ICR Pachappa: Navigating Place

María Regina Firmina-Castillo
Dance
UC Riverside

Jacqueline Shea Murphy
Dance
UC Riverside

Envisioned by a newly established ICR Advisory Circle centering Cahuilla guidance, this gathering presented a week-long, community-led, multi-part, embodied engagement with the land where UCR is located, called Pachappa by Íviatem (Cahuilla) peoples. The conference was designed collaboratively with local Íviatem, Máara’yam (Serrano), Tóngva, and Payómkawichum (Luiseño) community members, who provided primary guidance. Ongoing discussions between ICR Advisory Board members and local Native leaders shaped the focus and direction of the event. This process followed walangax, a Cahuilla concept meaning from the beginning, the base of strength and a dynamic point of potentiality via interconnectedness. The conference involved presentations and discussions around Cahuilla creation stories as migration stories, Indigenous-to-Indigenous sharing of dance practices, and various relation-building sensory practices (gift exchanges, land outings, Native plant teachings, fireside star stories). The gathering involved sharing time, knowledge, space, energy, song, dance, and food in transformative, reparative, and healing ways, and was guided by a desire for “achaqwa exma unum Temal,” may all be in good relationship on Earth, a phrase of good intention offered by Cahuilla elder Katherine Kitchen.