Transcript: Cindy Alvitre
A constant state of mourning and “picking up our bones”
- [Alvitre:]
- So we have had—since the 1950s, had to create something we never imagined, and that’s a re-burial ceremony. Now my tribe, being un-federally recognized, being first-contact people, trying to stand up and say what the hell happened to us, not even post-colonial or de-colonial—we’re still decolonizing. We have been in a constant state of mourning for generations now, just picking up our bones, picking up our old things as they’re strewn across Southern California development sites. We’re occupied with that task, a horrible, horrible task of picking up the pieces. And that actually paints a picture of what’s happened to Native people throughout this country is we’re picking up our bones, picking up our ancestors. It’s very sad.