‘Jó Jiní’ exhibit to feature stories of items
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Museum volunteer Rebecca Heidenreich lays out a hand carded and spun Eyedazzler Blanket for the new Jó Jiní exhibit at the Navajo Nation Museum. Navajo Nation Museum.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie
An old style Concho belt is one of the objects to be displayed in the new Jó Jiní exhibit at the
WINDOW ROCK
After the closure of the old Navajo mill in the early 1990s, the fate of log saw blades were doomed as they went into the trash.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie
Museum volunteer Rebecca Heidenreich lays out a hand carded and spun Eyedazzler Blanket for the new Jó Jiní exhibit at the Navajo Nation Museum.
Navajo Nation Museum.
Imagine if the saw blade could talk, it would probably recall the tragic event with, “Life was rough after the closure of the mill. I just ended up in a trash pile to rust away.”
However, this saw blade was destined to be an ambassador of history when Jerry and Lois Jacka rescued it, when salvaging old materials to build their home near Heber, Ariz. The couple donated the piece to the Navajo Nation Museum in 2004.
On Jan. 14, the large circular metal tool and other miscellaneous objects will be on display for the Jó Jiní Exhibit at the Navajo Nation Museum.
The exhibit, “Jó Jiní” uses the Navajo term of “it was said” to personify the objects as they tell history without a voice or written word but simply with their appearances.
Museum curator Clarenda Begay said of the exhibit, “I thought of this exhibit to show the unique things that people are willing to give to the Navajo Nation to bring them home.”
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow