A continuance of 'hozho'

Ancestral ways of living via the Navajo loom
Photo by Venaya Yazzie 2017
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The things we do as Indigenous People is our resilience.

In the everyday life activities we perpetuate, we are growing stronger. The was in which we as southwest desert people enact our traditions, we are pursuing and attaining the goodway of life that our Creator gifted to us.

As Navajo women, we continue the matriarch tradition of weaving. The entire process of weaving is enacting the intangible concept of 'Beautyway' to a very tactile, tangible form via: the Navajo woman's loom, her weaving tools, the wool she uses and the design that this is imagining in her mind's eye.

All the ways we are as Navajo people, is the perpetuation of 'creation.' Even our Navajo tongue, our language is a continuance of 'creation' - the Navajo world is always in constant motion. So, with that knowledge, many of us work to stay balanced and thus keep the faith in our philosophy of 'hozho.'

As a Navajo woman who was raised up by my maternal grandmother, I was given the knowledge of the Navajo woman's weaving way of life, via the weaving tools. As an adult it is my responsibility to enact the ways of the Navajo weaving way. No one is saying, "You need to weave." I must be proactive and just do it.

I captured a moment in our home here in this photograph. In it you can see the Navajo loom and above it you can see my great grandparents. The history they established and left is for me to live from and by. I must be steadfast in my ways, this is a continuance of 'hozho' - it is my resilience!

Posted 9-7-17
VENAYA YAZZIE
ALLRIGHTS RESERVED 2017