Stephanie Craig’s installation Hands of the Ancestors, in the Linfield Art Gallery of Linfield University in McMinnville, brings a synthesis of functional art, cultural history and tradition, with an insight into what it means to bring aspects of an Indigenous people’s lost heritage back to life.

“Weaving is something that I love. I do it for my family. I do it for my kids. I do it for our tribe,” Craig said.

A member of the Grand Ronde Confederated Tribes, Craig is Kalapuya by way of her mother. Her father’s family are descended from Oregon’s original white settlers: His family came across the Oregon Trail about 150 years ago.

Craig has made it her mission to keep the Kalapuya tradition of basket-weaving alive and bring back lost weaving techniques. Maintaining the knowledge and continuity of Kalapuya culture has led to this artistic journey and motivated her to continue it. She earned her undergraduate degree and her master’s at the University of Oregon in cultural anthropology, and last year trained at the University of California at Berkeley Native American Museum Studies Institute.

“Growing up on the farm, I played with materials all the time and made things. But actual like weaving instruction was probably when I was 12 years old,” she said.

Craig is a storyteller. If you sit with her and talk for a while she will tell you stories about her life and the lives of her family. Every memory, happy or sad, is given with trust and joy. Her baskets and other art tell stories, too, capturing that joy in physical form.

“This was when I was younger,” she begins. “My grandmother was living in her home on the reservation. My dad was a Merchant Marine and he’d be gone for months and then home for a couple months. When dad was gone my mom would load us up and take us to Grand Ronde, and on one side of my grandma’s house was my great grandma’s sister and her husband and kids, and on the other side was, well, the whole side of the road was either a great-great aunt or a great aunt.”

Sponsor

“They would all come to my grandma, or my chich, is what I call her, to her house and the aunties and everyone would sit and talk, and baskets were everywhere, and they told stories of weaving, and spoke the language. I saw the joy and the happiness, and I wanted to continue it.”

According to Craig, many Native artists continue to use traditional practices, but frequently they will use contemporary materials while doing so.

“I think there’s a difference, but then there’s not a difference. They’re still using traditional methods and creating things, but it’s either contemporary in shape or contemporary materials,” she said.

Craig mentions the Larry Beck collection that she worked on while she was doing an internship at the Smithsonian Institution. Beck, who was Yup’ik, was a found-objects sculptor from Seattle and helped her understand how Native cultures have adapted.  

“It’s the same thing that our ancestors did using found materials that either washed up on the beach, or whatever it may be, when creating something,” she said.

“There is in Indian country a small movement of traditional stuff continuing, but we’ve got all this contemporary stuff to help us, and a large part of tribal artists now are using contemporary methods.”

Just about anything can be labeled c”ontemporary methods,” according to the artist, and the label can do many different things. It is up to the artist to define what they think the word contemporary means.

Sponsor

“I use contemporary objects in my basket-weaving, like an awl for packing or a needle to get in between something real tiny to stitch it. When I gather the materials I drive in a car. I’m using clippers, hand snips, to clip everything. In the beginning, I felt kind of torn … but then I realized we have to incorporate and use contemporary things. Adapting, I think is totally fine, things change.”

For her art to be authentic, Craig believes her baskets and other woven pieces should be made of native materials and harvested as closely as possible to the way her ancestors did. She is earnest and engaging, excited to share what she knows and how important it is to preserve this knowledge.

“However, in my work, I will always use traditional plants. I know hardly anyone is doing that anymore, and if we don’t, then it kind of erases our history.

“We have all the old things and repositories and museums and collections, but if we don’t continue hand-carving digging sticks or whatever it may be, we’re losing a huge chunk of valuable information that is going to be missing for the next generations.”

It is about more than using the same materials her ancestors used. It is the journey and the process, and the knowledge gained by following in their steps.

“Every time we go and gather something, there are lessons,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what plant it is or if it was supposed to be sunny and you get out to where you’re going and it’s snowing or pouring down rain. There’s a lesson to be learned with everything, and by missing those steps and going straight to contemporary things to help, you’re losing a lot. Then we’re creating more generations of lost knowledge who don’t know who they are.”

While Craig’s art focuses on tradition, preservation, education and sharing, it is primarily about family. Family that is here and family that is long gone but not forgotten. Each piece is grounded in her beliefs.

Sponsor

“I do this because I want to share. I want to tell the stories that my ancestors have given me. I want to share the teachings and the knowledge that I have. Weaving is something that I love. I love my connection with the plants and being outside, and then when I’m making it I feel more connected to my ancestors.”

Craig continues to learn from other teachers, and she in turn teaches weaving. She is teaching her daughter, and has taught many of the young girls at Grand Ronde.

“I learned from Native American weavers,” she said. “I’ve kept seeking out more teachers and kept playing with plants and bending them and making them into baskets or a cloak or traditional clothing.  I think a lot of it came from my desire and wanting it (basket-weaving) to continue.”

When asked about her art, its themes and continuity, and how a viewer should see and understand the pieces that she makes, she smiles, a large and infectious smile, and is a little chagrined.

“Some days I still don’t think I am (an artist), because what I create is functional,” she said. “This is stuff that we use. I cook with my cooking paddle. My digging stick is obviously dirty because I use it. Other than a couple pieces (in the installation), everything is used and [I’ve] never seen it as art, because to me, art was something that isn’t used. I may not see it as art, but everyone else does.”

“But I think it’s also a good thing, because there’s not very many Native artists that are put in the spotlight, and if I am that vehicle or that conduit, then I am happy and humbled to be chosen.

“I think it’s good things that like this are out there for people to realize that we’re still here, we’re still continuing, because everyone thinks we’re lost, that there’s no Natives left.”

Sponsor

***

Stephanie Craig’s installation “Hands of the Ancestors” can be seen through May 2 at the Art Gallery in the Miller Fine Arts Center at Linfield University in McMinnville. The gallery is at 900 S.E. Baker St. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays. Gallery admission is free. For more information, email gallery@linfield.edu.

***

Stephanie Craig’s work can also be found on her website, kalapuyaweaving.com.