Twining Cedar (1 of 15): Annette Island Tsimshian Basket Weaving

[Music] [Music] they use basketry and everything I like to tell the story about I don't know it's gorge on Adivasi Oh had written an article for the Boston Globe he said that humans were living in caves and the women learned to weave to collect berries to make and they learn to make clothing they learned to make everyday objects they and the men learned to make such groups and he said it was such an important step in human civilization and I really liked that story and then because I was feeling kind of possessive about basketry then I happened to go from there to Toronto where they were having a bank that basketry symposium and it was called basket refocus and here were people from all over the world there were people from Germany there were people from Norway there were people from Japan from Taiwan they were from South America and it really made me realize that basketry was just not North American which I have been thinking of as our art and so it really opened up my eyes and from then on I felt more comfortable teaching other how other people how to do basket [Music] the sim Seanna woman I learned from she came to take my mother's class and here she was reading and her fingers were really so fast I said to her flora why are you in this class she said because I don't have any red cedar bark I need cedar bark and I knew I get it in this class so I said to her as soon as she went out the door because I didn't want my mother to know what I was saying I said could I learn some CN baby from you because you're weaving right-side up and it just doesn't make any sense to weave upside down okay she said but you have to get me Bart but flora was such a good teacher she really went slow she just did every little bit so I could understand it I didn't have Weaver's in my family that I know of it certainly wasn't in the two generations before me so I had to go out and seek my teachers I first learned how to weave from Dina Nelson and Caroline lucky I then learned how to harvest the bark from Naomi least a good friend of mine and then when I met Holly a year or two ago she was living in Metlakatla taking care of a friend's place and I just kind of threw myself at her and said I want to learn from you and graciously she let me come into the home and learn how to weave from her and then she realized that my hands weren't moving the way I wanted them to because in my mind hide us backward and I didn't notice that but she did so she introduced me to her mom Delores who knows how to leave simcha in style weaving and once I turned myself around and I started going clockwise it all just clicked in my head it's I've been weaving with those two ever since so traditionally weaving was passed on from grandmothers and mothers and auntie's to the the children and the grandchildren nieces but nowadays I think with modern technology and people having busy lives and you know jobs that take up their entire day it's hard to get that knowledge passed on from one generation to the other and a lot of those ladies who did weave as the full-time job they're not here anymore and so that that chain of knowledge has kind of been broken you kind of like the language some of our just phenomenal Weaver's that we no longer have with us our ladies like flora Mather who Nani learned from Dora Bolton Lucy Raymond Lillian Buchert violet booth who are some of the people here at Metlakatla today who are weaving Roxanne least Linda ray shear to name a few and there are a few people in my generation like Naomi Lise and Ariel Horne myself and that top hem and it's like I said it's very few so we're really trying to create another young generation of Weaver's and to create a young new group of teachers not just Weaver's but teachers who can then hold their own classes be implemented in the school systems teach you know we've got a net and Carla here and they can start teaching in their communities as well to Simeon's there so we really want to make sure that this style of weaving survives and that the language that goes along with it as well survives the hike foundation is the local nonprofit organization that David Boxley Kevin Hudson and myself started just over a year ago almost two years now actually and our main goal is to help preserve promote and revitalize the Somali language of the city on people and through this project we're gonna be not only preserving the leaving style of mouth Cala but the shamalia effects gonna go with all the terminology of leaving a basket as well I learned how to weave from my grandmother when I was a child probably around I don't know 10 11 12 years old I was raised in Seattle and when one of her trips to Seattle to visit us she brought some cedar she sat down with me and my cousin Karina and she went ahead and just taught us weaving with red cedar I've woven on and off since then I had to learn a lot on my own I also have a older sister that has taught me a lot so I've learned quite a bit from her through the years but I feel like I've kind of been independent Weaver just trying to experiment on my own and figure different things out on my own or kind of learn by looking at other baskets so I was grateful to have this opportunity to be a part of this project because I value cedar just like everybody else in southeast Alaska and wanted to represent my grandmother violet booth who taught me I think with my with my grandma I like to think that maybe she just had so many kids and it was during a time they were growing up in a time where I think traditional culture maybe wasn't as valued as it is today a lot of the auntie's did not learn the weaving if they did learn it I think they learned it later on in life at opportunities that just kind of arose like in the form of a granddaughters my auntie's children my uncles children I think we're the ones that were able to either see the value or gain the interest in weaving and asked to be taught or our gram just made the decision that she was going to teach us I value the weaving because I feel like it puts me in touch with my grandmother it puts me in touch with my family it puts me in touch with my ancestors and you know you can kind of you get to kind of travel back in time when you go and you gather the cedar and when you process it and when you sit there and weave and I sometimes I feel like I was born during the wrong time I wish I was born way back when when you're raised by grandmothers and mothers that are in the forest utilizing the forest as basket Weaver's are so from a very early on age before you even get to take bark off of a tree you're taught how not to run around how to conduct yourself in the forest that the floor of the forest has as much importance as you yourself has that year to show the respect to it and so when we're yep youth you know young children my grandmother would take us out and we'd harvest the bark and she would have a gratitude of communication to the tree on how she was going to utilize it I went out with my mom my mom basket weaves but I just kind of watched I didn't really do anything I've never really weaved I have never harvest and process Park but I have had the opportunity to watch listen and a little bit of basket weave with Lillian booth word she was my nanny many many years ago so she would allow us to do some baskets and teach us and stuff but a lot of that is probably my passion of why I want to do it again I just remember being little going out and helping like carry work for my great-aunt Orinda wait [Laughter] my father is Jack Hudson and his aunt was Lillian Buchert very prominent basket weaver in the Metlakatla community some shan community so when I was young I would come visit my dad and my sister Becky as well and my aunt Lillian first things that she said to me was baskets and at night and a half we sat there during the summers and she taught us all of the basic weaving techniques she taught us how to do some false embroidery maidenhair fern and then she passed away and I didn't do a lot at home when I was younger but I knew the basic concepts how to leave and so she sort of bridged that gap when I was older and I had questions starting to No what do I do here my sister-in-law Shannon Hudson she knew everything so this is the first time that I have harvested Cedar Park and I was very excited to do that to be a part of that process my father has a collection of baskets from all these amazing simcha an basket Weaver's for Metlakatla and he has collected them over years and we all learn style and you guys have mentioned that no there's everybody has a way in a style but then even from person to person you can look at these baskets and just know whose is whose yeah if people could realize that that basketry and the language makes them it's really it makes them uniquely associate their style of weaving and their language makes them uniquely who they are the two are intertwined right just like the tree [Music] [Music] [Music] or maybe [Music]

Channel: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska channel

Views: 6,283

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Alaska, Native art, museum, education, Indigenous, Tsimshian, cedar, bark

Id: l1wZvBCBSwQ

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 13 2018