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The
Essence
Of Chilkat Weaving
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From the heart the
weaving begins to take form. Thoughts of time dangle in
my mind.
What place does Chilkat weaving hold?
In
times past the Robes told the history of the clans, they served
a purpose in ritual that tied the people to the land and through
generations -- or as the elders say "from time immemorial".
Do they still serve that function today?
The
clans exist but apparently have little of the old power.
Native politics and ambitions seem to belong to the bigger American
culture. The modern dance groups think nothing of wearing
imitation Chilkat; they dance with pride in a bedspread or tablecloth.
The greatness of the past has all but disappeared. The elders
remember the respect the robes invoked by their innate special
nature. In the old way a Robe would be commissioned and
then publicly paid for, earning sometimes its own name and becoming
a representation and a gateway for the spirits.
The
essence of Chilkat weaving is purity. In the old days, only
a very high case woman would weave. Through her life
she was taught about respect, discipline, patience, and diligence.
She was taught responsibility, and she was educated about spirits.
In the weaving of the robe, all these qualities were required.
The woman would fast, refraining from food, and submit herself
as a pure vessel for the energy/spirit of the weaving to flow
through her. She was not an artist in the modern sense,
for the designs and individual units of the design were fixed
for her. More than anything the weaver was an interpreter.
In
preparing to weave, and during the months of weaving, the woman
would be apart from her mate -- they would abstain from intimate
relations. Now a man is wonderful to have in your life,
but the sacrifice is necessary. The energies of a woman
are sensitive to influence. The weaver also learns that
the energies are able to be focused, through the long years of
training.
The
weaver must weave from a pure heart. She needs to find the
balance within herself that is able to step out of the time stream
of her life and devote herself to weaving the gateway for her
generation to access time, even after they are gone.
The
weaver's mind must not be distracted with stress, grief, anger,
worry or fear. The weaving must be free of all negativity
and the weaver knows that out of the abundance of her heart energy
the weaving will be influenced.
The
Chilkat robes are woven in privacy and kept covered during the
weaving process. When it is finished, the Robe comes out
to the public and are presented as an entity of its own, the stewardship
or ownership benefiting the clan as a whole -- not merely the
one who wears it to dance. The Robe danced. The dancing
Robes speak the language of the elders -- older than the spoken
tongue -- visual demonstration/representation of tradition.
The
Robes cannot stand alone. They are a union of the forest and the
mountains combined with symbolic colors that represent the cosmology
of our culture. Black are the formlines; the forms of the
animal and human. The Boundaries of life are represented
by yellow -- the life force; and blue for the spirit. Songs
give the robes life. The dancer is a channel for the language
of the Robe to be spoken; for the spirits of the ancestors to
be heard by the heart. This is who we are. This is by what
right we laid claims and lived and died for the future.
This is our heritage. These are our responsibilities and
this is our purpose.
The
Robes speak of the before-time when balance with the environment
meant the life and death of the clan. The Robes were brought
out at times of ceremony, naming, dedications, funerals, and rites
of passage. Always the witnesses were recompensed and the
Robes would be packed away carefully from the light and damp until
next time the presence of history was required. The Robes
were intended to have their own life so the weaver refrained from
mixing up her life with its life. She was not important
except as a channel, the dancer or weaver of the Robe only represent
a channel; the Robe itself is also a channel. And the message
is continuity of life. In this way the Chilkat Robes represent
the heart of our culture.
©1997
Suzi Vaara Williams
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