Learning the culture

Learning about the Navajo culture is at the heart of this year's White Shell Woman Workshop.

The annual event, sponsored by the Miss Navajo Council Inc. and the Ways of Life: Iiná, will take place Saturday, July 24, at the Navajo Nation Museum. It starts at 9 a.m. with onsite registration beginning at 8 a.m.

Each year the workshop focuses on a different aspect of the Navajo culture. Topics to be presented this year include the Diné language, Diné Fundamental Law, Navajo leadership and Navajo etiquette.

Among the presenters will be former Miss Navajos Jolyana Begay-Bitsuie, Marilyn Help Hood, Angela Barney Nez and Genevieve Lee Salt. There will be a keynote address from Dr. Vanessa Jensen, a surgeon at Tuba City Regional Health Care Corp.

"Participants learn something and hopefully they go home and apply it to their lives," said event organizer Sunny Dooley.

Dooley won the crown in 1982 and remembers being among the first Miss Navajos to advocate for the preservation of Navajo culture.

For some people this might be their first opportunity to learn about the culture and delivering that message is the reason Dooley got involved with this year's workshop.

"They see a culture that is still viable," she said.

The target audience for the workshop is Navajo girls, ages 8 and older, and Navajo women but the group encourages anyone who is interested in learning about the Navajo way of life to attend.

Also organizing the event are former Miss Navajos Geri Gamble McKerry, Vivian Arviso, Sarah Luther and Josephine Tracy.

Each former titleholder understands the importance of the leadership role Miss Navajo plays within the community and they continue to fill that role long after their service, said McKerry, Miss Navajo Nation 1989-90.

Female leadership also includes exemplifying the essence and characters of First Woman, White Shell Woman and Changing Woman and being a goodwill ambassador, according to the group's Web site.

The Miss Navajo Council Inc. is composed of former Miss Navajo Nation titleholders. It is a nonprofit organization that started in 2007 and is authorized by a Navajo Nation Certificate of Authority.

The purpose of the council is to promote the preservation of the Navajo language, culture and tradition.

Second, the members promote and foster partnerships between former Miss Navajos and the communities across Navajoland.

They also serve as an advisory council to the current Miss Navajo and the Office of Miss Navajo Nation in accomplishing her platform and her office's mission.

"Often when you become Miss Navajo, you're shoved into this new role," McKerry said.

By serving as "a big sister" for the titleholder, the organization helps her with the transition from ordinary citizen to ambassador for the tribe, she said.

The Ways of Life: Iiná is a Ford Foundation project that plans to produce a curriculum on life goals for Navajo children. Arviso, the 1958-59 Miss Navajo, is director of the project.

This is the third year for the workshop. Last year it focused on teaching girls and young women skills like sheep butchering required to compete in the Miss Navajo Nation pageant.

"We're not a woman-only event," Dooley said. "We are encouraging anyone wanting to learn to attend."

The attendance fee is $10. Proceeds from the event go toward planning and organizing next year's workshop.

Anyone interested in attending the event can register online at the council's Web site. To register by mail, print out the registration form from the Web site and mail the payment to P.O. Box 1509, Tuba City, AZ 86045.

Information: www.missnavajocouncil.org or 928-672-3512.

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