About me
As a child and young adult I found that I was drawn to using baskets for everything.
Picking berries or flowers, sorting vegetables, storing clothes and shoes and the more I
used them the more I wanted to learn. Almost like a bucket list item, but more intense,
and the hankering grew, and the nod to try was always on my mind. I bought a book,
The Basket Book, that had instructions and diagrams that would help you learn. So I
tried, with my sister by my side, and the 1 st basket was complete. It was ok but not
really like the picture. So I tried again, and again, and again. It finally happened that I
made a basket that I thought was beautiful and even as a 30 year old woman I wanted
my grandmother to see it. She looked at me a minute before she said, “you know that is
in your blood”. Not knowing anyone that made baskets I was a bit confused. Her
grandfather, Alex Chavis, was a basket maker. He made baskets for all his children to
take their lunch to school in. It all made sense, the hankering, the nod to try, it was him.
My connection with Alex Chavis changed my being. I wasn’t just a basket maker I was
the great great granddaughter of a basket maker. I was continuing a family tradition.
When I teach a weaving class I always share this story. I think it’s important to
understand that somethings we do are generational and can break the colonization
trauma our people endured. Having a connection with an ancestor that did not get to
pass down his craft but somehow found me is so profound.
