Guatemalan Maya youth and weavers, representing partner organizations Unlocking Silent Histories and the Maya Traditions Foundation, will share their Maya identities, illustrating their resilience, knowledge, and unique traditions demonstrated through documentaries and traditional backstrap weaving. This group of individuals—together with Maya weavers, graphic artists, and activists from the Washington, D.C., area and the Florida Maya community—will provide visual and verbal reference to the...
Guatemalan Maya youth and weavers, representing partner organizations Unlocking Silent Histories and the Maya Traditions Foundation, will share their Maya identities, illustrating their resilience, knowledge, and unique traditions demonstrated through documentaries and traditional backstrap weaving. This group of individuals—together with Maya weavers, graphic artists, and activists from the Washington, D.C., area and the Florida Maya community—will provide visual and verbal reference to the historic impacts affecting Maya peoples, the ways in which their communities adapt to the times, and the challenges of maintaining traditions.
This event highlights the value of Maya traditions, those that have stayed the same as well as those that have been transformed, and shows examples of continuity and ingenuity that have resulted from, or in spite of, migration and immigration.
Unlocking Silent Histories—a global organization with an aim to open spaces for indigenous youth to capture, represent, and revive their traditions and associated cultural knowledges—each day will screen short films and engage in a provocative discussion about the preservation of Maya culture and improving social conditions for Maya communities internationally.
For specific films and times, see separate events listings for September 16, 17 & 18.
During the panel discussion "Indigenous Maya: Migration and the retention of traditional culture," September 16 & 17 from 1 pm to 2:30, Maya and other indigenous cultural activists from Mesoamerica will talk about the experience of retaining cultural traditions and identity as they negotiate life in a new country.
Maya Traditions Foundation weavers—accompanied by Maya weavers from the Washington, D.C., cooperative Weaving for the Future—will demonstrate traditions distinct to each of their family lineages, along with collective community designs. These textiles are significant identity markers, and educational displays will provide visitors with context to ask questions facilitated by translators. The marketplace will offer pieces to take home.
Indigenous Design Collective, a DC-based Maya graphic arts initiative dedicated to educating people about Maya symbolism, will provide hands-on activities for all ages. These activities include:
❖ A community mural
❖ Cardboard model skateboards with glue-on Maya calendar symbols
❖ Animal symbol pendants
Media stations featuring interactive websites by the museum and the Smithsonian Latino Center will offer opportunities for visitors to learn more about migration and Bak’tun 13, an important date in the Maya calendar.
Gallery tours will take place on Friday and Saturday at 1:30 pm. Visitors will be guided through the Our Universes gallery, where they will learn more about the Q’eq’chi Maya indigenous group in current-day Guatemala.
To see Maya Creativity and Cultural Milieu on the museum's online calendar, visit http://bit.ly/Maya2016
Photo: Members of the Maya weaving community in Guatemala will take part in Maya Creativity and Cultural Milieu at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Photo by Robyne Hayes, Photographers without Borders, courtesy of the Maya Traditions Foundation.
