Atop City College’s Great Meadow, the community gathered to celebrate the unveiling of multiple Chumash signs, documenting and informing about Indigenous peoples’ history on May 8. With multiple displays created by artist Solange Aguilar in collaboration with her family, these newfound signs display Chumash history including language, arts and food traditions, but also depict the loss of traditions and ecological destruction.
Mia Lopez, chair of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, began the ceremony with a prayer, emphasizing her thankfulness of the community that gathered to celebrate the unavailing of the signs as well as creating connection and inclusivity.
“I want to thank Creator, for bringing us all here today. Helping us bring community together. Helping us to create inclusivity and connection again, not just with our people, but with the land and nature so that we can remember where we are truly meant to be, which is with each other,” Lopez said, inviting the audience to join her in prayer.
![Solange Aguilar describes her artistic process for the newly created Chumash educational signs across City Colleges' campus on May 8 in Santa Barbara, Calif. “My role was to listen, change [the design], and get the visuals to a place where we all felt very happy and proud,” Aguilar said, explaining her collaboration with her family.](https://www.thechannels.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CGChumash-5-364x600.jpg)
“When making the art for these signs I felt a lot of pressure within myself to create these in a good way while also representing thousands of years of history and culture from the community that raised me and still raises me,” Aguilar stated, reflecting on her artistic journey.
Aguilar goes on to mention that she wasn’t the only face behind these signs, and her family also played a role in curating the design. Every visual element from color to illustrations was researched so that the end result was something that the family could be happy with and take pride in.
“The work done here is a shining example of how education and community can come together to honor our past and inspire our future,” Superintendent-President Erika Endrijonas said, closing her acknowledgments and gratitude to the Chumash Signage Project Committee.
