UC Santa Barbara students are dipping their toes into the filmmaking process. Every summer the university hosts a nine week course where students team up to create an original documentary about the coast.
One team uncovered the story of a forgotten Chumash island in the Goleta Slough.
UCSB student, Jade Ipina, was a part of the team. She said the film is named after the island, quwa’.
“It was a thriving Chumash civilization and it was an island that had multiple resources, like nine streams that were feeding into the slough, and food sources, and a great climate,” Ipina said.
The slough is now a protected wetland near the Santa Barbara County coast.
According to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, different indigenous tribes used the slough as a harbor thousands of years ago when it was a major trade center. Chumash people would dock traditional redwood plank canoes called Tomols to help them explore for food and other goods across the coast.
According to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the area was the most densely populated area of the Chumash region, and most likely all of California.
“And it got me thinking, what happened to this island that was such a thriving place,” Ipina said.
Ipina said if you walk out into the slough today, you’ll see a small dirt mound where quwa’ used to exist. She said the sliver that’s left is now owned by a gas company.
“A lot of our filming was of that lump of dirt, or what remains of the island,” Ipina said.
But what exactly happened to all the Chumash people who lived on that island? And, why did they end up leaving?
UCSB student Catherine Scanlon helped produce, write and edit the film. She said upon researching, the team found out the area was bulldozed to make room for the Santa Barbara Airport.
“Basically they destroyed the island, they got rid of half the island and used that dirt to fill in the swampy slough area where the airport is. It’s not even on top of the island. It’s that they destroyed the island to make the airport,” Scanlon said.
According to Santa Barbara’s tourism website, the airport started out as a single airstrip. Expansion came when the prospect of World War Two began to escalate.
The United States government created a program to build 250 airports across the country and selected this area to build what’s now called the Santa Barbara Airport.
Scanlon said Chumash people were still doing ceremonies in the slough decades after colonization. Though there are no records of them continuing that practice when airport construction began, the island was still culturally and historically important to them.
The team said they wanted to write about this history to remind people that the land was taken away from the Chumash and destroyed. Ipina said tribes have not forgotten about it.
“When we were interviewing we felt the frustration. Their perspective really opened our eyes to really be aware of land ownership,” she said.
Ipina said the goal of this project is to remember the island, even for an audience that may never have heard of it.
“I think it’s important to recognize that it was owned by indigenous in the past. It hasn’t always been owned by these companies..”
Scanlon said she hopes that after people view the documentary, they will listen to Chumash people and learn their history.
“And really hear in their own words. And understand some of the things about how some sort of reconciliation or land back could happen. I think a lot of people think it’s too complicated and they’re too scared of it. We’re not telling people the answer or giving the solution but we want people to start actually listening and thinking about that,” Scanlon said.
Quwa' and three other student films will premiere Friday, August 23rd at the Pollack Theater in Santa Barbara at 7pm.
The event is open to the public. Ticket information is here.
This reporting is made possible by a grant from the Shanbrom Family Foundation.
This article was updated August 27 to clarify Chumash people were not performing ceremonies when airport construction began.
