Blessings in crafts of southwest Indigenous origins and narrative

From the visions and dreams of my Hopi ancestry I create ear adornments. Life as a Dine'/ Hopi female being is a blessing, I am never without great appreciation for this identity from the beauty of the Southwest.

Each earring I create is inspired by the ancestral items that have been seen at sacred sites such as Chaco Canyon in New Mexico but also in other still inhabited areas of the Pueblo people, including Hopi.

My late maternal grandfather, Alfred Yazzie Sr., carried and shared the family oral history of life at Chaco before the U.S. National Park system tool it over in the 1930s. It is from this narrative that I still inspired to create such beauty items of my paternal grandfather's lineage at Hopi.

As a modern southwest artisan, I feel very blessed to carry on the tradition and craft of making cultural jewerly adornments. I never take my abilities and cultural knowledge for granted. I am happy to make these earrings, for I don't who will? Such crafts need to be passed on to the coming generations so our collective narratives do not leave us. Blessings, Venaya Yazzie