The Sea Within Us: Caring for the Deep

Co-presented with the UCLA Department of Media Arts and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s award-winning and widely influential book, The Sea Around Us, an interdisciplinary group of Indigenous culture bearers, scientists, artists, and ocean storytellers will address the legacy of DDT+, industrial, and radioactive waste dumping off the southern California coast. As a visionary marine biologist, Carson represented the science of the ocean alongside an ethic of accountability to what she termed our “mother sea.” To Carson, the ocean was a teacher, agent, and ancestor carried in our briny veins.

This panel will engage a wide range of perspectives about the cultures of ocean knowledge including Indigenous stewardship, the history and science behind the contamination, its impact on ocean ecosystems and marine mammals, and how collectively we might chart a path toward healing and accountability through diverse practices of caring for the deep.

Presenters

Lihini Aluwihare, Professor, UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Tina Orduno Calderon, Culture bearer of the Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme Indigenous People
Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Professor, UCLA Department of English and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Alissa C. Deming, Vice President of Conservation Medicine and Science, Pacific Marine Mammal Center
Rebeca Méndez, artist and professor, UCLA Department of Design Media Arts
Tina Treude, Professor, UCLA Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Rev. Adelia Sandoval, Spiritual leader of the Acjachemen Indigenous People
David Valentine, Distinguished Professor, UCSB Department of Earth Science
Rosanna Xia, investigative journalist at the Los Angeles Times

Questions about the event?
Visit the Hammer Museum for full details.