Matriarchy is not Feminism

Truth of the matter. Graphic made by Yazzgrl Art
Photo credit: Venaya Yazzie
2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

As a member of the southwestern, high-desert tribal people of the Dine' (Navajo) and Hopi people, this is my truth. As an Indigenous woman, we are rooted in Indigenous matriarchy.  I believe that that because of this identity, we therefore, cannot be "feminists." The "F" word is the total opposite of our Indigenous women's society.  I hope we can, as women, find our history and root ourselves in our tribal traditions and ways of the matriarch, not in the ways of non-Indigenous concepts of the femme.

Get "knowledg-ed" in your ways - not in their ways. We have a strong and resilient oral history and a culture narrative that is so unique and beautyful, get to know who you are, and where your history lies - that is your strength.

Blessings

Adornment and Beading

Beaded earrings with mother-of-pearl shell made by Venaya Yazzie
Photo credit: Yazzgrl Art
2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Adornment. The term is very large in essence - it could refer to alot of things, but in this case it concerns earrings, beaded earrings.

As I mentioned before, I acquired the act of beading via a Lakota friend while I was a student at the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Arts.  But, my family beaded in the early days. My maternal grandfather used to talk of his history in the Chaco Canyon community, when he and his father used to bead. They used craft of beading to generate income for the family.  He said that he would bead roses and make belts.  I feel very happy to know that beading is a somewhat family tradition, and that I am able to carry on this effort in 2019.

I continue to bead, mostly earrings, but have come to love creating beading pictorials (well what I call my creations of art imagery). I have made several of these beading pictorials, which are inspired by my own 2-D paintings I make.

These earrings I made using the four (sacred) colors of the Dine' (Navajo) people. We hold the colors of white, blue, yellow and black in great significance.  They are representative hues that hold a plethora of symbolic meaning in our epistemology.

These earrings are sold, they traveled to a new home in Hollywood, CA, they will soon 'adorn' the ears of a strong, Indigenous woman, sister.  My hope is that my creations bless the individual who wears them.  This is 'Beautyway.'

Blessings in all things.

VJY

posted 2-28-19