Weaving The Past Into The Future

Josh Homminga and Sarah Bedell. Black ash basket-makers and workshop teachers - sharing teachings as told to Josh by his great aunt Bernadette and other family members.

The knowledge of the basket-making process and techniques that Anishinaabek ancestors mastered still flows through many family lines and memories of the people today.  Despite numerous environmental threats to the very survival of Anishinaabek basket-making, the determination of many Great Lakes Anishinabe people to protect this lifeway has been and will continue undeterred. Families that have nurtured this art form through the centuries are living treasures.

Today, many Great Lakes tribes and tribal entities are making a conscious effort to protect this tradition. The Seventh Generation Program, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College, and Ziibiwing Center of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan have made programmatic commitments to promote Anishinaabek basket-making. The future of Anishinaabek basketry is dependent on the understanding that baskets are not “crafts,” but are physical interpretations of a beautiful culture. The Anishinaabek basket-making tradition weaves together the past, present, and future. Anishinaabek baskets carry the dreams of the ancestors and the hopes of the future.

At the opening of the collaborative exhibit Wiidanokeendiwag (They Work With Each Other) at the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways, center director Shannon Martin presented a beautiful black ash basket made by artist Josh Homminga as a gift to the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. The basket is now a part of the Museum's permanent collections and a representative of the continuing practice of basket-masking.