“My number one political issue is environmental justice and climate change,” she says. “The urgency made me drop everything else. I say, ‘I used to go to the beach, now I go to politics.’”
A Northern Chumash descendant of Avila Beach and San Luis Obispo County, California, Violet currently lives along the state’s rugged central coast. · Chris Burkard
“I grew up at the beach, and my compass is set by where the ocean is. My people are ocean-going people.”
Violet grew up at the beach, and now ventures into politics to seek justice for her people · Jeremy Bishop
“Everything you see at any national park, you see here underneath the water in technicolor, with the fish just as amazing as everything above,” Violet says.
Violet loves to dive in the Channel Islands, where humpback whales come for warm water currents bringing fish and nutrients up from the deep · Robert Schwemmer / NOAA
One third of southern California’s kelp forests are found within the Channel Islands · Claire Fackler / NOAA
California sea lions play on the surface of the water off San Miguel Island · Claire Fackler / NOAA
Violet’s family, in particular her father, was the applicant for the proposed 140-mile Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary · Jeremy Bishop
“The ocean brought our people back together,” Violet says.
In 1976, the Chumash community built their first “tomol,” or Chumash plank canoe, in more than 100 years. This moment arrived after decades of persecution by the Spanish mission system and U.S. government · Robert Schwemmer / NOAA
“When some people say they’re Native American, the first thing people do is question you,” Walker says. “It’s not my job to change and educate people. It’s a huge burden on those who do social justice and environmental work—asking the victims to justify their feelings.”
Current marine protection of coastal and Great Lakes waters is only 18 percent, far short of the United States’ 30×30 goals · Chris Burkard
Violet is optimistic the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will soon be granted—thanks to supporters like Vice President Kamala Harris, and Deb Haaland as a potential ally inside the Interior Department · Chris Burkard
Violet and her family face opposition from real estate developers, who contest the Chumash people’s fundamental rights, like practicing religion at sacred sites · Chris Burkard
Coming out as a Native person was hard for so many members of the Chumash community. Violet remembers taunts and being asked how could she be Native if she owned a cell phone and lived in a house, not a tipi · Jeremy Bishop
For Violet, her ecological justice work to protect the ocean is interwoven with the cultural resurgence of the Chumash identity · Jeremy Bishop
“The younger generation is more comfortable being who they are,” she says. “To fix problems with the ocean, we have to be comfortable in our culture and heritage and own our own identity, and say, ‘Look, this is what’s right and wrong with the land. We have to hear people’s stories, let them speak their truth and be heard.’”
Violet has faith that the younger Chumash generation will be able to fix problems with the ocean while being comfortable in their culture and heritage · Jeremy Bishop
