In this episode, we talk to the Hopi painter Gerald Dewavendewa. Gerald is a lifelong artist. In this episode, we discuss his beginnings of art on the Hopi reservation, some Hopi traditions and customs, and the cultural influence behind his work.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Gerald Dawavendewa: As a Hopi, you're taught that being an individual is one of the last things you are. You're a member of your family. You're a member of your clan. You represent your clan. You represent your community; you represent the religious societies you belong to. You represent your village, and you represent the Hopi as a whole. And then you are an individual.

Ranger Melissa: Hello and welcome! My name is Ranger Melissa.

Ranger Jonah: And my name is Ranger Jonah.

Ranger Melissa: Hey, Jonah. Who did we interview in this episode?

Ranger Jonah: Yeah. We talked to Gerald Dawavendewa. He is a Hopi painter and a really nice guy. It was a ton of fun to talk to him.

Ranger Melissa: Yeah, I love talking with Gerald and hearing about how he uses his experiences as a Hopi astronomer in his artwork.

Ranger Melissa: Absolutely. He was just so knowledgeable, and it was really great listening to him dive into the meaning and the culture behind his work. Turns out a lot of his work is also at the Hopi house. So, if you're in the park, check out his work at the Hopi house. So, without further ado, Gerald.

Gerald Dawavendewa: Umhinsaki! My name is Gerald Dawavendewa. My Hopi name is Lomasohu. So, we actually have two names. As a side note, originally in Hopi culture, you only have one name, and then your family is part of a clan, and currently, there are probably a little over 30 different clans, and I'm a member of the Sun Clan, and then your name is usually associated with that clan. So, my Hopi name, Lomasohu, refers to a star in the constellation in the sky. Dawavendewa is translated as rainbow or halo around the sun. So, there's that association there. There are also other clans the bear, the corn, parrot, badger, and various other clans. And each one has their own history and story. The Hopis we live, what, about 60, 70 miles? Which direction? About that way. The Grand Canyon is a very large part of our history. This is the symbolic emergence of the Hopi people into this world. The Hopi believed that there are three previous worlds. The third world became corrupted, and we wanted to find a way from that world. And so, this is the symbolic entry point. There's a site in the Grand Canyon at the bottom of the Grand Canyon called the Sipapu, which is the emergence place.

Gerald Dawavendewa: And so, the Hopi came through that into this world that we called Túwaqachi. And then each group separated and went into the four directions in order to explore this world and see what was here and what it had to offer. So, each clan has their own stories that differ from others. So as a Hopi person, I don't speak for all the Hopis or have the authority to say that what I say is the defining history of Hopi. So, you'll often find other Hopis that will have other stories or other interpretations, and that stems from their own unique journeys that they took. So, like the sun clan, we traveled with other clans south. And in our migration stories, we traveled all the way down to the end of South America until we reached a large wall of ice, and then we turned back and then came back up this way and eventually came to where we are now, where we see as the Hopi center of the universe. So, all our stories are related to the areas now that we know of as Mexico and the Incas and all these other groups and places, whereas other groups had settled towards the Pacific and others towards what now is Canada and other towards as far as the Mississippi River.

Gerald Dawavendewa: Each clan, when they reached a large body of water, would turn left and then return back. So that's sort of the origin of how we're connected to this site. And we still have pilgrimages yearly from various Hopis who belong to different religious societies who come here to gather among the sacred sites and areas here within the Grand Canyon.

Ranger Jonah:So, Gerald, you are not only a Hopi tribal member, but you're also a painter that takes a lot of inspiration from the Hopi people and the Hopi culture. Now, I understand you grew up in the Hopi Reservation and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it was like to grow up there and then also if you had some early inspirations, what inspired you to become a painter, to do what you do today.

Gerald Dawavendewa:I grew up in the Hopi village of Mùnqapi, which is associated with Third Mesa. There are three mesas at Hopi. First, Second and Third, which are sort of low, flat-topped mountains and the majority of the villages are built on top of these mesas. My village, Mùnqapi, is not physically on Third Mesa, but there is a village on Third Mesa called Oraibi, which today is considered the oldest continuously inhabited town in the Americas. And so, they found it Mùnqapi. So we owe our allegiance to Oraibi. And so that's where I grew up at. This was at a point where we didn't have electricity, plumbing or any of those modern conveniences TV and things like that. So, it was very much a very isolated area for us. It's a small village. At the time there were probably about less than 600 people who lived at Mùnqapi. It was sort of a transitional point where as I grew up, my grandmother's house was the first house to get electricity. So, I say it's my grandmother's house because Hopi is a matrilineal society, which means in Hopi, all the material wealth, the houses, all the items inside the house, vehicles, now the fields, they all belong to the women and the women take care of them.

Gerald Dawavendewa:So, for the men, we are in charge of the religious societies and making sure that the ceremonies are performed correctly throughout the year. And so, when a woman marries a man, in which she proposes not the man, she will have a special bread called piki, and she will make that and present it on a Hopi tray. And if he accepts that tray of piki bread, then he has accepted her proposal in marriage. The wedding ceremony takes some time to do it's usually tied in with the ceremony year, but at the end the husband will move to her village and build her a house. And so, she's in charge of that, and she takes care of that as well as make sure the fields are cared for as well. As Hopi men and family members, we ask permission from the head of the household to be allowed to grow the corn and crops in the field. And so, when we grow the corns and crop, we own the plants, or we are responsible for the plants when they are grown. So, who do you think owns it when it's harvested? The women own the plants when they're harvested and they can do whatever they want with it, but often they'll keep it and make sure that the family... So, in Hopi, not necessarily status, but the success of a home is the ability to feed the family.

Gerald Dawavendewa:And in fact, my grandmother was very proud of the fact that if anyone came by, even to ask for directions, she would insist that they sat down and ate first, and then after they finished eating, then she would ask, "why did you come here?" And so, she was very proud of the fact that no matter who came by, she was able to feed them. And that was something that she was very proud of. And so, I grew up in that area, and to me, as an artist, there's not a real profession out there in Hopi. Nobody says, oh, that's the artist of the village, or he's the best artist. I grew up with art. Everyone did art. My grandmother made baskets. My grandfather made crafts and arts that were related to the religious societies because they require certain items and objects for these ceremonies. I had other uncles and cousins who carved Katsina dolls and other family women who made pottery. And so, I grew up not knowing anybody who did not know how to do some sort of craft. So, it wasn't unusual, and it didn't seem out of place. And so, I was inspired by a lot of people there.

Gerald Dawavendewa: And in Hopi, people don't tell you, oh, you need to know how to carve, or you need to know how to draw. If you have an interest in it and they see that you have an interest, they may say, oh, here, try this carving. Here, I'll give you a piece of wood and why don't you whittle on it and see if you like that. If that's something you like or something else. So, there's never that insistence that, oh, you're going to be this and sort of try to fit you to that mold. And so, it was something I grew up with, and it was something that I enjoyed because it was a way for me to express myself in Hopi by capturing a lot of the day-to-day things. And apparently, I spent too much time on it.

Ranger Jonah: It happens to the best of us.

Gerald Dawavendewa: I actually ended up flunking first grade. I had to take it over twice, and my report card said: he's a very bright and promising student, but all he does is draw, and we feel that he could spend another additional year at this level. So, I ended up having to take first grade twice.

Gerald Dawavendewa: So, that sort of started my career. So, I've been sort of drawing all my life. And of course, my first inspirations were my grandmother and my grandfather. Watching them make things and later on being introduced to a lot of things from my aunts and uncles. And then, of course, as I traveled around the village because there are ceremonies that we do that are taken to other villages. So I get to meet other Hopis in other homes, and of course, you meet other artists. And I was fortunate in, I guess, the history of Hopi in that we were at a transitional point because my grandfather and his fath