Armory Events
Nurtured Flames: Gather – Film Screening & Community Conversation
Presented in conjunction with Nurtured Flames: The Medicine of Fire at the Armory Center for the Arts, this public program will feature a screening of Gather (2020), a documentary exploring Native American food sovereignty, cultural resilience, and the reclamation of ancestral ecological knowledge.
Following the screening, a conversation with Rebecca Tortes will explore Indigenous food sovereignty, traditional ecological practices, and the relationships between land, cultural continuity, and community resilience.
About the Speakers
Rebecca Tortes (Payomkawichum, Cahuilla, and Assiniboine Sioux) is the Vice President of Programs at First Nations Development Institute and the co-founder and of the California Tribal Fund, the first-ever California tribal serving, California tribal controlled and led, statewide philanthropic fund. Since its founding in early 2020, the California Tribal Fund has built a trust based grant process and has mobilized over 10.2 million in funds and technical assistance to support California tribal programs that steward and protect their ancestral lands, waters, food systems, and cultural practices.
Rebecca has worked with California tribal populations for over 25 years. Before establishing the California Tribal Fund, she served as the Executive Director for the California Indian Basketweavers Association (CIBA), a statewide nonprofit working to preserve, promote, and perpetuate California Indian basketweaving traditions. In addition, she has served as a tribal administrator, development manager, grant writer, and community liaison for several California-based tribes and tribal nonprofits.
Rebecca centers the Fund's giving practices in a manner that aligns with the way she was taught to give as a child by her grandparents, George and Rosemary Tortes. As the mother of a young adult, Rebecca is particularly passionate about supporting intergenerational cultural programs and protecting natural resources for the next generation. When not working, Rebecca enjoys riding her bike, reading, thrifting, international travel, and building her Payomkawichum language knowledge.