By the People: Conversations Beyond 250
Episode Description
As part of the national By the People initiative, several humanities councils created podcast series and episodes of their own. In between original episodes of this show, we are republishing episodes from the councils so you can meet even more culture bearers and history keepers from around the country…and discover new podcasts.
This episode is titled “Whose 250 Years?” It is republished from the California Humanities series Reclaiming Our Stories: Voices of Indigenous Peoples of California, courtesy of California Humanities. Reclaiming Our Stories is part of a larger California Initiative of the same name. You can find more episodes of Reclaiming Our Stories and learn more about the initiative at at calhum.org/reclaiming-our-stories/. Show notes and a transcript for this episode are available here.
In “Whose 250 Years?”, Story Weaver Victorio Shaw (Hoopa Valley Tribe) is joined by Georgiana Sanchez (Chumash, O’odham) and Judge Abby Abinanti (Yurok) for a conversation that challenges dominant historical timelines and asks a central question: Whose years are being counted?
Through reflections on layered colonialisms in California, Indigenous governance, constitutional contradiction, and the endurance of Native communities, the episode explores how Indigenous peoples have carried truth, memory, and responsibility across generations.
Listeners are invited into conversations about Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. colonial impacts in California; regional differences between Northern and Southern California experiences; Indigenous sovereignty and legal invisibility; and the ways truth has survived through family, ceremony, story, land, education, and art.
An artistic interlude offers space for reflection and breath, holding the episode’s emotional and historical weight without explanation.
Reclaiming Our Stories offers a living archive for present and future generations — rooted in narrative sovereignty, deep listening, cultural continuity, and the enduring presence of Indigenous peoples across California.
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By the People: Conversations Beyond 250 is available on all major podcast platforms. Listen on your browser by using the player above or find your preferred platform here.
