ORAL HISTORY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Everyone has great stories to tell and we’re looking for some of those stories and old images related to the living and playing in the East Bay Creeks before they were buried, specifically Sausal Creek and Strawberry Creek at this time.

Maybe your stories are about fighting to get the creeks filled in or fighting to keep them open to the sky, working in a factory along the shoreline, being Ohlone in a land of covered creeks, or your great grandparents arriving in the East Bay as colonists in the 1800s. We are particularly interested in the stories of Black, Indigenous, Chinese and Latinx and other people of color, as these are often the most buried stories.

What are we doing with these stories and images? Wholly H2O has been creating Walking Waterhoods tours in the Sausal, Strawberry, Glen Echo and Temescal Creeks. You can access these tours anytime on the app PocketSights. In order to deepen our experience of the history of creeks we’re also creating StoryMaps that include oral histories of the creeks. And that’s where your memories and experiences along the creeks come in.

Please be in touch if you or someone you know would like to be interviewed or contribute your written stories and images. Reach out to us at Wholly H2O: info@whollyh2o.org with the subject Creek Stories.

Access the WalkingWaterhoods tour with the QR codes below:

Android QR Code

iPhone QR Code

When: Saturday, October 19, 2024

Time: 11 AM - 12:30 PM

Where: Fruitvale, Oakland, CA (more detail provided upon registering)

Nestled in the heart of Oakland, the vibrant neighborhood of Fruitvale evolved from part of the Bay Area home of the Ohlone people into the bustling urban neighborhood it is today, known for its lively markets, cultural diversity, and community spirit.

Some highlights of the tour will include:

• Where's the creek?
• The verdant farms of Fruit Vale
• Black Panther, Chicano, and American Indian movements from the 1960s to today
• Social, racial, and environmental justice through murals and mosaic art
• Dense urban ecology looks like
• Trash, stormwater, and Sausal Creek's outflow

If you need free tickets, reach out: info@whollyh2o.org

Wholly H2O VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION NIGHT

When: September 20, 2024

Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Where: Drake's Dealership, 2325 Broadway, Oakland, CA

While some other nonprofits may try to fight us on this, we honestly have the best volunteers and interns in the world. Join us to celebrate the 17+ interns working with us now as well as interns from our past. (If that's you, first drink is on us!). Be prepared for fun, as we like to laugh! Register to let us know you're coming.

WATERSHED ENVIRONMENTAL POETRY FESTIVAL: STRAWBERRY CREEK TOUR

When: Saturday, Oct 5

Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Where: Meet at the brass globe sculpture at the corner of Crescent Lawn and Oxford Street

The WATERSHED ENVIRONMENTAL POETRY FESTIVAL is a collaboration of Robert Hass, Poetry Flash, Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Ecocity Builders, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and Pegasus Books Downtown.

For the last several years, Wholly H2O (in the form of Elizabeth Dougherty and Chris James) has been part of the poetry, dance and cultural history tour of Strawberry Creek on the UCBerkeley Campus. We'll be doing a mini-version of our campus tour with some highlights of cultural and natural history

Flowers, Fences, and Parking Lots: My Journey to the West Berkeley Shellmound

By Meghan Boyle

Shellmound Grounds / Meghan Boyle, WhollyH2O

Driving through the Bay Area is like passing through invisible layers of history, a million pieces of land that have been handed from one person to another, or one company to the next, for hundreds of years. Rarely has this land gone from Indigenous hands to colonizers, corporations, small businesses, and back. But at the West Berkeley Shellmound, an Ohlone shellmound-turned-business parking lot, this flipping back through the textbook of time is exactly what took place just a few months ago, in late March. The term for this giving back of land to its original caretakers is known as “rematriation” — defined by the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust as “restor[ing] a people to their rightful place in sacred relationship with their ancestral land.”

My journey into the history of land rematriation in the Bay Area started with seeing it for myself.  As a writer, I’ve been trained to double, triple, and quadruple check my sources. To establish my credibility and convince my audience that I am an expert on whatever topic I present. But with something like this — a subject intertwined with a history and culture that I have not lived or am a part of, I cannot claim expertise. So, instead, I offer my own story visiting the West Berkeley Shellmound and the insights I gained from this experience. 

Shellmound Site Entrance / Meghan Boyle, WhollyH2O

The morning that I visited the West Berkeley Shellmound grounds, the sky over the city was the color of concrete, shining steely gray over the distant bay waters. As I approached the 2.2 acre site at 1900 Fourth Street, which many might recognize as the now-closed Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto parking lot, I first noticed a torn Sogorea Te’ poster hanging over the old Spenger’s signage. Reading “This Land Has Returned to Indigenous Hands”, the poster exists as proof of the recent triumph of Berkeley’s Indigenous community. And, perhaps a result of the wind or the weight of gravity, the tear felt strangely symbolic — almost like a reminder of the struggles it took to get to this point, and the struggles that the Ohlone still face to regain their land. 

The parking lot was empty, save for a few cars and tents, but there were signs of Ohlone presence everywhere. A small shed in the back left corner of the wide expanse was painted black, the roof outlined in bubblegum pink. Illustrated across the east-facing wall in brilliant teal were the words “Defend the Sacred”, and across the north wall — “Land Back.” Stickers calling for land rematriation and Ohlone visibility adorned a nearby light pole. Some were older, encouraging the city to “Save the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site.” One proudly stated “THIS IS OHLONE LAND” while another spread the message in Spanish — “Rematriar La Tierra”, or “Rematriate the Land”. A yellow poster sat affixed atop the light pole, celebrating the return of the land to Ohlone caretakers. 

These powerful messages existed in an almost uncanny juxtaposition to the physical state of the shellmound grounds. Beneath my feet lay crumbling asphalt and cracked pavement striping next to colorful painted birds. A cold chain link fence boasting “PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING” signs surrounded the lot’s perimeter, alongside flowers and leaves woven into the metal. The space itself was vacant; yet, all around I saw reminders of the life that occupied the grounds thousands of years ago, and the lives still working to restore it today. 

Painted Building, Shellmound Site Sticker, Fence Flowers / Meghan Boyle, WhollyH2O

Land rematriation has been a contested topic in Bay Area history. For a long time, legal battles between landowners and Indigenous groups have prevented historic Ohlone sites from being accessed by Indigenous communities. At the parking lot site, the city’s housing crisis made obtaining the area particularly difficult because of plans to develop the space to accommodate more people.

For years, the local Indigenous community fought to bring attention to the West Berkeley Shellmound, highlighting its cultural significance to the Lisjan people (one of the many tribes lumped into the “Ohlone” umbrella). Some of the efforts they made included decorating a fence that once surrounded the area with prayer flags and flowers, holding gatherings calling to protect the grounds, and even painting California poppies and the words “SACRED SITE” on the road in front of the lot. 

These land back efforts were finally formally recognized this past March, when the City of Berkeley agreed to purchase the property that sits over the shellmound for $27 million dollars and transfer it to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust. Both the City of Berkeley and the Sogorea Te' Land Trust and its donors worked to provide the agreed-upon amount — Berkeley offered $1.5 million from its general fund and $25.5 million came from the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. To commemorate this momentous victory, a celebration was held just over a month ago on July 14th at the shellmound grounds, where hundreds of Indigenous community members and allies gathered to pray, dance, and speak about this incredible feat. 

After the dancing on the day of the celebration, Sogorea Te' Land Trust co-director Corrina Gould said in a moving statement, “We set down a prayer here when we danced just now. We are using our bodies to put down those prayers because underneath this asphalt our ancestors still hear us and they are calling on us to continue. This is not the end of it. This is the beginning of a new chapter.”

Her words capture the implications of this moment well. Being able to care for the land again has not only allowed the Ohlone to be even closer to their ancestors and honor their memory in a more direct way, it sets a precedent for future rematriation and land back efforts both in the Bay Area, and across the nation.

Road Paintings / Meghan Boyle, WhollyH2O

Leaving the shellmound grounds, I felt a visceral sadness at what had been lost. The rematriation of this land is wildly significant, but it still does not undo the damage that centuries of colonization, marginalization, and development have caused. As I looked across the parking lot for the last time, I tried to imagine the original Bay shoreline — water brushing against sand in the space where railroad tracks now lie. But the ghosts of things can only ever haunt, and so I left Fourth Street sobered by my realization of how little the land represents what it once was.

The area between the current shoreline and the shellmound site is all fill, covering where the Ohlone once gathered, danced, fished, and lived thousands of years ago. Here there is no village, no visible shellmound. So many layers of this history that were stored in piles of sand and shells and earth — gone. But the sky was still gray, the same shade as it was any other late summer morning somewhere in the past. Though most things have shifted drastically, at least others still stay the same. And despite the many changes away from the world that used to exist here, Gould is right: this is only the beginning of something new, something that could stir about more change, but in a better direction.

Railroad Behind Shellmound Site / Meghan Boyle, WhollyH2O

Little do we question our history, and rarely do we indulge in it. Why bother, when we’re always rushing toward the future? It takes effort to dive into the past when we’re constantly surrounded by reminders of things we need to get done, places we need to be, people we need to meet. Who we will be often takes precedence over who we were. It’s no surprise then, that history falls to the wayside while we blaze ahead, and important stories are buried under asphalt and to-dos. 

But moments like this historic rematriation force us to pause for a second, and consider what it truly means to belong somewhere. Moments like this encourage us to think about why this land is so important to us, and ask ourselves how we plan to care for it while we still can. That could mean learning more about the history of the land you occupy and exploring its long-buried stories. Maybe it means joining efforts to save the land or educating others on its significance for the millions of people that have lived here and live here now.

For me, moments like this make me think about the plants adorning the fence surrounding the shellmound site. Such a powerful gesture — lacing beauty and culture into something meant to keep the community away. Perhaps that should be our goal as caretakers of this land, doing our best to better our environment despite the struggles that constantly push us backward. After all, we are the ones responsible for the well-being of our land. Even if all we can do is weave flowers in the chain links of oppression until one day, it is finally enough.

"Private Property" / Meghan Boyle, WhollyH2O

Our lives depend on healthy watersheds, and Wholly H2O depends on YOU!

Our important (and fun) work takes cash, plain and simple. Will you help us keep our events coming? Please use the link below to flow some cash in our direction! We're having our end-of-the-year fundraiser with a goal of $5,000 from all sources. If you are on Facebook, you are welcome to donate here. Otherwise, use our link to help us meet our goal. We love you!

During the last 100 years, California has been in on-and off drought conditions. We also have one of the five most important delta systems in the world, yet, most Californians do not know where their water comes from, how much they use a day, or what watershed they live in. At Wholly H2O, we are creating deep connections with watershed ecosystems in order to inspire people to take long-range personal and political action, while still having fun. And our Board of Advisors is a crucial part of how Wholly H2O functions. We ask for a solid commitment to:

• Join a 1.5 hour board meeting every four months.
• Put the word out about at least 3 Wholly H2O events a year
• Attend two Wholly H2O events per year
• Assist us in making connections for program content, partners, funding, and growth.

We're looking for experts in:

• Bay Area creek and marine ecosystems
• East Bay history - particularly BIPOC histories
• curriculum development
• connecting with East Bay K-12 schools
• marketing

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, apply using this link. Also, be sure to check out our current Board of Advisors to learn more !