Tilbury House, 2008
Softcover, 120 pages, $20
Native American artists continue their culture through crafts
“Traditional teachings, stories, songs, symbols, language-all these shared understandings-tell us who we are as Haudenosaunee (People Building a House),” writes Folklorist Kathleen Mundell in her new book.
Mundell has been gathering material for this book for 15 years. Native American traditional artists-over 35 of them living primarily in Maine and New York-explore here the connection to place, tradition, cultural identity. Mundell features profiles of the artists themselves with their own words and illustrations of their individual work.
Traditional arts are the visible tangible expressions of a continuing culture, connecting us, as one of the book’s essays states “to the knowledge and customs of our ancestors.” Mundell reminds us how in danger of loss some of these traditions are as younger generations have no interest in the slow long-dedicated ways involved in some of the ancient arts, such as basketmaking, that begins with the gathering and braiding of the sweetgrasses, before the art aspect even commences.
There is a poetic continuance in the ancient ways preserved, such as those of the Haudenosaunee (six nation Iroquois Confederacy the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora).
The Mohawk community of Akwesasne (land where the partridge drums) “remains a vital place that holds its heritage close to heart, while not fearing innovation,” Mundell writes, maintaining a casino and bingo, while clasping close traditional cultural elements in their artwork.
And the artwork-exquisitely photographed here-especially the basketmaking-is breathtaking in its intricacy of design and utility, particular shapes and artistic renderings often handed down through generations in families. When asked what the basketmaking means to its people, an Akwesasne elder replied, “it brings us together…When we gather to make baskets, we speak our language, share our culture, tell stories of the past, and share ideas for the future.”
There is also the connection with the natural world which basketmaking, in its elemental beginnings with the gatherings of grasses, the weaving the deciding on shape for a particular purpose “acknowledge our respect for various elements of Creation…”
Jennifer Neptune, in her essay about Wabanki traditional arts, “From old roots to new life,” talks about the creation story heritage of the ash tree-“the people were literary born from the ash tree-the basket tree-dancing and singing. For at least 12,000 years, our people have been in this land creating beautiful objects from the resources surrounding us…The work we create as artists connects us with our ancestors, and leaves behind a connection for those yet to be born to remember who we are and were …”
Mundell’s collaboration with the basketmakers has resulted in a multi-tribal effort to preserve the ash-basketry tradition and the creation of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. This book is part of a traveling exhibition of the basketmaking and beadmaking arts touring the northeast beginning in earlier 2008.
Mundell’s next project in the works is about the tradition arts of the north forest region which includes, beside basket and beading arts, canoe makers, wood carvers, furniture makers.
The exhibit, with the same name as the book, is at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, through Aug. 31, 2009.