Traditional Art

The traditional cultures of Indigenous communities around the world hold the knowledge to make nearly all of the things needed for everyday life from the local plants, animals, and minerals from their homelands. There is a tremendous amount that we, living in the 21st century, can learn from that when it comes to sustainability, resilience, and community self-sufficiency. Often, these objects - things likes traditional pottery, textiles, and weapons - have far more put into them than what is needed to accomplish a basic function. The makers imbued them with their own spirit, artistry, and connections. In the Choctaw language, there is no word for art, only "impunna", meaning "skill".  In English, these pieces are often called "traditional art".

In a world of mass-production, it's hard to over emphasize the depth of the connections embodied by traditional art.  Hand-made, usually from local materials, they are a connection between an Indigenous community and the native landscapes of its homeland. In the American heartland, these landscapes once as vibrant as today's Yellowstone Park have since been bulldozed down and plowed over. Now, they survive as tiny threatened remnants hanging on here and there. An arrow point made of stone gathered from a busy roadside that harvests a deer, a braintan bison robe from an animal living on a rehabilitated native grassland, a cooking pot made from a a traditional clay source that is now a boat ramp- traditional arts embody a connection with local landscapes in a way few other things can. Made using techniques honed and passed down, sometimes over hundreds of generations, traditional arts are a connection across time.  They also tend to be connected to the most threatened parts of Native languages.

The allure of doing traditional art first caught me when I was in second grade, and I've been doing them ever since. They're the kind of thing where an artisan can never be fully accomplished, because, with all of the deep and living connections, there is always something new to learn. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been putting together a digital portfolio of my traditional art in several different genres. The photo of each pieces goes with a brief text sharing some of the meaning behind that piece. The photos and text for all of the pieces taken together tell stories of the land, of the development of Choctaw traditional arts over the millennia, and of how the traditional arts have intertwined with my life.

I hope that you enjoy the journey: https://www.nanawaya.com/portfolio

Best wishes for a good 2026!