Forum sponsored by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and California Arts Council - Sacramento, June 7, 2001
Presentation by Sara Greensfelder,
California Indian Basketweavers Association
1. What circumstances brought your group together?
The original circumstance that brought CIBA together was concern for the health of basketweaving traditions among California's indigenous peoples. By the late 1980's, there were tribes which no longer had practicing basketweavers, and many others which only had one or two, or a small handful.
Research done in 1986-87 indicated that many factors contributed to the dwindling numbers of basketweavers:A lack of opportunities for Native people to learn basketweaving and limited involvement by younger people
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The isolation of many basketweavers, who did not often get to meet each other or weave with others
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Lack of time needed to cultivate, gather and prepare materials and weave baskets
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Destruction of and lack of access to plant gathering sites due to development, privatization, regulatory restrictions, logging, agriculture, water diversion projects, etc.
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Lack of ability to manage gathering sites for optimum plant growth via such practices as burning, digging, pruning
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The use of pesticides on or near gathering areas on public and private lands, which not only kill some basketry plants, but also pose a health risk to people who gather and use the plants
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Difficulty in obtaining access to some museum collections of baskets for the purpose of studying techniques, designs, forms and materials
As a way of addressing these problems, a gathering of California Indian basketweavers was held in 1991, which brought some 60 or 70 weavers together with representatives of public land agencies, museums, funders, ethnobotanists and other potential supporters. The gathering was so successful and inspiring that the weavers wanted it to continue as an annual event. A council of basketweavers was established, which worked over the next year to come up with a structure for an association. The plan was approved by the basketweavers at the second gathering in 1992, and CIBA was born. CIBA is governed by a board of 11 California Indian basketweavers, who are elected to office by the voting membership of California Indian basketweavers. We also have a non-basketweaver associate membership category, which makes up most of our membership base.
2. What challenges have you faced?
Many of the challenges mentioned above are ongoing; CIBA works to address all of them.
Challenges we face as an organization include:
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Maintenance of a funding basefor a budget which keeps growing bigger. Most of our funding comes from grants, and the longer we exist, the more difficult it is to identify new funders. It's also challenging to expand our base of earned income.
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Serving a state the size of California. Our northern California field office is striving to provide more direct services to the basketweavers in the surrounding area. At this point in our development, we'd be hard-pressed to open central and southern California field offices. However, we're in the process of increasing services to all basketweavers throughout the state, and to give them the opportunity to be involved more directly in some of our program areas.
3. What successes has your group had?
Organizational successes include the following:
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Providing a voice and a vehicle for basketweavers to advocate for their needs
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Surviving and growing for 9 years
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Earning a reputation for integrity and for being a strong Native arts and environmental organization that brings people together in a good way
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Maintaining a visible presence by putting out a quarterly newsletter, producing and distributing a videotape, and having a website.
There has been positive impact for the basketweavers themselves:
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Bringing basketweavers together to share their knowledge and to gain strength and inspiration from one another;
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Focusing attention on basketweavers, increasing public knowledge of the importance of maintaining basketweaving traditions and of the role that basketweavers play as stewards of the land;
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Holding an annual gathering which celebrates these traditions and honors basketweavers.
All of these serve to increase the prestige associated with basketweaving and to attract new basketry students from within the Native community. As a result, we've seen many new weavers emerge, and we feel the future of basketweaving among California Indians is much more secure now than it was 10 years ago.
We have also had an impact beyond the Native community of California through the following:
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Opening the doors to museum collections. We have worked with museum to plan basketry exhibits, thereby insuring that exhibits have input from today's basketweavers.
- Working on a deep level on the many issues which challenge basketweavers by opening up communications between baskeweavers and such agencies as the US Forest Service, US EPA, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. This allows opportunities for:
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Creating the ability to comment on and influence policies and decisions that affect our constituents
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Sitting on advisory committees and presenting and conferences and events
4. What have you learned from your experience that other traditional artists and community groups could apply in working to sustain their traditional arts?
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The act of bringing the artists together in one place can generate a tremendous amount of positive energy which will help sustain the traditions
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One of the most powerful tactics you can employ is to speak for yourselves directly and in person to the powers that be and to potential supporters
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To achieve the greatest success, you need to look at and address all of the factors which affect a tradition, be they economic, social, cultural, political or environmental
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Give people outside of your tradtion the opportunity to learn about and support your work; network and build coalitions with others whenever possible
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Diversify your funding base as much as possible
5. What will sustain your group for the next five years?
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Involvement of more basketweavers in the organization and in setting our future direction
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We are undertaking a basketweavers survey which will assist in this process
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Providing more services to basketweavers, including programs which will benefit them
- Continuation of the annual Basketweavers Gathering
- Ability to meet the challenges of growth within the organization
- Continued support from both within and outside the organization, including the ability to generate funding and increased earned income.
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