Photo Credit: @sydneyakagiphoto
As part of our Continuing Textile Traditions series, Weave A Real Peace's January Zoom Panel will showcase museums whose focus is on indigenous textiles and the communities who produce them. The presenters, including weavers, writers, and curators, represent a diverse range of backgrounds, from native communities spaced across 5,000 miles, from Juneau, Alaska to Oaxaca, Mexico. We look forward to this conversation around the importance of creating space for native voices and honoring indigenous culture and history.
Velma Kee Craig (Diné) is Naasht’eezhi Tabaha (Zuni Edgewater) and born for Todich’ii’nii (Bitter Water). Her maternal and paternal grandfathers are Tl’izilani (Many Goats) and Kinya’aanii (Towering House). Velma is from Tonalea, Arizona. She is the oldest of five children. Her parents are Laverne Marks and Larry Kee. Velma grew up on the Navajo reservation and now resides in Mesa, Arizona with her family. Velma is Assistant Curator at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Additionally, she is a textile artist, writer of poetry and short screenplays, and a teaching artist. Velma is a graduate of Arizona State University with a BA in English Literature and a minor in American Indian studies. Velma’s weavings have been shown as part of the exhibitions: Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles; WOVEN: The Art of Contemporary Native Weaving; Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native Art; and WEAVE: construct. code. connect.
Lily Hope was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska to full-time artists. She is Tlingit Indian, of the Raven moiety. Following her matrilineal line, she’s of her grandmother’s clan, the T’akdeintaan. Lily learned Ravenstail weaving from her late mother Clarissa Rizal, and Kay Parker, both of Juneau. She also apprenticed for over a decade in Chilkat weaving with Rizal who, until her untimely passing in December 2016, was one of the last living apprentices of the late Master Chilkat Weaver, Jennie Thlanaut. Lily feels the pressure to leave honorable weavers in her place. She is president and co-founder of www.spirituprising.com, a non-profit dedicated to maintaining, recording, and teaching weaving with integrity. Lily Hope co-curated the Portland Art Museum's exhibition Interwoven Radiance, and served as local weaver consultant for Alaska State Museum’s exhibition Spirit Wraps Around You.
Porfirio Gutierrez is a California-based Zapotec textile artist and natural dyer, born and raised in the richly historic Zapotec textile community of Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up immersed in color and surrounded by the wildness of Oaxaca's mountains, and by the knowledge of plants for healing and for color. His life’s work has been revitalizing and preserving traditional Zapotec natural dye techniques with a focus on reinterpreting traditional textiles and materials to reflect his distinct creative vision. Working in both Ventura, California, and Oaxaca, Gutíerrez’s art practice maintains his ancestor’s spiritual belief in nature as a living being, sacred and divine. Porfirio co-curated the exhibit Wrapped in Color: Legacies of the Mexican Sarape, on view now through July 2022 at the Arizona State Museum.
Diane Dittemore has been an ethnological collections curator at the Arizona State Museum for over 40 years. She received a MA in anthropology with an emphasis on museum studies from the University of Denver, where she took classes from the renowned Southwest textile expert Kate Peck Kent. During her tenure at ASM she has written about and curated numerous exhibits related to ASM’s Southwest U.S. and Mexican textile collections. She was a contributing curator for the exhibit, Wrapped in Color: Legacies of the Mexican Sarape. Diane and Porfirio will speak together about the curation and intent of this exhibition.
The panel will be moderated by WARP member Judi Jetson, a weaver and a leader in the well-researched promotion of craft, particularly textiles. There will be ample opportunity for questions from those attending this free online event. Please register to join us on Saturday January 15th, from 1:00-2:00 pm, US Eastern Standard Time.
