A History of Kuruvungna

Join Angie Behrns (Tongva), founder of the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation, and artist Mercedes Dorame (Tongva) for a walkthrough at Kuruvungna Village Springs, a registered sacred site with the Native American Heritage Commission and designated California State Historic Landmark.

Behrns, an alumna of University High School, had enjoyed spending time at the Springs, the site of a Tongva village located on the south side of the school’s campus. In 1992, she returned to her alma mater for a class reunion and found the Springs filled with trash and graffiti. In response, descendants of the Tongva and community members collectively rescued the neglected site, and Behrns founded the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation, a non-profit organization that continues to preserve and protect the Springs.

Hear Behrns’s firsthand account of her meaningful advocacy and ongoing relationship with Kuruvungna Village Springs.

Angie Behrns was born and raised in West Los Angeles. She is Gabrielino/Tongva and is federally registered with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mrs. Behrns has documented her paternal genealogy from the early 1800s in Los Angeles.

Mrs. Behrns is a founder of the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation and was the organization’s president from 1997 to 2015. She also served as a commissioner on ​the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission from 1994 to 1998. Mrs. Behrns has appeared in numerous documentaries and television interviews, and participated in speaking engagements at the University of California, Los Angeles, California State University, Long Beach, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Mercedes Dorame is a multi-disciplinary artist who calls on her Tongva ancestry to engage the problematics of (in)visibility and ideas of cultural construction and ancestral connection to land and sky. Born in Los Angeles, California, she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her undergraduate degree from UCLA. She is currently regular faculty at CalArts in the Photo Media Program.

Dorame’s work is in the permanent collections of The Getty, the Hammer Museum, the Huntington, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Triton Museum, among others. She is the recipient of grants and fellowships such as the Creative Capital Award, the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists, the Eijteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, and the Wanlass Artist in Residence Fellowship. She has shown her work internationally.

This program is part of Endless Wellspring, a series of free public programs co-presented by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation at Kuruvungna Village Springs.

Meaning “a place where we are in the sun,” Kuruvungna is the site of a natural spring and an ancestral Tongva village in Tovaangar, present-day Los Angeles. Stewarded by the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation, the two-acres of land features ponds, gardens, and a cultural center dedicated to the life and history of the Tongva people.

In recent years, the Springs has undergone immense ecological restoration through a collective community effort to care for and maintain the sacred site. Reflecting that work, Endless Wellspring is centered around the theme of regeneration, bringing together Native artists and educators to engage with the natural elements and ongoing life and history of Kuruvungna. From hands-on art making workshops to performances, and garden tours, we look forward to seeing you at the Springs this summer.

Endless Wellspring is organized by Mercedes Dorame, artist and Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation board member, and Christopher Mangum-James, LAND deputy director, with support from artist and scholar Lili Flores Aguilar.

This series is made possible in part by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture as part of Creative Recovery LA, an initiative funded by the American Rescue Plan. Generous support provided by Art of Recovery, an initiative of the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, and the West Los Angeles Sawtelle Neighborhood Council through a Neighborhood Purpose Grant. Special thanks to Walton Chiu.

Photo via Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation.