[speaking Native language]
Thank you relatives,
people of Lisamu’ and Pismu’
We bring you,
sorry, I bring you my love friendship and peace.
[speaking in Native language]
My name is Mia Lopez.
My ancestral villages are Syuxtun
and Swaxil on our island of Limuw.
As a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation,
I would like to express my support of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council
and all our Chumash relatives here
in this territory of the Yak Tityu Tityu Tiłhini people.
We would like to acknowledge the rich cultural history
of this area, acknowledge our Chumash stewardship
for time immemorial, and to recognize the work of our relatives
and the Northern Chumash Tribal Council who are with us today
and those who have passed on after giving much of their lives to these efforts
of protection.
I would like to mention former tribal chair of the Northern Chumash
Tribal Council Chief Fred Collins
and women's elder Pilulaw Khuz.
They have both been great leaders and advocates for our people.
I ask you to join me in acknowledging our Chumash communities,
our elders, both past and present,
as well as our future generations.
These lands were founded upon exclusions and erasures of many Indigenous people,
including those on whose land, whose waters,
this ship sits upon.
We come together today to stand up for and give voice
to the unceded lands of the Chumash people and declare our tribal sovereignty.