It’s one of the most controversial issues along our coastline: the future of offshore oil production in the Santa Barbara Channel.
California regulators rejected a proposal to frack 16 existing wells off Ventura County. But for one local Indigenous leader, this isn’t simply a fight over the environment; it’s about a relationship and stewardship of this coastline which goes back thousands of years.
Mati Waiya stood high on the edge of the bluffs. The Pacific Ocean crashed several feet beneath, with the sunshine flashing glimmers on the surface. He had an eagle feather in his left hand, a percussive shaker in his right. He had a bear’s bone about three inches long piercing his septum.
Waiya is the Chairman of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and Founder and Executive Director of Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation.
"The sounds of the waves is the voice of our ancestors," said Waiya. "They're talking to us and reminding us about how we have to take care of our world together."
He lifted his head and sang, and for a moment, the scene felt almost timeless.
Before oil platforms, highways and helicopters — before California — these were the waters his ancestors crossed on canoes, fished, praised and stewarded.
"You get to experience no different than what your ancestors experienced, and now it's your turn. The only thing taken away from our coast here is oil rigs or the big barges like that, money-making instruments," he said.
Offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel sits Platform Gilda, an oil platform that was put into operation in 1981.
The California Coastal Commission recently rejected a proposal for fracking at 16 offshore wells at Gilda. However, because the platform sits in federal waters, it may be a hurdle to the Trump administration’s efforts to increase oil production rather than the end of the fight for environmentalists.
Waiya is concerned that the federal efforts to control California’s coastline could ultimately cause irreversible harm to the local environment.
"It's just a disaster waiting to happen."Mati Waiya, Chairman of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation
"You have this government eliminating wind power, eliminating solar vehicles, so we can be forced to use oil and gas," he said. "The oil companies are making more money than they ever had. All these things that they have a cause and effect, and we have to think about that."
He added that he's concerned that it's a matter of when, not if, there's another oil spill off this coastline.
"Look back when they had the major oil spill; it destroyed so much marine life and coastal waters, fisheries, and all this whole economic impact. In (the 2015 oil spill), look at the impact of that. These pipes are still corroded. They only put a band-aid on it. They didn't fix the whole infrastructure. These platforms were made to have a lifespan of 30 years, and some of these are going on 40 and 50 years [old].
"It's just a disaster waiting to happen."
Opponents of the oil companies have routinely been reduced to characterizations of environmentalist extremists or NIMBYS. But Waiya said that misses something fundamental. Environmental concerns are valid, but protecting the California coast has cultural significance for Indigenous people, like him, whose voices — he says — are often overlooked.
"We're not looking at just the biological breakdown or the scientific rule of law. We're looking at it as a living and emotional spiritual component."
"We're practitioners of nature. Our song, our dance, our story, our food, our medicine. I don't have that encyclopedia in the back of my desk. My encyclopedia is in the stones, in the earth, in the water, in seasons. My encyclopedia is not written by your authors. It's written by our ancestors."
Waiya said he’s not only protecting this coastline for people living here today, but he’s also thinking about the generations who will come after him.
