By admin 
The concept of the California First Peoples Art Showcase began with a question posed by Heather Bernikoff, with the Cal Expo and State Fair board of directors, and Matthew Franklin, a member of the Cal Expo Cultural Advisory Council.
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“How are we going to indigenize the fair? How are we going to make sure that our people feel that they are welcome here and that they are seen when they come here,” Bernikoff asked Franklin.
Bernikoff is a member of the Yaqui Tribal community and the first Indigenous person to serve on the Cal Expo board. Franklin is a Miwok and Nisenan tribal member.
Together they and their Native communities, with the support of the State Fair, were able to create an art exhibit showcasing contemporary and historic art and traditions of Native peoples.
For Franklin, the showcase serves as a statement to mainstream society that Native people and Native artists, past and present, are rooted in California’s identity.
“The intention was to really give Native artists a showcase because they really don’t get to shine, and they have such beautiful work,” said Franklin. “To give them an opportunity to share it with the other communities, and to honor their work.”
The exhibit is located at Expo Center Building 8 and is the first ever Indigenous exhibit at the California State Fair.
Bernikoff describes the showcase as a tremendous labor of love that ties traditions with the contemporary experiences of Native peoples.
Colorful portraits, textiles, clothing, a 20-foot canoe and an array of hand woven baby baskets known as cradleboards are among the highlighted items. Bernikoff said the cradleboards are part of traditional tribal heritage passed down through the generations.
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“A lot of these [Native] women are still using baskets that they’ve used generationally—baskets that were handed down from their relatives, their mothers or aunties or grandmothers,” said Bernikoff. “It might be knowledge that has been handed down through the generations, but it’s also contemporary in the sense that it’s still science and technology that’s used today.”
Bernikoff said California is one of the most diverse states in the country with over 109 federally recognized tribes and over 60 non-federally recognized tribes.
Despite the numbers, Bernikoff and Franklin both said they have heard from others who believed Indigenous people were extinct and weren’t a part of current society. That erasure, Bernikoff and Franklin said, leaves mainstream society in the dark about issues that affect Indigenous communities.
Near the entrance of the exhibit is a large healing lodge decorated in white hand prints. Franklin said the handprints are meant to represent the 84% of Indigenous women who experience violence, rape or murder in their lifetime and the 8% of Indigenous men who experience violence and murder in their lifetime. Each hand print represents a person who was either murdered or is missing.
“My uncle’s handprint is on the back, and I signed my name on there,” Franklin said. “It really impacts our people, and our cases and our missing people are not being found, and our cases of murder are not being solved, and so I really wanted to honor that to make sure that the awareness gets out beyond our community.”
Franklin said the exhibit is a step in the right direction in educating the next generation on Native issues and traditions.
“ I just want the people to know that this is something that we do for our people, for the land, for our community,” Franklin said, “And we just want to continue that way of life and pass it on to the next generation.”
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