Art as spirituality

Posted by Cindy Yurth | Apr 28, 2016 | Culture |

New DC program teaches culture through art

Navajo Times | Adron Gardner
Instructor Wilson Aronilth works on a traditional Navajo rib bracelet at Diné College in Tsaile April 20. “When the work makes you happy, that’s what leads to quality workmanship,” Aronilth said.

TSAILE, Ariz.

Navajo spirituality covers every aspect of life. So it’s not surprising there are mystical teachings associated with weaving and silversmithing.

But even some veteran artisans learned a thing or two as Diné studies professor Wilson Aronilth, who also happens to be a silversmith of some renown, gave the keynote at a reception Wednesday for the first cohort of Diné College’s new Navajo Cultural Arts Program.

Did you know, for example, that each post of a loom frame symbolizes one of the four sacred stones and its attributes? That bad spirits never enter a home where a spindle is kept? That the 10 elements of Navajo silversmithing —white shell, turquoise, abalone, black jet, red coral, silver, gold, fire, water and air — each represent an attribute of a healthy, balanced life?

“There’s a lot of teachings about art,” Aronilth said. “I could stand here all night and the next day and not tell all of them. You could make a whole curriculum using this loom.”

That’s kind of what the new Navajo Cultural Arts Program is doing.

During one semester, students learn not only a craft but also the significance of it in Navajo culture.

The first cohort of five is just finishing up, and the proof of what they had learned — their jewelry and wool creations — was on display as the college celebrated its newest program.