Mural Unveiling Highlights CSUSM's Ties to Native Community

Mural Unveiling Highlights CSUSM's Ties to Native Community

By Brian Hiro

After giving a presentation at a local conference about equity in education in 2023, Eric Tippeconnic was approached by a middle school teacher from Bonsall.

Tippeconnic, an artist and American Indian studies professor at Cal State San Marcos, had spoken to the audience about one of his specialties: the use of murals to portray land acknowledgements visually. And having been inspired by the talk, the teacher, Domingo Anguiano, wanted Tippeconnic to bring a visual land acknowledgement to his school, Sullivan Middle in Bonsall.

Two years later, the vision that was born that day has become a reality. On April 23, Tippeconnic was among a crowd of about 250 people who watched the unveiling of his mural - which doubles as a land acknowledgment - in the courtyard between Sullivan Middle and Bonsall High School.

Among the others in attendance were two CSUSM administrators, Provost Carl Kemnitz and Chief Community Engagement Officer Patricia Prado-Olmos; Joely Proudfit, chair of the American Indian studies department and director of the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center; Brandon Johnson, vice chair of the Pala Band of Mission Indians; Heather Golly, superintendent of Bonsall Unified School District; Joseph Clevenger, assistant superintendent of the San Diego County Office of Education; and guests from various Native communities in Southern California.

"This mural represents a school district making a significant step by centering the first peoples of this land," Tippeconnic said. "A visual land acknowledgment is a more tangible and permanent step to include the original peoples of this land in the historical narrative."

After Anguiano met Tippeconnic at the conference, he invited him to Bonsall to talk to school officials and teachers about the project. Once it had been approved, Anguiano introduced Tippeconnic to Native students from the district who had expressed a desire to be involved in the mural.

Last May, 10 students (five boys and five girls) participated in a photo shoot during which they sang Native bird songs and danced. Tippeconnic took those photos and rendered a composite drawing, which he then used as a guide for the mural.

During the unveiling event, those same students depicted in the mural danced in front of their own images on the wall.

"That was the absolute highlight for me," Tippeconnic said. "It truly captured the spirit of the day. The positive feelings and vibrations were palpable."

Since the partnership with Bonsall began, Tippeconnic said, more than 30 Native students from the district who are considering college have visited CSUSM to tour campus and the CICSC.

An enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, Tippeconnic is no stranger to visual land acknowledgements. Three years ago, he created an exhibit titled "Our Existence Is Our Resistance" in the CSUSM library that was entirely dedicated to the subject.

"Native peoples, including those indigenous to California, have been systematically erased from U.S. history and are conspicuously absent from mainstream educational curriculum," said Tippeconnic, who has been a tenure-track professor at CSUSM since 2020. "The Bonsall mural is a significant gesture to convey that inclusion and representation matter."

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Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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