Zuni Festival of Arts and Culture

While in Flagstaff on May 25, we went to the Zuni Festival of Arts and Culture at the Museum of Northern Arizona.  There were many Zuni artists displaying their creations in beautiful jewelry pieces and fetish carvings.  The carvings were small figures (mostly animals) cut from various kinds of stone.  These pictures are of the three performances we attended - all very different and really well done.

The Zuni Olla Maidens perform dances that originated with Zuni men since traditionally women did not dance.  Their spokeswoman was a kindergarten teacher with a great sense of humor.  The traditional leggings and moccasins are put on by dancer's mother until the dancer masters that task.  While learning, it can take up to an hour and takes about 15 minutes for the older dancers who have done it for years.  Amazing.

If you are a married woman and your in-laws love you, they may give you the turquoise jewelry you wear while dancing.  The spokeswoman says she has never married so she had to buy her own jewelry!

As she explained the traditional garb they wear, she said they have several colors of under dresses - "we are such divas!"

In the pottery dances, the pottery is balanced on their heads.  It is not fastened in any way.  The bottoms are concave and the dancers have developed grooves in their heads over time since the pots are very heavy.  It was amazing how much they moved with those pots on their heads.

In the Zuni culture, they speak their language at home, in school and to each other.  It is very important to preserve the language.  We have heard this before but she said it once again - "If you lose your language, you lose your culture."

 Check out this turquoise jewelry.  The teacher said they don't wear it all the time or they would have to walk all hunched over.  In addition to necklaces, rings and bracelets, the decorations on the skirts were turquoise also, pins, probably.

This little cutie pie was dressed in a traditional dance outfit except for the leggings.

The next performance was by the Zuni Pueblo Band.  It has been performing since 1950 and has had varying numbers of members over the years.  They are struggling to keep it going and it was interesting that many of these band members were related - even 3 generations of one family.  They play Sousa-type march music and they were very good.  They are from New Mexico and have played at the NM State Fair and the Fiesta Bowl.  Their band director said the Zuni are rich in art, culture and pride, but don't have much money (no casinos).  So they requested donations to help keep them going.

These 3 pictures were to show the beautiful jewelry, but the one above, a grandson of one of the band members, shows the mix of cultures - notice the ear buds from his music player hanging around his neck.

The final performance was by the Nawetsa Family Dancers.  The family grandfather and one of his sons announced the songs, sang and played the drum.  All the other dancers are family members.

These 2 dancers are doing the Eagle Dance - really fun for us since Alan has carved two of them.

 These 5 dancers were all grandchildren.  They have been working very hard and this was their first performance.  They did a great job.

The smallest dancer was so cute - we estimated that he was about 4 years old.  These dances go on for a very long time and even the older dancers were tired out, but this little guy was pooped.

This was a son, a daughter and a son-in-law.

This is a sign as you go into the museum, stating "This museum displays ideas, not things."