Land Acknowledgement
Sea Bar Ranch & Nursery is a Protea flower farm and homestead currently located and gathered on the unceded land of the Chumash peoples. Our farm and land is situated within an interwoven network of historical and contemporary relationships with the Chumash and we wish to honor and acknowledge the original stewards and caretakers of this land, the elders and ancestors who have lived here far before we arrived.
The traditional Chumash homeland lies along the coast of California, between the hills of Malibu and Paso Robles up to the Northern Channel Island, and encompasses Gaviota. Before the Mission Period, the Chumash lived in 150 independent towns and villages with a total population of far more than 25,000 people. In different parts of the region, people spoke six different but related languages.
The area was first settled at least 13,000 years ago. Over time, the population increased and the people adapted their life-ways to the local environment. Villages along the coastline, on the islands and in the interior had access to different resources, which they traded with one another.
It is within Sea Bar Ranch’s responsibility as a current steward of this sacred land to disseminate knowledge about Native peoples and the land’s history with them.
One of our commitments is to respect diversity and inclusion. To this regard, we are currently also going beyond this land acknowledgement and are seeking to integrate the acknowledgement by building relationships with Chumash communities and initiatives through partnerships, historical recognitions, community service and learning efforts to implement Chumash wisdom into our processes and life-way.
We are looking forward to supporting initiatives through our business and your support and purchases of our beautiful flowers such as the California Native Curriculum Foundation, Kita Wines and the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Foundation which is to be established in 2022.
I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Chumash community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. Sea Bar Ranch honors with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations.