Emeryville, CA 94608
USA
Please join us for the 17th annual protest of the shopping mall constructed atop the Ohlone Shellmound in Emeryville. This year we come together to draw connections between the amazing resistance by Water Protectors in Standing Rock and the protection of sacred sites here at home in the Bay Area. Please join us to share solidarity, prayer, ideas, hopes, (and food) at this particularly pivotal moment.
Background: In 1999, the City of Emeryville built the mall that now sits on the corner of Shellmound St and Ohlone Way. This space was once a Ohlone village site and it was one of the largest Shellmounds in the Bay Area. The sacred Shellmound once stood over 60ft high and 350 ft in diameter and it was considered the largest funerary complex of the Ohlone people. When the mall was built, we petitioned the city council and asked them not to destroy our sacred sites, but the developers and the businesses ignored our voices. Although the mall was built, our resistance is alive and it has never died. Hence, every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, we’ve organized an educational protest to remind everyone that Ohlone peoples are alive in the Bay Area and we aim to educate the public on why and how the desecration of Ohlone sacred sites hurts the Ohlone and everyone living here in the Bay Area. We also ask people to not shop at this mall.
Bring friends, food to share, appropriate and thoughtful signs and please bring your positive attitudes. The ceremony at the protest will include spoken word, sacred songs and dances. Please contact organizers beforehand if you have an offering you would like to share.