Teri Red Owl & AnMarie Mendoza on Indigenous water rights

Teri Red Owl, citizen of the Bishop Paiute Tribe and Executive Director of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission (OVIWC) and AnMarie Mendoza, a Tongva water protector and Paya/Paar outreach director for OVIWC, connect the struggles in Latin America depicted in Water for Life to local struggles led by Native Americans to protect and reclaim water resources of Payahuunadü (the Owens Valley) diverted to Los Angeles. Post-screening conversation moderated by Jessica Cattelino, Director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center. Water For Life tells the story of three extraordinary individuals: Berta Cáceres, a Lenca Indigenous leader in Honduras; Francisco Piñeda, a subsistence farmer in El Salvador; and Alberto Curamil, an Indigenous Mapuche Chief in Chile, all of whom refused to let government-supported industry and transnational corporations take their water and redirect it to mining, hydroelectric, or large scale industrial agriculture projects. Copresented with The Promise Institute of Human Rights (L.A.) and the UCLA American Indian Studies Center Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials, on view through August 23.