Families stand together in Elmer Yazzie’s winning poster for Northern fair
Submitted | Elmer Yazzie
Diné artist Elmer Yazzie, the winner and creator of the 112th Annual Northern Navajo Fair poster, holds his “Families Are Our Strength” artwork on Saturday evening, Sept. 27, 2025.
WINDOW ROCK
Navajo artist Elmer Yazzie chose not to paint the familiar mountains and waterways for his Northern Navajo Fair poster. Instead, he created a portrait of a multigenerational family gathered before Tsé Bit’ą’í, a scene that speaks to the bonds that hold a household together.
Submitted | Elmer Yazzie
“Families Are Our Strength,” the poster for the 112th Annual Northern Navajo Fair by Diné artist Elmer Yazzie, centers a multigenerational family at Tsé Bitʼąʼí, encircled by scenes of daily life and community.
Yazzie drew on years of farm work and the routines that shaped his life. From that place he made an image of what family and strength mean to him. It aligns with this year’s fair theme, “Families Are Our Strength.”
At 71, Yazzie says the idea is simple. Families work better when they work together.
He is from Shiprock. He is Tó’aheedlíinii and born for Kinyaa’áanii. His maternal grandfather is Bit’ahnii, and his paternal grandfather is Ta’neeszahnii.
He has spent decades in classrooms and studios across Navajo Country and the Four Corners, and he speaks about the poster the way he speaks to students, with direction and encouragement rather than flourish. The image gathers mother, father and their children in the center. To one side are nálí and cheii. To the other are cousins, aunts and uncles.
Below them he lists ordinary scenes that hold a household together. School. Groceries. Shopping. Church. Farming. Harvesting corn. A family near a chaha’oh. Horseback riding. The activities are not background decoration. They are the point.
He says the choices came as he drew and that Shiprock’s farming life had to be visible. The area is known for corn. The poster nods to that truth without turning into a still life. He wanted a picture of people in motion, not icons.
To read the full article, please see the Oct. 2, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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