Home Phone:
Email:
Website:
Tribe:
Media:
Artist's Statement:
Topanga, CA 90290
619/459.9086
hunwut@aol.com
www.kumeyaay.com
www.aicls.org
www.thelandconversation.org
Payoomkawichum (Luiseñno)
traditional items, digital storyteller
I have been learning ethnobotany, indigenous plant uses, from my teacher, Jane Dumas, for about 30 years. Jane Dumas is a Kumeyaay elder from Jamul Indian Village whose mother, Isabel Thing, was a great kuseyaay cha'ak, medicine woman, in southern California. From my knowledge of plants I have learned to replicate ancient items form the southern California material cultures. I replicate and teach how to replicate traditional game items. I produce cordage in the traditional way from different traditional plant materials. I make netting for tumplines, clothing, and ceremonial netted feather skirts from the cordage. I make utilitarian items, such as shuttles for net making and southern California Indian cradleboards. I make tule canoes. I make traditional southern California Indian shelters. I have made southern California Indian houses for Cabrillo National Monument, the San Diego Museum of Man, the Kumeyaay Culture School on Barona Indian reservation, Kumeyaay Culture Village on Viejas Indian Reservation, Quail Botanical Gardens, and Satwiwa Native American Culture Center. I teach Kumeyaay ethnobotany and Kumeyaay language at Kumeyaay Community College on Sycuan Indian Reservation.
click on images to enlarge