So, this weekend it was the Navajo Weaver’s Festival at a local museum, and I went. I dragged my family along with me, too!
They were just thrilled.
Before we went in, we tried to explain to the kids what kind of place we were visiting.
“It’s a museum,” I said.
“A dinosaur museum? An airplane museum?” they asked.
“No, it’s a Native American museum.”
“Huh?”
“It’s Indians, kids,” Greg said.
“Indiany?”they asked, excited. Indiany is what they call Indiana Jones. “It’s an Indiany museum?”
“No, kids, no,” I hurried to undo the damage. “Indians – Native Americans – are the people who lived here before we did.”
“But we live in Arizona now,” Max said, suspicious.
“Yes, we do, and they do too, but…uh…let’s just go in.”
The festival was pretty awesome. We saw weaving in progress, finished weaving, expensive weaving for sale – one blanket we saw was priced at $25,000 – and we even saw one woman spinning her yarn.
Check out that spindle! I’ve used a drop spindle before, but the end of hers was propped on the ground! (The internet tells me that it’s called – wait for it – a Navajo spindle. Cool!) It looks like an excellent way to make larger quantities of yarn.
As we wandered around, Max said, “Look, mommy! They’re all Japanese people!”
“Shhhh, no, honey, they’re not!”
“Well…they look like it.”
We’re going to have a fun time explaining that one to the kids.
This man was one of several working on a project on a loom, but let’s just zoom in there, shall we?
Hey, look! Navajo weavers use Lamb’s Pride!
Neat, huh?
I certainly enjoyed looking at all the handiwork, and I think the kids were impressed, but on the way out Max said –
“I want to see the Indiany stuff.”
Hahaha, your kids are cute! I’m half Navajo and my hubby’s first thought when he met me was “Whose that hot asian chick?” and he’s a grown man! It looks like it was an awesome festival.