You know you need an excuse to escape to the beach in this heat, and a visit to the Newport Visual Arts Center is a fine one.
To showcase the next generation of Indigenous creators, five emerging artists come together in “Where Waters Meet.” Each show is separate from the others in its own gallery with its own show dates, but you can see them in one visit.
The intricate and beautiful basketry of traditional weaver Chantele Rilatos, a Siletz tribal member of Yurok descent, won my heart with her show “Woven From the Land.” Using varied plant materials native to her homelands, she creates beautiful woven works representing the land and her ancestors.
“Basketry is a way of life for my people and my culture,” she said. “We use our baskets for storage, for gathering, we even have watertight baskets. There are not many basket weavers left, certainly not young people. I’ve had a lot of elders pour a lot of their knowledge into me and I want to keep that knowledge alive.”
“Ironically,” she continues, “My work will be displayed in Newport, Oregon, a place near to where my ancestors were forcibly removed. These women maintained our lifeways despite it being outlawed to do so. I could not be a basket weaver if it wasn’t for my ancestors – the native women who devoted themselves to keeping our cultural lifeways alive. Being a basketweaver connects me to my ancestors and homelands. It is a sacred practice.”
I was especially moved by Chantele’s woven traditional cradles and baby rattles. It is a joy to see this master tradition being continued into the next generation
