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

Navajo dogs.... Indigenous southwest pets

Navajo pet Schnoodle named "Rollie"
Photo credit: Venaya Yazzie
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2019

I always remember that there used to be a cat in our urban home neighborhood that had earrings.  This cat had two shiny earrings on the tips of his ears.  I loved to catch a quick glimpse of this neighborhood cat, as a kid I thought it was the most beautiful sight.

We all for the most part have had experiences with pets in our lives. Whether we had been a pet owner or knew someone who had a beloved pet.  Most of the time these animals are beloved and treasured and treated like a human in the home.  Material items such as toys and pet clothing are purchased for them.  They usually have a bed to sleep upon and travel with their owners.

And then I always remember the pets my great grandparents and uncle and aunts had on the Navajo reservation home.  These dogs and cats (there were goats, sheep, horses, cattle, ducks, chickens too) were unlike the before mentioned animals.  These dogs and cats were not considered to be "pets" - instead they were thought of as needed comrades.  Haha! That sounds funny, but it was true. Dog and cats were needed to help maintain the 'balance' of life on the reservation home.  They each had their duties to fulfill as they lived there at the home of cheii and masani.  The dogs for example, had the important job of talking care of the family sheep herd.  From what my memory tells me, these dogs my cheii owned were so very smart! And so aware of the land around them, they were keen animals, and they were intelligent beings as they understood the Navajo language.  My cheii and masani only talked in the sacred Navajo language, so that is the only expression those sheep dog were commonly used to hearing, but I know they also comprehended English too.

The Navajo refer to cats as "gidi" or "mosi." The first expression describes a young cat, a kitten. The other latter word refers to an older, wiser cat.  But, in the Navajo home the cat's reason for being is to make sure the mice and other rodents are maintained.  The cat was never allowed in the house of my great grandmother, I don't think she liked cats, but she needed them around so the rez-mice would not enter the home or area of the home.

The memories I hold of life at the reservation home / ranch of my great grandparents brings that balance, or 'hozho' back into my life as an adult.  I treasure those memories, they truly make me smile.

Today, the modern Dine' pet owner looks a dogs and cats as their "friends" or pet companions.  We treat our dogs and cats as family members, our "babies" if you will.  I today's Navajo world, pets are a part of our daily lives.  I share this image with you of our family's beloved dog "Rollie." He's a Navajo dog, but doesn't speak fluent Dine', he only knows some words.  But I often share my jewelry with him.  I think he looks so beautyful in the coral and turquoise necklace I made.  He looks like a prince, so handsome! I feel like its more that blessing him with the goods, as a way of protection for him ( and the cats!).

I hope we all make our pets feel special and loved - and that we appreciate too what they do to make our lives better in the 21st century as Indigenous people.

Bless each other.

VJY

Másaní's hands

Hands of the family matriarch
Photo credit: Venaya Yazzie 2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The hands of my Diné másaní (Navajo maternal grandmother) are so beautiful to me. Her desert hands are aged and show the wear of age, and they are tell her story of life a as southwest desert matriarch. As with her hands the story that the Navajo women's life tell is full of historical turmoil, chaos, survival, happiness and language.  The history of the Diné (Navajo) people is rich with story, my people have been through a lot, yet we continue to flourish in our language and cultural ways and teachings.  It is our hands that talk of great history, they hold the power of knowledge.

Last week I took her to eat breakfast at a local restaurant.  When she emerged from her room, she was looked like a Hollywood star, radiant!  She gleamed with grace and turquoise beauty.  As she daily does, she wore her turquoise earrings, bracelets, necklace, pin and rings.  As a child I was blessed to have been raised in the presence of many of my women relatives.  And that included my great grandmother, Louise and her sisters.

Seeing másaní dressed in her best clothing and southwest cultural adornments is normal to our family.  Growing up we (both men and women) have been reminded that we should always wear dootłizhí on our body. Whether it be in the form of a ring or bracelet or earrings, turquoise is part of our identity as a Diné person.

To this day, másaní tells me this. The role of the matriarchs of the family of Navajo people is to continually perpetuate and or restore that balance or family harmony.  Many of the Navajo people are still taught this, and it is most likely included in the daily narrative and family dialogue across Navajoland.

I captured this moment of women’s hand adornment as we sipped our hot tea, waiting for our food to arrive to the table. Másaní talked about the morning events, and of her aches and pains, and then commented on the car parked across the street. Though her voice was heard via her words, it was, and is her hands that tell story.

My Diné másaní’s hands are the glory of her history.  She makes them glow with beautiful turquoise stones, that is her super power, my matriarch Jane.

Blessings and Be Matriarch!

Posted 02-06-19

by Venaya Yazzie

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Made of the earth...

New Mexico Pueblo dancers at Aztec Ruins National Monument

Photo by Venaya Yazzie

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2019

Our bones, flesh and blood are made up of the metals, liquids and minerals of the earth and everything on this planet is made up of the same things. As humans we have being, so everything on the earth does too in our culture, because we are made of the same thing.

John Trudell

When we speak of our Indigenous 'ancestors' what are we really referencing?

Masani and Venaya at Walatowa, NM
Photo credit: Nancy Dahl

When we speak of our 'ancestors' what are we really referencing? Is it their physical appearance in archival photos we refer to? Is it their historical presence in history? Is it their smiles or laughter expression that brings them to mind?  These are all the positive qualities of our 'ancestors' that I mentioned, but what of the not so "wonderful" aspects of the 'ancestors?' Do those qualities and or attributes matter?

In modern conversation that I have, and among many of the Indigenous people of the Americas and into Canada, Mexico and South America, the dialogue concerns references to the past, to the 'ancestors.' We as modern Indigenous people look to our ancestral people of past for guidance and strength as we move into 2019.

In my opinion I would assume that is those best qualities and characteristics that we all hope to keep and attain. It is those qualities are hope or us, so to support and guide us to a better life, a better way of existence. Which brings me to this post concerning the 'ancestors.'

It has recently come to my attention from a fellow artist that not all the 'ancestors' where "good people" or that they're lives concern anything positive. I must confess I am an optimist, that is how I was raised to be and think, so I must confess this questioning of the 'ancestors' presence in my, and our daily 2019 lives vexed me.

As an optimist I tend to look at the "glass half full" perspective, yet I am still very much aware of the "half empty" glass too.  When I speak of my own desert Ancestor, the Dine' (Navajo) and Hopi (Pueblo) people I tend to focus on the productive, or positive side of their existence.  Although this is my innate way of remembering them, I too know that they as individuals where in no means the picture of human perfection.  I am sure they were flawed, as I am too.  My upbringing had many positive blessings, but it also concerned alcoholism, displacement, domestic violence and other social ills. But, through all that, the constant in my life and upbringing was the strong, steadfast presence of my maternal grandmother, shi'masaani.  She was and is my rock.  Through her guidance and support  I am the woman I am today.

When I speak of my 'Ancestors' of whom many I have never met, I choose to speak of their lives as meaningful.  I ponder about their struggles and the vast trials they had to live through, issues of racism and violence, and still they lived their lives.  It is their RESILIENCE that I dialogue about, because it is that kind of human spirit and strength that I hope to be present in my life a a new Ancestor in the 21st century.

I share this image as a way of purposeful perpetuation of the Ancestor narrative.  This image was captured about five years ago from a friend from Santa Fe, NM named Nancy Dahl.  It is my grandmother and I at the annual November 12 Walatowa (Jemez Pueblo) feast day.  I adore this picture because it reveals the matriarch of our family standing in the forefront - she is our root - and from her talk and her memories we become knowledgeable in our family history. This is K'e' - the Dine' familial unit and existence.  For example, my family's tradition is to visit our Pueblo relatives in November because that is our ancestral tradition. My great grandparents ( her mother and father) visited Jemez in their day, when they would take food and goods to trade with the Gauchipin and Romero family there. It is this kind of resilience that I speak of when I mention the 'ancestors.

I understand that we as Dine' people, as tribal people of the southwest, have a plethora of experiences and memories, and that not all of them are good or positive- but is my hope that you, that we, will choose to see the "glass half full" for that is our/ and their legacy of RESILIENCE.

Blessings in all things!

VJY

Posted 01/09/19

by Venaya Yazzie

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

"be matriarch" by yazzgrl art

Another venture I have been working on is the celebration and recognition of the southwestern-Indigenous culture of the 'matriarch.'

I am very fortunate to have been raised within the matriarchal society of the Dine' (Navajo) people of New Mexico.  The Navajoland (Navajo Reservation) spans three states in the Four Corners area of the America. The main land base of the Navajo is in Arizona and flows over to Utah and New Mexico.  We are blessed to be surrounded by other Indigenous nations including: Hopi, Zuni, Apache, and Ute people. The land itself is a blessed place to be, for we have the desert low lands and the high desert mountain areas of Navajoland.

For my Dine' people the land is everything to us.  The origins of who we are as humans first and foremost concerns the land.  Our identity concerns the land, its in our songs, prayers and clanship origins. And to this is the rooted existence of tribal matriarchy.  We as Dine' are a lineage of the our clanship groups, which are continually passed through the female.  When we born, we are belong to the clanship of our mother, and will never change throughout our lives. And, in a matrillenial culture, we are "born for" our father's clanship - this clan affiliation will change for our children because they will be "born for" their father's clan.

I give this brief history of the Dine' ways of being because it is where I drew inspiration for my new message "be matriarch" by yazzgrl art.  I share this image of my new 'be matriarch' decals because they are so cute and have a great message. They are 2.75" x 2.75" and available now on my Square site store.

'be matriarch' decals

Many matriarch blessings to you!

Ear Art Matriarch Earrings by Venaya Yazzie

Yazzgrl Art original earrings by Venaya Yazzie

2019

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

My new Ear Art Matriarch Earrings are pictured below.  I continually find inspiration from my ancestral matriarchs from my tribal affiliations: Dine (Navajo) and Hopi Pueblo people.  The newest line of my earrings have originated from their existence.  We as southwestern tribal Indigenous people still carry great respect and reverence for the women (and men) who lived in history. Today, we as the new generation of Indigenous are empowered as we understand how they lived and survived.

I make this jewelry in homage to them: our history, our voice, our resilience today is due to them.

Keep perpetuating that Indigenous Adornment!

My newest Ear Art Matriarch Earrings by Venaya Yazzie are now available on the Square site store. Follow link:

Yazzgrl Art Matriarch Earrings

Yazzgrl Art original earrings by Venaya Yazzie

2019

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Yazzgrl Art original earrings by Venaya Yazzie

2019

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Yazzgrl Art original earrings by Venaya Yazzie

2019

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED