AMLT Youth Summer Camp Returns for its Second Year at Sunlit

By Lisa Carrier, Tribal Member and AMLT Director of Operations

From July 28 to August 3, 2024, the AMLT Sunlit rukka (house) in Bonny Doon erupted with the enthusiasm, curiosity and laughter of young Tribal members and their family chaperones who gathered for the second in-person Youth Stewardship Summer Camp. This was AMLT’s Youth Stewardship Summer Camp’s second year hosted at the AMLT Sunlit rukka, and broke our attendance record from last year with an average 40 participants between ages 5 and 17, and an average daily attendance of 90 campers and their family members, our Native Plant Program volunteers, CDLS scientists, special guests from our local Native community, allies and supporting AMLT staff.

This was the second year that its curriculum and activities were developed, organized, and facilitated by a team that was over 85% Mutsun. This team was led by Tribal members Lisa Carrier, AMLT’s Director of Operations, and Hannah Moreno, an elementary school teacher who served as Camp Coordinator, along with tribal members, Carolyn Rodriquez, a UCLA PhD candidate, Yolanda Maciorski and Jaynee Venegas who are also schoolteachers. Adding to this group were Tribal community members ranging from Elders to teacher aides and our AMLT Program Managers, Cabrillo College teachers and Martin Rizzo Martinez, who took on various leadership roles to ensure the Camp was a success.

Programming for the 7-day and 6-night camp focused on Mutsun stewardship; traditional culture in our everyday life; the importance of our coastal and river water ways, plants, and animals, Climate Change; and our Native foods. This was the first year that the Youth voted on the theme of Camp at the end of last year’s event – BUGS (insects and spiders)! With twenty-one 4-person tents, dining and activity areas, a new talking circle area, a transformed media room into a science lab, a Snack Shack, rooms for elders, a full kitchen, and outdoor movies, we created a complete Camp Village at the AMLT Sunlit rukka. The youth got to explore our native plant meadow, catch and release the vast variety of insects and spiders at Sunlit, lay under the Santa Cruz Mountain stars at night, and learn about family lineage connections and our ancestors. With day trips to the San Lorenzo River to learn about the lifecycle of Salmon, to the Davenport Beach to explore what lives on our ocean floor and a day spent at the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.

Camp launched with our second annual team-building exercise that breaks campers into teams organized by this year’s theme of “Sunlit rukka Bugs”. Campers worked in their groups to draw and color their assigned bug on a flag and to learn about each bug’s key characteristics, cultural significance and Mutsun names. The groups then spent time educating each other about these details. All of the bugs picked are regularly seen at the Bonny Doon Tribal Home, including the tirasmin (spider), kutYeelu (tarantula) and kaSsup (mosquito).

Each day was a full agenda of activities with field trips and on-site activities. Guided by the use of art with each camper receiving a container full of pens, pencils, crayons, a multimedia sketching pad and journal to encourage self-expression, esteem and confidence with on-site activities using art to foster emotional connections and personal expressions related to aspects of Mutsun culture and the camp curriculum.

Yolanda Maciorski, Tribal member and camp teacher, looks for bugs with a camper.

The youth visited the local river to learn how our AMLT Stewards collected water to test for salmon DNA, and learn about their life cycle and their cultural significance. We played a salmon lifecycle board game and with various art supplies created Salmon banners to express what the salmon meant to the youth and how through teamwork and collaboration they could design their unique salmon banners by each team only coloring a portion of the salmon.

Campers playing salmon lifecycle board game.

Our second day of camp was all about the bugs. Our youth were given magnifying jars and nets to catch spiders and insects, the bugs were put on ice to temporarily pause their body functions so the kids could see them under microscopes and carefully handle them. They then would help the insects awaken and return them to their habitat on the property.

Other days involved a morning learning about our individual responsibility related to Climate Change, how it is affecting Mother Earth, our lifestyle and what we can do as a community, in our neighborhoods, cities, Tribe and own homes. Time was spent on exploring our feelings about Climate Change and what we can actually control ourselves. Each day in camp we measured our left-over food on our plates at all three meals to be more conscious of our behaviors toward food waste. Our Native Plant program walked the youth through the history of plant evolution, they learned about the anatomy of a plant, and they learned how to pot and care for three native plants to take home to eventually grow in their own yards.

Time at the Sunlit rukka in Bonny Doon brought opportunities to learn and sing Tribal songs, to practice Mutsun language, and to gather together with Tribal elders for evening talking circles focused on cultural protocols, respecting our traditional practices vs western science in relation to our cultural values, learning about prominent ancestors and introducing several important stories in our culture acted out by Tribal teachers and staff.

On our last day of Camp, we visited the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park. Led by the State Park staff, our Youth explored the various rooms of the adobe buildings and learned about daily life at the Mission. We had a special guest, Dr. Martin Rizzo Martinez (author of We are Not Animals), explain the truth of everyday life in the Mission system, he engaged our Youth by giving details and answering their questions. They were able to view the film, “It Needs to Be Told: Native California Perspectives on the Missions”, which was very special as Elder Marion Martinez, who was featured in the film, participated at Camp. The Park staff shared many significant cultural tools (shells, beads, tule baskets, mats, fire starter kits, soap root brushes) for the youth to learn about, touch and use.

The kids learned how to play and made their own staves game we call Tallik and they had a highly competitive and lively Hoop and Spear session. This last full day was capped off with our second annual traditional foods dinner; salmon, halibut, acorn, elderberries and local Bonny Doon native tiger nuts that make a very similar drink when grinded down that tastes very much like huarache. It ended with an evening of our youth participating in learning about eight prominent ancestors. Teams leaded about their elders then presented their picture boards with bios they shared with the rest of Camp. We used examples of current families to teach the kids about the various generations and how it was not that long ago that our ancestors were in the Mission we visited earlier in the day and why keeping our memories of them are so important to pass down.

Tribal member and AMLT Native Steward Steven Pratt playing Hoop and Spear with campers at Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.

Campers playing Tallik with the staves they made.

Campers presenting their learnings on Ascención Solórsano de Cervantes, a Mutsun ancestor and prolific healer.

The 2024 Youth Stewardship Summer Camp was a wonderful experience for campers and staff alike.

Yolanda Maciorski, Tribal Member and Camp Teacher reflects: “On the last day of camp I was reflecting on why is camp so important? For me, its in hope of reaching our children. Helping grasp and embrace the importance of our history and culture. Not through inaccurate textbooks, but from hands on experiences we can pass forward to and through them. As the legacies of our ancestors and current elders lives of survival and tradition is now in them. Our future existence is in their hands.”

To see more photos from this year’s Youth Summer Camp, click here.

AMLT is grateful to all of our supporters for making the AMLT Youth Stewardship Summer Camp possible, and especially the California State Coastal Conservancy Explore the Coast Grant Program. To make a contribution to support summer camp in 2025, please click here!