Celebrating Indigenous People’s Day with Weshoyot Alvitre’s “Brave” and words from Robin Wall Kimmerer
CA map of indigenous peoples
“The land knows you, even when you are lost,” writes Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass (36). “The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness. Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world,” advises Kimmerer (222). These are two of my favorite quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass written by Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and a university professor.
Do you know the land where you live? Do you know who lived where you do before you did? I do: I know many of the plants and animals that live here, and I know I live on Chumash land, a community called Shishilop. Thousands of Chumash lived on this sliver of earth between the hills and the Pacific Ocean, between the Ventura and the Santa Clara Rivers where so much water flowed it created mudflats, and the Chumash who lived here were known as “mud people.” Another 10,000 or so people lived near what’s now known as Port Hueneme, near Malibu.
Late September each year, around the time of the fall equinox, the Chumash held a harvest festival to honor Hutash, Earth Mother. On the hill above Shishilop, they gathered for five days in ceremony paying homage to ancestors, where they left shell money, pine nuts, and they would start the new year in the sycamores. Read more here.
Weshoyot Alvitre
Wishes Waiting For the Wind
wishes waiting for the wind at Arroyo Verde Park, Ventura— photo credit Gwendolyn Alley
Wishes waiting for the wind… What are you wishing for? These local and native narrow leaf milkweed plants and seeds represent food and renewal for migrating monarch caterpillars. Migrating birds eat milkweed seeds too, and in spring use the fluffy fibers for nests and insulation. American goldfinches, American tree spenjoys, juncos, and chickadees enoy this energy-rich food source for their migrations and cold months. Do you have native milkweed growing in your garden? Maybe it’s time to plant some!
Here’s a little of what I’m wishing for…
Borderlands: Sending Loving Kindness To The Crossroads
Save Earth For Tomorrow Using Divergent Thinking and Saving Diversity
“Celebrating Indigenous Resilience at Ventura College” Monday, Oct 13, from 10-11:30am at Guthrie Hall.
One last thought — “I’d rather get a Zero than a C”… is this you? Are you a perfectionist? When it comes to taking action, a C is definitely better than a Zero whether it comes to writing or saving the planet or planting a smaller garden or… it’s almost always better to do something than nothing!
So what is the something you wish for that you will do today?
Nature RX “Wild on Humans” with Dr. Jane Goodall RIP
RIP Jane Goodall: “The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”
Jane Goodall by Guerin Black for New York Times
Today October 1, 2025, we lost someone who was truly wild for nature: Jane Goodall.
Today, Dr. Jane Goodall planned to join students and staff at EF Academy Pasadena Campus in Southern California “to share her passion for protecting and restoring nature with local students, who are kicking off an initiative to plant 5,000 trees to replant what was lost during the Eaton Fire.” They carried on without her, and we can too.
Get Out! Get Active! Coastal Cleanups 9/20, Sun Day 9/21, Sea Ramble 9/28
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Sign up to participate in California Coastal Cleanup Day this Saturday, Sept. 20 below. New this year is the world’s largest scavenger hunt: Among state and nationwide locations are several closer to home here in Ventura County. In partnership with Coastal Keepers and Oxnard City Corps, What to Bring:
If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Sevilla (805) 394-8842. If you can’t join us at Ormond Lagoon, consider volunteering at a site near you —
Next Sunday the 21st, on the equinox, is Sun Day of Action! SUN DAY ART KIT:
Sign design downloads, tips on painted parasol signs, street murals, banners and more.
Together, we’ll make the sun rise on our clean energy future.
Find events near you at sunday.earth Designs in this post by @joredline (top right design) and
@davidsolnit (other three designs) and are downloadable in the Art Kit. #SunDayOfAction ART KIT:
Sign design downloads, tips on painted parasol signs, street murals, banners and more.
And next weekend 9/28 check out–
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PS Happy “Speak Like a Pirate Day” doesn’t mean we have to miss out on the fun!
Are you having any fun? Burning Man 2025 + How To Clean All The Things
Between storms: Black Rock Desert Migratory Bird Refuge with water… and mosquitoes!
Well, honestly? This Burn was not like the others— check out this post and videos for why we keep going to such a challenging place. 2025 was a very hard burn— the most difficult and destructive in my 23 years of going to Burning Man. And I barely got out of camp to do anything— although I did get to see David Oliver’s Orbs which fortunately had just been secured when the first storm hit… and after the Man burned I made it to the Black Rock French Quarter where I had French toast with seared foie gras with a Stolpman gamay and I helped to prepare fresh sushi…
David Oliver’s Orbs at Burning Man 2025 with the Man peeking in the background
Say “Farewell to Orbs” — Art City 8/8 at 8p
farewell to ORBs 8/8 at 8p
You’ve invited to join us as we say “Farewell to Orbs” at Art City August 8, at 8pm! Doors open at 7pm, with remarks at 8pm by artist David Oliver at 8pm plus live music and dance music by DJ DownNgoinG, DJ Kerm, and others at Art City, 197 Dubbers St. Ventura CA 93001. Sliding scale donation $10-50 suggested to help get the Orbs on their way! Read more…
2 Burning Man Honoraria Projects Two Blocks Apart in Ventura, CA? Yes! Here’s how and why to support them!
David Oliver and an Orb under construction
Ventura area artists are producing two 2025 Burning Man honoraria projects “Orbs” and “Solar Synaptic Dynamo” just blocks apart on Ventura’s Westside which you can read about in my latest article for the VC Reporter. While the Bay Area is flush with Burning Man art projects, not so this small coastal sleepy town! Only 76 projects from 18 states and 12 countries received funding from the Burning Man organization — and only after being whittled down from 600-700 ideas submitted!
Successful projects offer interactivity, high visual appeal, a large impact, and sustainability. David Oliver’s two “Orbs” will bloom on the playa, standing large on the landscape and glowing through the stain glass, each with 212 petals.
Rosel Weedn and Steve Knauff’s “Solar Synaptic Dynamo” is visually appealing and not only is it sustainable, being built from largely repurposed items, but it serves a higher purpose— it’s a model for a system that provides powers for people in remote places by harnessing solar, wind, and people power.
David Oliver’s Orb
All are welcome to bring art to Burning Man, but only a few get funding from Burning Man, and getting an honoraria doesn’t mean you’re home free. Nope— they only fund 40-60% leaving the artists and their teams to come up with the rest — usually to the sound of $25,000 to $100,000 to build, transport, and construct their art installations in the very remote Black Rock Desert northeast of Reno.
It’s easy to support these worthy projects— especially right now! Below are links to online fundraising, but tonight is a an in person fundraiser at the Oasis Read more…
Channel Islands NP VC has wildflowers galore — and places to picnic too
Happy Earth Month! Happy National Park Week! Happy Earth Day! On this day thirty years ago in 1985, I woke up on the Pacific Crest Trail not far from the Mexican border near Campo, California. As we backpacked 1400 miles from Mexico to Oregon on the Pacific Crest Trail, we passed through fields of flowers—”splashes of cactus blossoms and walls of blue ceanothus, acres of lavender iris, meadows of pink shooting stars and streamside nods from tiger lilies and red columbine brought tableaus of beauty at our trailside “tables” for breakfast, lunch and dinner” as I describe it in my most recent article for the VC Reporter “Al Fresco with Flowers: Local spots for a wildflower picnic.”
Channel Islands NP VC wildflowers April 5, 2025
“I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me,” writes Cheryl Strayed in Wild (page 51).
Strayed Wild
During this April’s Earth Month, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail provides the perfect motivation to keep pushing as Strayed’s struggles offer readers hope– and I’m the perfect leader for such a journey! Did you know that on April 21, 1985, my former husband Ken Alley and began backpacking the 1400 mile long California section of the Pacific Crest Trail? That’s 10 years before Cheryl Strayed embarked on her 1000 mile journey. There were no resources, no trail angels. And of course no internet or GPS! Read more…
bud break at Ojai Mountain
Each March during Women’s History Month, we celebrate women — all women! Here at Art Predator, we are taking a minute to celebrate “natural women” — that is, women who work in natural wine! Not only are we celebrating natural wine women here on Art Predator, but also on Wine Predator, and in my article in this week’s VC Reporter about five natural wine women in Ventura County:
- Natalie Albertson owner and winemaker at Wildflower Winery, now Native Bloom Winery, Ventura, CA
- Olga Chernov, owner and grower at Ojai Mountain Estate, Ojai, CA
- Gretel Compton, owner, grower, winemaker Clos des Amis and South Mountain Winery, Santa Paula, CA
- Sheila Donohue owner and importer at Verovino, Ventura, CA and Bologna, Italy
- Alexis Wade, owner of Buddy’s Wine Bar, Ventura, CA
read about these wines from these natural women below
art predator 