We are GOING BACK to SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, C.A! The island has been on our minds since we first met in 2013 while participating in the PIMU CATALINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOL! Thank you to the creators and co-creators of the field school for teaching us to respect the Gabrielino/Tongva; the descendants of the Tongva, the Native Americans that once occupied the four southern Channel Islands and the LA Basin. They are the source community from which we generate our knowledge, which is fundamental to non-invasive indigenous archaeology (Martinez 2015).
The Tongva, inhabited an area of about 4,000 square miles going back at least 8,000 years ago (Marsa 2013) based on archaeological evidence from the Palos Verdes peninsula (Frazier 2000) and radiocarbon dates from Santa Catalina Island (Teeter 2013). This encompasses the Southern Channel Islands to areas east of the San Gabriel Mountains, and from present day Ventura County to Orange County (McClintock 2016).
After traveling to over 50 islands throughout the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, we are armed with hundreds of dives and a new perspective. Santa Catalina Island will be the GREATEST DIVING ADVENTURE of our lives and we are excited that YOU will be apart it all. We want to THANK all of you for following us! We appreciate your likes and comments of our content. We will continue to share and like your stories as well.
Considering the difficulties that our country and the world has been facing, it has gotten us a bit concerned about traveling but we are COMPELLED beyond our control to go back. We feel it is our destiny! Researching Santa Catalina Island, I have discovered that it is more ENCHANTED than we have ever possibly imagined. We are determined to dive and explore as much of the Island as we possibly can to inspire all of you that Santa Catalina Island will CHANGE YOUR LIFE forever as it did ours. Thank you everyone for joining us on our epic one in a lifetime adventure under the ocean!
Teeter, W. G., D.R. Martinez, and K. Kennedy-Richardson (2013). Cultural Landscapes of Catalina Island. Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press.