The summer is always a busy time here at the Museum! In just two short summer months we’ve held our 10th Annual Culture Camp for Barona tribal members, hosted multiple large group tours, helped out at the Gathering, and attended Barona’s 48th Annual Powwow

We were fortunate to have a great turn out for Culture Camp this year! A lot of work goes into Culture Camp, from both the community and museum staff. It typically takes several months to create the curriculum and gather materials for Culture Camp, while the camp itself, lasts three days. During Culture Camp, children participated in fun activities such as building an ‘ewaa (a traditional Kumeyaay/Diegueño home), creating clay figures, and making Kumeyaay/Diegueño watercolor constellation art. If you would like to make your own Kumeyaay/Diegueño watercolor constellation art you can download the instructions here!

In addition to Culture Camp, we also hosted group tours and our monthly Barona Church tour. One such group was the organization, Native Like Water. Also known as Young Native Scholars (YNS) and InterTribal Youth (ITY), this program was developed in 2000 for young Native Americans, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiians, and youths from various nations to learn about traditional ecology, health, and culture. We have hosted YNS for over a decade and enjoy teaching them about the history and culture of the Kumeyaay/Diegueño people.

During this tour, we were fortunate to have some extra help from Chairman Romero and Vice Chairman Welch. After the museum staff gave YNS a tour of the museum’s exhibits and played ‘Iipay Aa bingo, Chairman and Vice Chairman helped facilitate a mock council meeting. We had a blast watching the Young Native Scholars choose their leaders and work out the various community problems that arose.

We ended our busy summer with the 48th Annual Barona Powwow. Every year at Powwow we set up a booth to sell merchandise from our Museum Store, talk about the history and culture of the Kumeyaay/Diegueño People, and provide visitors with information about upcoming Museum events. If you missed us at Powwow and would like to learn about our upcoming events such as our Ancient Spirits Speak Classes or San Diego Museum Council’s Kids Free in October, you can check out our website, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!