Dine' children Song and Dance participantsNava

Dine' children dancers at Window Rock, AZ
Photo by Venaya Yazzie 2015
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Elder Din'e' couple 'adorned'

Elder Dine'couple dancing at the annual Navajo Nation Fair
Song and Dance in Window Rock, AZ
Photo by Venaya Yazzie 2015
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This photograph depicts and elder Dine' (Navajo) couple participating in a social dance called Navajo Song and Dance. The event is a women's choice dance and has been adapted to be public from the Navajo ceremonial dances.

Dine' (Navajo) women dancers

Dine' (Navajo) women dancers and singers at the annual Navajo Nation Fair
in Window Rock, AZ
Photo by Venaya Yazzie 2015
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I was fortunate to again visit the annual Navajo Nation Fair
in Window Rock, AZ this past weekend. I spend most of my day at the Navajo Song and Dance arena enjoying the 'beauty' of my Dine' people. I adore this cultural social dance because it truly brings many generations together. It is a time when you will seen elders hand in hand with children dancing around the arena all dressed in beautyful Dine' cultural regalia.

Its about 'respect' and 'respecting' Indigenous cultural Adornment

Elder Pueblo matriarch 'adorned' in southwest
jewelry and tribal regalia.
Photo credit: Internet

Non-Indigenous women wearing traditional/cultural
jewelry.
Photo credit: Internet

When I look at these two images I see both similarities and differences in them. They are both wearing southwestern Indigenous cultural jewelry, they are both women but, what stands out for me is the way in which each woman is wearing, or 'respecting' the cultural items they are 'adorned' in.

Its about 'respect' and 'respecting' Indigenous cultural adornment, yet I do not see this happening in the black and white photograph. Just by looking at the photograph I assume she is the typical American pop culture model and is posing in a way that seems unrealistic. She has bare arms and is wearing too much jewelry on her person. Many things stand out besides what I just mentioned, and what I see is a woman disrespecting southwestern Indigenous cultural jewelry items.

So many times American pop culture or the so called fashion cultural takes what the want from Indigenous culture and uses items to their own benefit, and most often times does this with no regard for respect or honoring purposes. I see how the fashion industry has come to misappropriate cultural items such as tribal jewelry in the wrong ways, and so the outcome is very negative. Such actions can create disharmony and perpetuate stereotypes of the Indigenous people as a whole, in many ways it can tend to generalize a whole population of very unique and diverse tribal people.

The first photo image of the elder Pueblo woman shows her also wearing a 'plethora' of cultural jewelry items. When I view the photo I think that such items might be her 'heirloom' jewelry pieces, and perhaps she is showcasing her life history and oral history story of each item. I see she is wearing her tribal clothing regalia which is Pueblo-style women's clothing. She is seated in a normal, realistic sitting position. When I look at that photograph I see how she 'honor's her cultural jewelry.

For, when some Indigenous jewelry makers create such items they do so with songs, blessings and prayers. Indigenous jewelry is not made only to be asthetically pleasing, but instead made to bring about blessings for the Indigenous person. Some jewelry makers use only choice turquoise and other natural minerals for the purpose of perpetuation of 'harmony' or the blessings.

Indigenous cultural jewelry should be admired, but it should not be made to become a "fad" in the chaos of the American or even European fashion agendas.

Blessings