A mural collaboration honoring Indigenous land
In the spring of 2022, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in close collaboration with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, commissioned a mural for the newly constructed Medak Building.
Beginning with a talk from our co-founder Corrina Gould with the entire board, the process also included collaborative artist selection and design processes, and ongoing conversations. The mural is visual land acknowledgment and is accompanied by a plaque and information page on the Berkeley Repertory Theater website. In an additional action beyond acknowledgement, the Theater also participates in our Institutional Shuumi Land Tax, contributing to our work annually.
Painted on the east-facing wall, the artwork acknowledges the ancestral lands of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan. Artist Cece Carpio invites viewers to observe a past, present, and future in the hands of indigenous youth.
Photos by Anya Hurtwits
The mural depicts the harvest and use of tule in the traditional fabrications of housing, storage, and transportation, while the image of the galaxy offers a vision of timeless interconnectedness. This mural is a call to support the regeneration of local land and to honor the native tribes that flourish here today.
To learn more about this collaboration visit Berkeley Repertory Theater.
ARTIST: CECE CARPIO
ASSISTANT ARTIST: SHISHI MADRID
APPRENTICE: KAHALLA
COMMITTEE: SUNSHINE DEFFNER, DEJA GOULD, INÉS IXIERDA, SUSIE MEDAK, JOHANNA PFAELZER