Berdache
It’s interesting how experiences or events that happened decades ago find their way into my work. I had read The Spirit and the Flesh by Walter Williams years ago. The story is about the berdache culture on the reservation. I had heard about native culture having a third and fourth gender but it wasn’t something that was talked about when I was growing up. The berdache story stayed with me all these years. When I heard about Hosteen Klah who was a great medicine man and weaver it brought the Walter Williams book back into the light. Klah was known as a nádleeh (the name for a berache or third gender). A nádleeh in Navajo culture is a very well respected person in the tribe that plays both male and female roles in society and they excel in whatever roles they take on in the tribe. Klah was a great medicine man who learned all the songs in record time and he was also one of the best rug weavers on the reservation. His talent was so great and his sandpaintings and rugs so exquisite that a museum in Santa Fe called The Wheelwright Museum was built to house them. Stories about Klah and other berdaches have inspired me to merge weaving, stitching, eco-printing and sand into my work.
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