guest speaker

April 14, 2021 PennElyz Droz shared with the AIVAN group about how she crafts clothing and art to connect her and her family to their Anishnaabe roots. PennElyz reflected that art and medicine keep her connected to her ancestors, provide her strength, and remind her what to carry on for her children. She also explained how practicing Native art, values, and storytelling all connects Indigenous peoples across regions with one another, and also helps us care for the environment. 

April 7, 2021 Aresta Tsosie-Paddock shared with the AIVAN group her processes of quilt-making, and some guiding traditional values that inform her work as an artist and language teacher. Dr. Tsosie-Paddock is of the Navajo Nation from Sand Springs, Arizona, situated in western Navajo Nation, and her heritage comes from the Water that Flows Together clan, born from the Deer Springs People, as well as the Manygoats People, and the Tower House People. She emphasized the importance of knowing your clan, because they automatically incorporate familial and relational obligations.

March 17, 2021 AIVAN group enjoyed a wonderful presentation of Valentina Semyonovna Akimova on an ancient tradition of forest Yukagir people of pictograph writing on birch bark. Those are called шанган шорилэ (shangan shorile) and are translated as “writing on the skin of the tree.” The Yukaghir people are in two distinct groups:  the Tundra Yukaghir and the Forest Yukaghir. The Forest Yukaghir etched two types of birch bark pictographs: the “male” type depicted maps and navigation routes, while the “female” type depicted love letters and showed relationship dynamics.