My Langara Reconciliation Carving Journey: design

Showing posts with label design. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Design Ideas - Abundance-Sustainable- Eco-System-Balance

So last week we were all gathered together and we were discussing the design we are going to create and carve.

We were all taking turns voicing our ideas.

I had some ideas and so I was anxious to share.

It was my turn. I had tried to listen patiently and not just think of what I was going to say when my turn came...but then you know what happened...

When it was my turn a million ideas and thoughts started jamming the airwaves in my mind...and were all forcing there way to the front...I could feel myself searching my mind as I tried to find the exact words to try to describe what I was seeing in my mind.

It was useless. I stopped. I felt annoyed with myself, discouraged.

Then I came home and I have been on a mission ever since to express what was in my mind that day.

First, I drew what was in my heart, got a piece of wood and then I carved it https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2017/01/how-i-spent-my-sunday-carving.html

Then the drawings came fast and furious, I was just looking at things, photos, pictures and drawing. It was like it wasn't me...it was the ancestors. My Gr.Gr grandma Theresa Enos and my Great Grandma Mary Ann Poirier, they were drawing.

Drawing has never been so easy and I was enjoying it so much I just didn't want to stop. It was late at night and everyone was asleep and they were bugging me to quit, turn off the lights and go to sleep to.

As soon as I woke I went right to work and finished putting the ink on them and then started to paint.

"Paint faster" voices in my head said. I think it's my grandmothers', they want me to hurry and tell the story....show people the way....

They are guiding me that's for sure and I am doing my best to listen.

"Paint faster" I hear and I tell them "I am going as fast as I can!!" and giggle, tired but happy, content.

It's all good.

Anyways, I photographed each stage and then I put them in Photo Shop and edited them, then put them in Movie Maker and made a little video with music.

I hope you like it. It's just some ideas that I have for a carving we are doing.

My idea just focuses on what Justin has been talking about, "Abundance" and I have been hearing it other places. Indigenous peoples had true sustainable environments. We need to go back and learn how to reap the bounties with out destroying and over harvesting. We must learn to live in harmony. People need to recognize and give great credit because Indigenous peoples, both men and women, but especially the women were hardworking, strong, that maintained there eco-system through resourcefulness, hunting and gathering and by passing the knowledge and wisdom on to their children. Something that was destroyed by the hate in the Residential Schools and the greed and ignorant effort to assimilate everyone to colonialism.

So my Great Great Grandmother on my mother's side was (Songhees)- Theresa Elisa Enos - unfortunately I have not yet been able to trace her maiden name- her Indigenous name. My Great Grandmother also on my mother's was Mary Ann Poirier and her Grandmother was Marie Ann Maranda dit Le Frise (Iroquois & Kalapuya ) https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/11/enos-poirier-ancestry-kalapuya-iroquois.html

Now she was an AMAZING woman..
Early documents in our possession read “… I was married there to Joseph Brulé, a French Canadian and went to Cowlitz and later to Victoria, British Columbia. Lived there till he died and had six children by him … only two are living now, Ellen and Cecile. Two years after my husband died, I married Jean Baptist Vautrin, a Canadian … by Mr Vautrin I had nine children … "
http://www.sookenewsmirror.com/community/303481881.html

There was abundance!!
"The Salish cornucopia includes a great abundance of roots, greens, berries, nuts, apples, seeds, flowers, honey and tree sap, tree bark, fresh plant sprouts, spruce tips, deer, elk, bear, pheasant, ducks, geese, freshwater eel, bullheads, trout, bass, and sea foods including seaweed, crab, seal, whale, sea urchins, mussels and clams, salmon, cod, halibut, and the small fish they call the oolichan. Together these foods and medicines provided a healthy balance of nutrients. "
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/salish-feast-ancient-roots-and-modern-applications

But please read about how they maintained the eco-system and their families and birthrate. See link below.

"As a semi-nomadic people, the Kalapuya(s) lived in permanent winter homes and migrated throughout the Willamette Valley during the warmer months. They traded regularly with their Molalla and Cayuse neighbors as well as other Northern California, Oregon coast, and Columbia River tribes." (Kalapuya, page 4)

Food -The Kalapuyas were hunters and gatherers. Women did most of the gathering, while men were the hunters. Salmon, trout, and eels were part of their diet as were birds, small game, deer, bear, and elk. Grasshoppers and a type of caterpillar were considered delicacies. Other food items included hazel nuts, berries, tarweed seeds, and wapato. (Zenk, page 547-548)

Camas root was the Kalapuyas' most abundant and important staple. This "bulbous root plant resembles an onion in shape and consistency but is considerably more bland in taste," according to "Cooking up Camas," an article in Historic Marion. A member of the lily family, "camassia quamash" still grows in the Willamette Valley; it is known for its beautiful blue spring time blooms.

Kalapuya women dug the camas with forked wooden sticks and then roasted and dried the root in pit-ovens. This mixture was also pressed into cakes or loaves for later use as food or as a valuable trade item. http://www.salemhistory.net/people/native_americans.htm

Hey are you on Instagram. I post stuff there, why don't you come check it out.
https://www.instagram.com/zipolita
This is a sample of the things I post there.

#Women #Child #Indigenous #Culture #Motherhood #Sisters #Sisterhood #Life #Lifecycle #Love #Light #Knowledge #Wisdom #Generations #7generations #Moontime #Grandmothers #Aunts #Unity #One Two of my new paintings. Design ideas for a carving project I have.

A photo posted by Zipolita aka Tina Winterlik (@zipolita) on Jan 18, 2017 at 2:56pm PST

Here's a few photos but please watch the video above.

Baby -in Cradleboard- Papoose

Here's someone whose making cradleboards because it is an endangered tradition
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limon/cradleboards-to-preserve-our-past-and-protect-our

#Women
#Child
#Indigenous
#Culture
#Motherhood
#Sisters
#Sisterhood
#Life
#Lifecycle
#Love
#Light
#Knowledge
#Wisdom
#Generations
#7generations
#Moontime
#Grandmothers
#Aunts
#Unity
#One

Related Links:
Enos & Poirier Ancestry- Kalapuya, Iroquois, Portuguese, Songhees, Metis https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/11/enos-poirier-ancestry-kalapuya-iroquois.html
https://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2016/03/my-portuguese-and-songhees-heritage.html
https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/09/my-heritage-and-7-generations.html

http://portuguesepioneersofbc.blogspot.ca/search/label/joe%20silvey
http://portuguesepioneersofbc.blogspot.ca/search/label/john%20enos

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Guests, Wisdom, Design and Carving

We had SPECIAL GUESTS yesterday in class (I will share more about this in another post.).
That was really fun.

Wow, we cover so much in the day and a lot of it is subtle, so I just try to absorb as much as I can.
Someone asked me what stood out for me yesterday so here's a little list, no random or importance

-We attached a frame to the panels- actually I arrived a little late, so I watched and took photos! ha! ha! still I tried to remember for if I have to one day.

-We talked about the rings in the boards in the panels. We talked about how old they actually be..possibly 500 more or less

- Talked about old growth wood and what it is and how it grows, how in the forest the young trees race to the top of the canopy but then they are spindly and then the thicken over many years and the lower branches drop. How people thought the could reproduce forest but they can't...the new lumber just isn't the quality

-Talked about grain, which way does it go, how to feel for it, ... how cutting a board is so different than splitting cedar...and how cedar was just shipped to Europe almost as junk. So so sooooooooooo sad.

-Talked about what kinds of sand paper I should use on my knives and about the stone I bought.

-Talked about cedar, where to buy it and things like that.

Shane shared special things with us.

Our special guests shared powerful moving stories about their lives that touched my heart and motivated me, inspired me, saddened me, made me laugh. Made me laugh so hard my cheeks hurt.

Yes, it was a great day.. and emotional day. I never get through a day in this class without a lot of energy and emotion...

Emotion, that's what stood out, there was great emotion when we were close to deciding on how to design the panel. We are getting so much closer all the time. It's getting really exciting.

Anyways, here's what I did today. We decided that we are going to have one large circular image in the centre, split between two panels and then 9 circles each side.

That is the plan so far and so, what we are doing is designing and carving a piece of our own and it will be attached. When we finish our pieces we can help on the big panels. So this is just for fun, all I actually have for an assignment is to create a new design, so here is an idea and them for fun and practice my attempt at carving it.

So today I went and bought a piece of yellow cedar and here is my attempt and my new design.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Morphing ....Waiting for my WINGS!

Almost finished the first semester. Just one more class.
Here are some of my carving designs and carvings I have done so far.

I am going through a lot of emotions right now. I am so tired, I have been dealing with a lot of personal issues related to the education system and feel like I am at a crossroads if I want to do the 2nd semester.

Many many thanks to Aaron Nelson Moody for his patience, humour, knowledge and wisdom. Very grateful to meet you and have you as a mentor. I have learned so much. I really love the people in my class but it hasn't been an easy journey and part of it had to do with Reconciliation but partly because of the education system and what is required and that it was the first course of it's kind.

It has morphed and is morphing, from what was presented in the orientation, through the classes and to what it is now and what it could become. We were told to focus on transformation in the first classes...well this class is definitely transforming, itself and the world and everything related to it.

My little caterpillar was a sign, she hasn't become a butterfly yet, I am still waiting. Right now I feel like the that poor little thing, it the great big world that can not move fast, that only eats and inches along. When will I get my wings...I don't know...I am waiting. ..

We will just have to wait and see...until then...check out my progress.