Kindred Artist of the Week: Naawéiyaa Austin Tagaban

"Finishing a basket is an addicting thing. It's this moment where all this planning and countless hours of work culminate in the creation of something beautiful."

photo by Melissa Leanne Griffiths

Presenting our Kindred Artist of the Week series! We are big fans of all the artists we work with and we are so excited to share their stories!

This week’s featured artist is Naawéiyaa Austin Tagaban - local poet activist weaver storyteller extraordinaire.

Who are you?

Naawéiyaa Austin Tagaban

Ḵóok hít, Tʼaḵdeintaan yadi, Cherokee ḵa Wooshkeetaan ḵa Pilipino ḵa dleit ḵaa dachx̱án

Left Handed, Poet, activist, Basket weaver, Language learner, story teller and more recently screen printer.

- Scorpio, Leo Rising, Pisces Moon -

What do you do?

Primarily, I weave baskets, but am excited to expand that and start making more basket inspired things...

Who/what inspires you?

I am inspired by people like Delores Churchill, so humbly carries a library within herself and so freely and graciously shares it with whoever asks.

What’s your favorite moment in the process?

My favorite moment in the process is putting the ending on the basket. Finishing a basket is an addicting thing. It's this moment where all this planning and countless hours of work culminate in the creation of something beautiful. It's this amazing feeling knowing that you took a root from the ground and that through hours and hours of hard work, of graphing designs, counting warp, false embroidering, root harvesting and splitting, that you turned it all into a basket. Into something both functional and absolutely beautiful.

What’s a trick of your trade, or a piece of advice for other artists in your medium?

If you’re unhappy with something in the basket, if there is even the slightest chance you won’t like it forever, take it undone and re-do it. If you just do it now it will save you the agony of looking at that spot in the basket forever. and most likely, you will do it better the second time because you undoubtably learned something from messing it up the first time.

What’s next?

Gonna get to work on some screen prints and block prints inspired by baskets, and language and berries and oh so much more.

I can’t wait to make some art.

Stop by the shop to see our current collection of Naawéiyaa's work!