01/23/2024
Pura fe >>>>------->
Someone recently asked me, "if you couldn't make music anymore, what would you do"? OH MAN!! Creating all kinds regalia is one of my most favorite ways to spend time... it heals me like nothing can...because it draws on my internal blood memory and reminds me of my purpose. Specifically that you're recreating the Value system of which you come from originally. You go deep inside and connect with everything that ever was... its in your hands to create...because we are the creators.
Like taking a whole year off to just CREATE with my hands making all kinds of Body Art for both my Tribal peoples, would be HEAVENLY...or even for my Grand kids...
This is one of my art forms. To sew, Applique, paint on bodies, on clothes, to shell, weave and BEAD...
My CANVAS is my people I decorate!!... with shapes, colors, symbols, everything that just presents itself in my head, heart and Ancestral everything that slaps me into making it happen.
Finished pieces are a load off my mind!! And many people I want to wave my wand and Ferry Auntie them with a Regal outfit, (comes with time)because we are our Ancestors and we should look AMAZING!!
And in this tuff crazy and sacred world we live in...THIS always makes me CENTER...GROUND and CONNECT!! It's the best medicine ever for Grief and Trauma work...for all the reason I said...it brings you back to the way we tick from the very first awakening which we all carry in our hearts...because we are all a piece of that beginning. That truth is what gets smashed in us everyday in this world. We all can find ways to heal and return again.
When I meet or see someone for the first time...I stare at their body hummm...lol. I don't know how to describe it. I see them in specific colors...like matching them, seeing what is their I guess aura or what comes to me about them. They could be talking, but I am picking up a whole other thing. That was a problem for me as a kid in classrooms in my Autistic world... I go off in my minds eye...
So yes... a year off would be a creative whirlwind extravaganza... I could use it!!
I really have never charged money for what I make and or give away...I do trade now and then. And my Mom told me to never give away or sell my Haudenosaunee beaded skirt/leggings and mocs...or my one arm Shell dress. I have made hundreds of dresses...since the 1980's...all give aways.
When Soni and I had our babies...we came together to sew shirts in the 80's. We made them to sell...but Noone would buy them...lol. They were so COLORFUL. Ribbon Shirts and Ruffle blouses...like many of the old Eastern and SouthEastern Calico blouses and rap skirts type dresses. Then I began to make the whole Ruffle dresses and taking after what my grammahs and great grammahs were wearing...big teared Ruffle blouses and skirts. I made so many of those. And us ULALI in the beginning we were wearing them on stage. But as time went on...we decided not to wear Regalia on stage. Unless we were performing for Native people. We began to feel like we were feeding the stereotype image for non native audiences. However our lyrics kind of slapped some folks to walk out of our concerts. So we changed our clothes and that felt better. But NOW!! I feel the way I did as a child...when I would wear my Buckskin dress that my Step father bought for me at Tipi Town...lol... in NYC. Yupp...I wore that with pride and into my school classroom at age 9 or 10? It was me saying "I AM NOT GOING AWAY...I AM SO HERE IN YOUR FACE, I KNOW WHO I AM, I AM NOT RAISING MY HAND OVER MY HEART TO PLEDGE TO THAT FLAG...ETC"!!
I did teach myself to bead at 7...and my mom was an excellent embroiderer and sewer.
Grammah taught me to stitch by hand. And when I became 15...I learned more at the Culture classes at the American Indian Community House.
That place became my home. And it is where ULALI came out of. There is a great Black and White photo of our group before it became ULALI, where we are all wearing our Dresses and the men wearing those shirts that Soni and I made. Only Matoaka Little Eagle was wearing her Pueblo dress. There was 7 of us...We were proud and happy and creating a new sound... 4 men and 3 women. So our clothes on stage was a part of us... and our messages, our poetry etc...
So much has evolved since those days throughout all of Indian Country. We were a bridge and a voice in many ways... All of us have gone on our seperate ways.
In terms of regalia...it just feels so personal...like you are creating beauty and protection, incorporating family, ancestral creation stories, elements and colors that belong to each person. There is so much that goes into each piece and it takes so much time with all the things I make. They are like Lineage pieces if you will. I just cannot put prices on what I create. It cheapens it for me anyway. I would gladly share it in workshops to my peoples to make and if they need it as an income...then that's awesome. But for me...it's "labor of love" as they say.
It feels so good to honor the Peoples and see them looking good, their happiness when it fits them in every way and that it represents who they are...we are!...That is the best payment and compliment I could hope for. This is Heart medicine exchange... We carry our Ancestors as they carry us.
Designing new from old... bringing back what has been sleeping for quite some time...not only awakens in our memory...but in our hands, in our songs, in our Canoe paddles, in everything, everywhere... that exists inside each and everyone of us. We are the Ancestors...from the very first seed awakening...we are that and ALL that we see and know and are...forever!!
One day...I'll eventually figure out how to write grants or work with someone who can help me and I can apply to work with a few regalia makers...from home in NC and in Borikén(PR)... and sit down and have workshops and as Christi Belcourt says (not gonna tag and bug her) Culture Class forever!! ❤🌀🤲🏽
