Rina Swentzell, 2008

“In the old Pueblo world, the most important, most sacred, human connection is to the earth. All our connections to the self, our human community and the outside world are defined by that most basic relationship to the earth, to The Mother. All beings, including humans, emerge from her. She is the source of life, joy and meaning because she guides our thoughts, actions and relationships which we, Pueblo people, Pueblo artists, strive to maintain.

“‘Gia’ is the word for mother in the Tewa language. The earth is ‘nungbe gia,’
our mother. She is the model for human thought and conduct. It is unlike the
paternal Western world where father and masculinity are supreme. In Pueblo thinking, it is not even female, which is but a category of gender. The idea of mother in the Pueblo is more holistic in that it includes both female and male. We call our biological mothers ‘gias.’ But we also call males, who are wise, compassionate and soulful people, ‘gias,’ or mothers. Everyone then can strive to be a ‘gia’ through appropriate thought and conduct. A compassionate and nurturing ‘gia’ is the ideal person. Even the spatial world is egalitarian rather than hierarchical. Again, contrary powers are balanced so that none can come to dominate the other.

“In this space, the sense of mother is sacred. Clay, as the stuff of the earth, is of that sacredness. Our special affinity with clay is a natural part of our legacy from the earth, the ultimate mother. That legacy affirms the aesthetic and
creativity of the earth, which passes on to us as her children. Like the earth mother, we are productive, courageous, creative and embracing. And so the legacy passes from mother to daughter in unspoken actions.

“Before one feast day at Santa Clara Pueblo, some women had gathered at my mother’s house to make bread, pies and cookies. One woman was especially proficient. She was asked how she had learned to do these tasks so easily. She responded that of course she had learned in the same way that everyone else learned, which was to watch, listen and do. And so it happens with mothers and daughters between whom there are daily unspoken thoughts and movements.

“Recently I talked with a woman who had moved away from her home pueblo and who was visiting her daughter at San Juan Pueblo. She was struck by how easy it was to be with her daughter. Her exclamation was, ‘It is like being with myself!’ And, in that sense, it is easy to be with clay, the stuff of The Mother. And because we are one with her, and in her image, her sacredness easily passes in art through us as mothers and daughters.”