Julia Bogany leads six main workshops focusing on native Tongva traditions. The workshops focus on: Blanket story telling, soapstone carving, clapper sticks, dream pillows, beading and basket making.
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Basket making:
Made from junkets, deer grass, pine needles and willow these coil baskets were hugely useful to native peoples. The tightly woven baskets are so well constructed one can drink water from them, as well as use them in a litany of other applications. |
Beading:
Beads were the currency used most commonly in trade. Made from Dentalium, a shell, and put on a roughly thirty, they were made into jewelry and adornments. Teaching beading now helps remind youth of the roots traveled by native ancestors and how a crucial these beads were to their trading with other groups. |
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Dream Pillows:
Dream Pillows are meant to help with relaxation and self care. The small sacks are decorated and stuffed most commonly with lavender and rose. This is designed to calm one down and allow for gentle dreams in sleep. |
Clapper Sticks:
Made from the Elderberry tree (known as the tree of music), these two small rods are intricately carved from branches and used instead of drums as a source of rhythm for native traditions. Thought not the only instrument made from the Elderberry tree, flutes are also common; Clapper Sticks are staple of native Tongva music. |
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Soapstone Carvings:
Soapstone made up the largest trade component for native peoples form the Catalina Island and has even been referred to as “Tongva Gold”. Frequently the soapstone was carved into bears, used as a natural talcum powder (for babies) or even used for in cooking applications. |
Blankets:
The purpose of these blankets is to be the base upon which as story can be told. By passing along the history of California Native Americas and the trauma inflected upon them, it is possible for native peoples to try to combat the lack of Native history taught in this country. The blankets could start with the first contact with non-native groups and move through the territories, missionaries, ranchos (and the labor that came with them) and the Gold Rush, ending with the modern day plights of native groups. |
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