Weaving a story through the generations

Tribal artist shares basket-weaving techniques

Photo courtesy Kalapuya Weaving and Consulting

By Chelsea Yarnell

For the TODAY

When Tribal artist Stephanie Craig gets stumped during a weaving project, she turns to her dreams for clarity.

“It comes naturally to me,” she said. “If I get stuck on something, I will have a dream about someone showing me how to get through that hard stuff and how to fix things. In our culture, that’s our ancestors helping and teaching me.”

Craig’s work, along with a collection of belongings from her ancestors and other members of the Grand Ronde, will be on display at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook throughout December. The exhibit is titled “What my Ancestors Taught Me.”

People will have the opportunity to learn from Craig herself during a two-day Juncus Basket Weaving workshop at The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita this weekend.

Craig, whose traditional name, anqati temtem chxi siyaxus na nim, translates to old soul, young eyes, is a seventh-generation traditional basket weaver. She is Kalapuya, Chinook, Rogue River, Umpqua, an enrolled Grand Ronde Tribal member, Oregon Culture Keeper, Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge practitioner and cultural museum consultant.

“My great-great-great grandma Martha Jane Sands was forcibly marched from her homelands in Southern Oregon along the Rogue River at the age of 14 to her new home on the Grand Ronde Reservation in Northwestern Oregon located in the foothills of the Coast Range,” Craig wrote in her artist biography. “She passed this cultural tradition on to her daughter Hattie Sands Hudson. These women continued to weave Hazel Stick Baskets and sold them throughout the area to neighbors, friends, Native American basket collectors, tourists and settlers.”

As the owner of Kalapuya Weaving and Consulting, Craig uses her personal life and education career experiences to provide cultural education and presentations as well as teach basket weaving classes.

“Because of the family I come from, growing up around it, it’s in my blood,” she said. “The ancestors taught me to be a basket weaver. I understand baskets — I’m good at identifying the materials and where they grow. What we say is: ‘It’s in our DNA. It’s intergenerational. We’re born with it.’ I’m very humbled and blessed to have such a knowledge to help not just my tribe, but other tribes bring back basket weaving.”

Through the Juncus Basket Weaving workshop, students will learn proper gathering, processing, cleaning and storage methods of the Juncus plant and will practice multiple traditional weaving techniques, including a variety of starts and rims. At the end of the workshop, students will take home a finished woven basket. The cost of the workshop is $290 with all supplies included.

“Everyone’s basket will look a little different,” Craig said. “I like to provide a free form for that. [I’ll also] talk about our lifeways and about different baskets and how they’re used … my mom still has three baskets that she uses to this day. The baskets were never on a shelf, they were actively used.”

Craig’s workshops are a safe space for cultural curiosity and questions.

“A lot of people have questions about Native American culture,” she said. “Students of all ages can ask questions. I welcome them and they have a right to know. Knowledge is power. My hope for my classes is that if I can get one person from every class to be a Native American ally, then I’ve done my job.”

The exhibit, “What my Ancestors Taught Me” has basketry from Craig’s family from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, and creations she has made throughout the past 30 years.

“It’s something I’ve devoted my entire life to: our tribe and culture,” she said. “My goal from day one was to give back to my community and tribe, bring back our traditions for our people and create more weavers.”

The Juncus Basket Weaving workshop runs from 10 am to 5 pm this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 16 and 17. The Hoffman Center for the Arts is located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita. To register for the workshop, go to hoffmanarts.org/events.

The Latimer Quilt & Textile Center is located at 2105 Wilson River Loop in Tillamook and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is $4.