Place
in the Universe
by Dr.
Dave Warren Place
in the Universe
by Dr.
Dave Warren
Understanding where we fit in the vastness of the universe is a fundamental principle of Native American society. Traditionally, Native Americans have been deeply aware of and connected to a natural world that gives meaning to human existence. Mountains, waterways, and the movements of the sun, moon, and planets provided keys to understanding creation, origin, and ultimately, human destiny.
A sense of humanity's place in the universe finds expression in the weaving, carving, painting, music, dance, and song of Native Americans. Symbol, color, texture, and form help render that huge universe and give its significance a human scale. Dances and songs elaborate and reinforce ageless lessons that were and are abiding truths of who and what we are.
The act of creating "art" is often referred to by native people as helping the material "to become," to allow its own evolution into a form, shape, and presence according to the innate qualities and resulting from a specific process involving pilgrimage and prayer. We bring forth the interior nature and character of that which rests in the clay, reed, hide, stone, metal, or thread. Thus, gathering reeds for basketry or collecting clay for pottery involves prayers and acknowledgment that the final "product" is a link in a never-ending, unfolding creation. Some might call this art, but what we see in the "art" of traditional communities is sometimes a view into a deeper meaning of place and time and space.
Thus, weaving becomes more than making a blanket. Although a Navajo blanket is utilitarian, the designs, and symbols it incorporates reflect the weaver's understanding of place and space in a cosmology. Designs have purposeful meaning; they carry power and reach into other places, times, and worlds for both inspiration and explanation of being, place, and time.
Similarly, among the Tewa Pueblo Indians, shadeh, the word for dance, means "to awaken." For example, a harvest dance gives life to forces that have always provided sustenance to the people; it recalls in its movements many memories of migration and sustains cycles of natural power and order. It is a collectively expressed prayer, joining dancers and audience at the center of the process.
The work of contemporary Native American artists reflects the truism that culture is dynamic. However "modern" the art form, contemporary Native American artists bring forward their traditions in new works, whether realistic, abstract, or stylized. The form may depart from something that we have become accustomed to, but the content is ultimately linked to a fundamental core that originated countless eons ago. Native languages in song and ceremony reiterate the paths from ancient origins. It is that living memory that the audience to Native American arts glimpses when standing before a new interpretation of an abiding truth.
Dr. Dave Warren, 1997
Dr. Warren is a member of the Santa Clara (Tewa) tribe. In 1993, he retired from the Smithsonian Institution, where he was Special Assistant for Applied Community Research, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Service, and founding Deputy Director, National Museum of the American Indian.
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