knack One Son, AKA Exclusive Beats who's one a really talented young producer from around here. He does lo Fi hip hop and so he's got quite a few mixtapes. He makes a mixtape every single year called Summer Beats and so during the summertime he's gonna drop his Lo Fi mixtape. I'm waiting for the next one this year. He's dropped it every single year for the past three. I think it might even be four years now if I'm correct. And so yeah, if you like lo Fi hip hop Exclusive Beats is one of the best around here. These guys are gonna be putting on a great show and so make sure you come out to Pearson park and and check out what they're doing on the club stage 2:45 to 3:30. We're also doing a show later on in the evening. We're going to be and I'm by we I mean the Hip Hop Humboldt crew, which is myself, Al Bear, Height got bars and B Rights. We're going to be doing a show to kick off the karaoke dance party inside the roller rink at, at the Multicultural Festival this Saturday. And so B Rights is one of the best vocalists that I've heard around here. She always puts on a great show where you're gonna see her, you're gonna see Al Bear. He's gonna have some new music for the people. He was also nominated for best musician in the North Coast Journals annual competition, the best of competition. And so fingers crossed there. But also and Height got bars. He' talented artists. These guys are going to be putting on a great show. I'm going to be DJing for them. And so we're going to do our best to make sure that we really start kick off that party. Right. And so yeah, we're really stoked on that one. And make sure you, if you do come out, make sure you stay for the karaoke dance party because that's going to be a fun time. And you might even see B Rights in some roller skates performing as well. So I think it's really perfect for this multicultural festival to have hip hop well represented because I also see that Dr. Oh Droop Capone is doing a workshop as well. And so I think it's only right because hip hop, the hip hop scene in Humboldt county, there's a lot of people involved. I've. I talk about this sometimes on the podcast and the radio show, but I'd estimate there's probably somewhere between 250 and like up to 500 people in the local community that are active with the hip hop scene. Whether it be MCs that can get on the mic, DJs, producers, graph artists and dancers. There's a lot of people that are involved. And I feel like this community in a sense has been somewhat underrepresented in local media. And so I feel like having hip hop have a presence at this multicultural festival really lends to the fact that, you know, we're one of the many voices that is represented by this festival. One people, you know, I'm sorry, many. One community, many voices. Right. And so this multicultural festival is going to be a really fun time and I'm really glad that hip hop is well represented in, at this festival. So you can find Hip Hop Humboldt on just about all the socials. You know, I'm not on Truth Social at Rumble, but we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok and we're on Facebook as well. You can follow us at Hip Hop Humboldt on all those platforms. You can direct message us. It's going to come to myself and the rest of the team if you need. We're doing all kinds of things, like I said, for the community. We're doing, we do events. So if you're looking to put on a hip hop show and you need some artists for that show, talk to us. We can link you up with some artists that would love to be on your show. You need a dj, talk to us. I can give you an entire listing of all the, the local hip hop DJs in the community, from DJ DeFi to DJ Goldilocks to DJ Stat, any of the DJs in the local community if you need them for even for party for a party or something like that, you wanted the local DJs. We can link you up with them. If even if you need something like speaker rentals, we do speaker rentals for the local community. If you needed to record your music, if you're a hip hop artist in the local community and needed to record your music, I can set you up with one of the few different people that run studios in the local community from Shady Manila to a few other people that I do know that would love to have you come in and record your music at their spot. And so yeah, we're just this bit of a hub. You can like I said, you can find us on the socials at Hip Hop Humble, but you can also find us @hip hop humble.com that's where you can go to find our radio show archive. All of the podcast episodes that we've done are listed right on the main page of hiphophumble.com you can find our Our Merch store. You can find links to all of our different socials right hiphop humboldt.com and other than that, if you come out to our shows, you're going to be able to network, you're going to be able to meet new people and you're also going to have a really fun time.
• 23:45
  Speaker A: So you can find more about Hip Hop Humboldt's performances and Access a schedule of events for the Humboldt Multicultural festival@playhouse arts.org communityevents Other workshops and performances at this year's One Village Many People Humboldt Multicultural Festival on July 5th at Pearson park in McKinleyvill include an embroidery workshop and basket demo with Centro Ballet Folklorico de Humboldt, Acorn Processing demos, Capoeira performances, performances and interactive art installations with Black Humboldt Hair Braiding with Ballet Folklorico de Humboldt, Hip hop workshops with Dr. Oop Steel pan performances and workshops, performance by Makenu Cumbia and Closing out the night, Humboldt Hot Air will be hosting a Karaoke on Roller Skates night with Hip hop Humboldt from 6 to 9pm that will take place at the Activity center right next to Pearson Park. Find more information about this event, including a full schedule, at playhousearearts.org communityevents or by calling 707-822-1575. That's one village many people the Humboldt Multicultural Festival from 11aM until 6pM at Pearson park in McKinleyville on Saturday, July 5. For KMUD news, this is narrowly Devaney.