'Walking in a good way'

'hózhó naashá - walking in a good way'

Photo by Venaya Yazzie 2017

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Hózhó naashá - this is a true, distinct Diné expression.

When I dress in my desert woman's cultural attire, my way of being, and thinking changes.  I am no longer just a mere woman in America, instead I become a spiritual being that the ancestors and Creator really 'see.'

I am a member of the Diné  southwestern Indigenous people becuase I was born from a Diné woman. As a matrilineal society, we are Diné from the mother's bloodline.

Cultural Indigenous adornment is everything to me. I know who I am when I wear my matriarchal attire, there is nothing that can compare to this way of being.  It's beyond usual. And I am blessed.

VJY

2017

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

some hané

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this land in the marrow of my bones
this sky in the rim of my desert ears 
this turquoise lives in the stories of my birth.

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-venaya yazzie-

2017