Noyo Bida Truth Project Announces the Winners of Their Fourth Annual Essay Contest

This is a press release from the Noyo Bida Truth Project:

The Noyo Bida Truth Project announces the winners of their Fourth Annual Essay Contest. The First and Second Prize winners will read their essays and receive their prizes  Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. at Town Hall, 363 N. Main Street, Noyo Bida, CA. (Fort Bragg)

First Prize is $1,000 and Second Prize $500. The prompt for the contest was “ Yes, (or, No) the name Noyo Bida (The Fishing Place in Northern Pomo) should be returned to the City of Fort Bragg. Prizes will be presented by the three Essay Contest Judges, who are unaffiliated with TNBTP.

First Prize goes to Rowan Carr, who is a FBHS student and will be a senior in the fall. She is a founding member of the jazz club and president of the spectrum club. In her free time she enjoys writing, playing trumpet and piano, and spending time with family.

Second Prize goes to  Simon Peter who is a writer and musician with a passion for freedom, community and ancestral connection. Simon enjoys a simple life growing food and sacred cactus, building with cob, and creating music. He adds: “It is an honor to be recognized by The Noyo Bida Truth Project.”

The program is free and open to all.

A local grass roots 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit registered in

the state of California, The Noyo Bida Truth Project is dedicated to an educational process in which we acknowledge the ecological diversity of our California Coast and encourage our true history to be preserved and acknowledged. To date the city of Fort Bragg is named for a Fort associated with the Mendocino Reservation where acts of genocide were committed against California tribal communities. The Fort was named for a general who had no connection to the Mendocino Coast; we have chosen to cease the glorification of Confederate General Bragg and the erasure of the Tribal communities.

Our goals include holding healing ceremonies, supporting Land Back to Indigenous peoples, a memorial to the victims of the Mendocino Indian Reservation, a cultural center, truthful historical signage, and improvements to California history education in our local schools which are also named for this Confederate general.

More information at https://thenoyobidatruthproject.org/