The SW Indigenous Creative Process

Blue minerals and shell earrings made by Venaya.
PHOTO CREDIT: Yazzgrl Art
2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Growing up I recall my matriarchs always in the creative process.

Jewelry is a vital element of the life of a southwestern cultural person. I remember my grandmother and great-grandmother stringing minerals and shells to make their cultural jewelry items.  They would design and create one to six stranded necklaces. These divine necklaces were commonly made up of: turquoise, heishe shell beads, coral and other varied types of shell.  Also included in the necklaces were silver beads.

The southwest Indigenous culture is made up of necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  Today I am inspired of my memories and as a result I create unique earrings such as the pair I share with you today.  Using modern materials such as wire and earring hooks and findings, I work from the viewpoint of a Navajo person.

The earrings pictured are made of Mother-of-pearl shell discs, Apple coral beads and magnecite mineral formed into a star-shape.

I love designing and creating contemporary Indigenous jewelry items.  For me the creative process of an Indigenous person is rooted in the ancestral ways of the Navajo and Pueblo peoples of the American southwest community.  We are in essence perpetuating that free-Indigenous way of being that our ancestors did before such items we machine-made.

I have researched the historical Indigenous trading methods of the Navajo, Apache, Ute and Pueblo communities with the people of Mexico and South America.  During the time the Anasazi Puebloan people this kind of Indigenous trade played a vital role in cultural resources with the above mentioned communities.

When I create ancestor-inspired items I always think of the resiliency of the people of the southwest, no matter what colonization did to interrupt our ways of being, the ancestors continued, we continue today! Amazing.  So, I continue to make jewelry items as a means of continuing the narrative of resilience.

Be Matriarch!!

Blessings, VJY