Summer 2023 Letter from the Director

by Emily Hartlerode

It feels like Summer has been in full swing since May, when the damp Spring typical of Oregon’s Willamette Valley was chased off early by unseasonably hot temperatures. Weather comes through so many human senses that tug at memory in mysterious ways. Born and raised in Nebraska, I still sense an internal “tornado warning” when humid wind suddenly grows still, and all at once I’m a little girl in a silent prairie field looking up at the sky listening for the town whistle calling us to our cellars.   

Like memory, traditional arts powerfully root us to meaningful parts of our lives, and also uproot us from the present moment, transporting us to another time and place. Practicing our culture overloads our senses with memory.  Every day, Oregonians quietly weave plants from a homeland beneath our feet, and boldly dance the swirling colors and sounds from a homeland far away. Earlier this year, OFN hosted a spotlight series for six Ukrainian Artists conveying the importance of supporting their culture today. Coming up in August, we invite you to Eugene for Oregon Culture Nights to enjoy demonstrations by our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship teams. Know someone who practices their cultural traditions? Send them our guidelines (also in Spanish), as they may be eligible for a funded apprenticeship!  

Woman with long red hair and white dress stands on stage before a projected image of herself painting.

Maryna Malyarenko presents the Ukrainian art of petrykivka. (Photo by Iryna Stavynska)

 

Our staff, largely students training to strengthen future culture work, steward these projects while I tend the future of our organization. Funding from donors like you, plus grants from state and federal agencies, make our work possible. With our limited capacity we developed a modest slate of programming to support cultural sustainability across all Oregon, but we can do better! When asked if they prefer OFN to remain small or reach more deeply across the state and grow robust access across more cultural communities, the reply from our partners at the Oregon Arts Commission was clear. Thank you to OAC staff and commissioners for your challenge grant to develop a long-range plan for a larger annual budget. Please donate now and meet their challenge so OFN can unlock our goals and better serve you! 

Eight Year Oregon Folklife Survey Complete

By Riki Saltzman, Folklore Specialist and retired Executive Director

When I started at OFN in the spring of 2012, I didn’t know much about Oregon, and I found that there hadn’t been a lot of recent fieldwork to identify and document folk and traditional artists. Under OFN’s then program manager, Emily Hartlerode (acting director), OFN had a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, which lent itself to documenting the master artist culture keepers who were entrusted with passing their cultural traditions to apprentices. And there was some collaborative work with Oregon’s Tribes in process. These were both great ways to document at least some of our state’s traditional knowledge and skills. But OFN needed to get to some deeper and more community-based work to fulfill its role as the state’s designated folk & traditional arts program.

Knute Nemeth an old white man with a grey beard, purple plaid shirt, and tan baseball cap.

Knute Nemeth, commercial fisherman and marine storyteller. Photo, Douglas Manger

OFN’s operational partners—the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Cultural Trust, Historical Society, Oregon State Library, Humanities Oregon, and the Oregon Heritage Commission—agreed that starting a comprehensive, years’ long statewide folklife survey was the way to go. I’d learned in my nearly 18 years as Iowa’s state folklorist and in public folklore positions in several east coasts and southern states that research should drive public programs. Bess Lomax Hawes, the long-time director of the NEA’s Folk & Traditional Arts Program, always emphasized that there was no substitute for fieldwork. Getting out there to talk to communities—from those who have been here since time immemorial to those whose ancestors had come in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the newest of twenty-first-century immigrants—was the best way to learn who the culture keepers were and what their and their communities’ needs might be. Chris D’Arcy, then ED for the OAC and the OCT, recommended that we start with the most underserved and undocumented counties in southern and eastern Oregon: Klamath, Lake, Harney, and Malheur. We talked to folks in the Klamath Tribes and the Burns Paiute Tribe as well as county cultural commissions, historical societies, and local arts organizations. And we looked at census data to determine the cultural background of residents, their occupations, and the local natural resources likely to result in particular kinds of folklife. We also consulted the records of the former Oregon Folklife Program, now digitized at UO SCUA. And then we applied for NEA funding to hire independent folklorists to identify and document those traditional artists who would drive our programming.

Jardin Kazaar is a black man with black glasses and a small white beard on his chin. He is playing on the conga drums.

Jardin Kazaar (African American chef, nurse, storyteller, and musician) plays conga drums. Photo, Douglas Manger

Between 2013 through 2022, we’ve documented well over 400 tradition keepers. The many folklorists we’ve hired over the years (LuAnne Kozma, Douglas Manger, Joe O’Connell, Debbie Fant, Nancy Nusz, Makaela Kroin, Alina Mansfield, Amy Howard, Thomas Grant Richardson) have introduced us to so many incredible Oregon artists, many of whom have taken part in TAAP and public programs in their own communities and Tribes as well as in Salem, Bend, Ontario, and elsewhere. Over half of those interviewed have become part of the Culture Keepers Roster, which enables libraries, arts and cultural organizations, museums, festivals, and schools to access and hire some of the over 250 culture keepers for their programs. OFN’s Culture Fest Partnerships provide yet another way to promote Oregon’s diverse traditional cultures and provides funded partnerships with cultural organizations and Tribes to feature rostered artists—from cooks, saddle makers, quilters, Native basket makers and bead workers, to coopers, Persian storytellers, folklórico dancers, fisherpoets, and more—for public programs.

White hands of a man weaving straw into a basket

Storyteller, Andrew “Drew” Viles (Siletz), weaves baskets and gayu (baby baskets). Photo, Douglas Manger

OFN’s mission also includes educating the next generation of folklorists for which we partner with UO’s Folklife and Public Culture program. One of my great joys has been taking students on fieldtrips with our independent folklorists who provide mentorship in best documentation practices. Students have listened to hair-raising accounts from Columbia River Bar pilots (one of the most dangerous jobs in the world) and learned how to ty flies from anglers, how quilters select fabrics, and how sheep farmers also shear, clean, card, weave, and knit the wool from their own animals. They’ve also experienced witching for water, bidding for pies at a community fund raiser, documented rodeo and cemetery stone carvers, and so much more. Our independent folklorists have been incredibly generous with their knowledge as they introduce emerging folklorists to a vast array of Oregon culture keepers.

Lisa J. Taylor is an old white woman with glasses and grey shoulder length hair sitting in front of her sewing machine.

Lisa J. Taylor is a machine quilter. Photo, Douglas Manger

And then life changed with the pandemic. For the past two years, OFN, like so many organizations, has had to pivot to virtual activities. And I’ve ended up being the one to document culture keepers on Oregon’s south coast (FY21) and this year (FY22) in southern Oregon’s Douglas, Josephine, and Jackson counties and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. Virtual fieldwork starts the same way as in-person—with the demographic data and with press releases, emails, and phone calls. But it also does not include in-person visits, which limits photo documentation as well as long conversations. And not everyone has access to a strong enough signal to make a zoom interview possible. Despite drawbacks, there have been high notes, and I’ve been thrilled to be able to conduct several interviews this past year with quilters and fishing guides as well as a Hawai’ian hula kumu (teacher), ballet folklorico director, basket weaver from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, stone wall builder, and a Kalapuya drummer, artist, and storyteller. While this kind of fieldwork is not the same as in-person, and I don’t get to drive all over this beautiful state, I do have the opportunity to learn about traditional Mexican musical instruments from a mariachi band leader in Talent and the holistic approach of a vaccaro-style rawhide braider and saddle maker outside of Roseburg. And on days when I’m dragging, there is always the uplifting feeling that I experience when those I’ve been talking to thank me for listening.

bagels on a cooling rack with a small bowl of butter above

Homemade bagels by Stacy Rose, culture keeper of traditional  Israeli foodways and folk dance. Photo, Douglas Manger

 

violin in a hard case sitting on a chair with a guitar in a stand next to the chair.

Instruments of Bob Shaffar, old time, blue grass, and western swing fiddle player and fiddle repairman. Photo, Douglas Manger

I always end an interview by asking people why they do what they do. It’s never about the money; instead, it comes down to their passion for their traditions and cultural heritage, about how they have to do what they do. Whether I’m talking to a steelhead fly-tier and one-time Umpqua River fishing guide, a seamstress who designs and sews both folklórico and quinceañera dresses, a Siletz baby carrier weaver, or an old time musician–it’s always an honor to hear their stories and learn how they continue to keep their cultural heritage alive, which sustains not only the individuals but also their communities and Tribes.

Gratitude To TAAP 2022-2023 Applicants

The call for applications for this year’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program has closed on October 31st and we are happy to announce that we have received nine applications. We are very delighted to have a geographically and culturally rich cohort of candidates this year. It is always a delight to be able to assist Oregon culture bearers with sharing their narratives and highlighting their traditions. 

The program will offer four folk and traditional master artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their same communities, Tribes, sacred or occupational groups. The stipend supports master artists in sharing their knowledge, skills, and expertise with apprentices of great promise, empowering them to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions. Artists may make public presentations through the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. 

We look forward to announcing our 2023 TAAP awardees and to supporting and celebrating the work they do in transmitting and representing their craft and cultural traditions.  

Oregon Folklife Network encourages Oregonians practicing cultural traditions emerging from their heritage or Tribes to start considering taking part in our future TAAP cycle.  

To learn more about application procedures and eligibility or to recommend a TAAP applicant, visit mnch.uoregon.edu/OFN-Programs, email ofn@uoregon.edu, or call 541-346-3820. Oregon Folklife Network staff members are available to provide application advice, recommendations and feedback and will direct you to resources to help you with the application process prior to submission. 

OFN Welcomes New Staff

Timothy Herrera is the new program coorStaff member standing outside of the Knight Library at the University of Oregondinator. Timothy recently graduated with a PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Oregon and has previous experience as a program coordinator for Centro Latino Americano.  In addition to bringing deep skills for working reciprocally with communities, Timothy is a Spanish speaker. He will be the primary contact for the Traditional Arts and Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), the Cultural Keepers Roster, Culture Fest, and the Statewide Survey.

As the new program coordinator, Timothy has helped execute our Oregon Culture Night series in the month of August. He has help coordinate the translations of TAAP guidelines, did bilingual outreach for the 2023 call for applications, helped develop a newsletter specifically for the artists on our Cultural Keepers Roster, has conducted an interview in Spanish while simultaneously doing English interpretation for the statewide survey, is supervising student employees and interns, and is currently helping equity & inclusion initiatives with the public programs team at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Timothy expressed: “I am grateful for this opportunity to serve the diverse communities of Oregon; to collaborate with state’s cultural keepers and helping address any needs they may have so that they can sustainably continue their traditions; to use the ethnographic skills that I have developed for public programming purposes; and to further develop OFN’s relationships with Oregon’s vast Spanish speaking communities”.

Iryna Stavynska is a Fulbright scholar from Ukraine, pursuing a master’s degree in Folklore at the UO. She spent her summer internship at OFN coordinating Oregon Culture Nights events and interviewing and documenting Ukrainian folk artists in Oregon – weavers, singers, embroiderers, pysanka artists, and doll makers. Iryna wishes to express her deepest gratitude to OFN for offering her the opportunity to reconnect with her homeland’s culture while being so far away from home, and for allowing her to learn first-hand how public folklore organizations such as OFN can help amplify the voices of underrepresented and oppressed communities, and help one find meaning during the darkest of times. Iryna hopes to continue her internship with OFN and her work with Ukrainian artists in the fall term.

Yosser Saidane is a MA student in the folklore program at the University of Oregon. She is interested in areas of vernacular culture in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Her research is focused on the performance of folk religion within a number of Sufi orders in Tunisia. Before turning to folklore, she worked as an instructor of English at the University of Gabès. She holds a B.A. in Anglo-American studies from the Ecole Normale of Tunis and an agrégation degree from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities of Manouba.

Erin Wai is a first-year M.A. student in Folklore and PublicCulture. She completed her undergraduate degree in Journalism and Humanities with a Minor in Music at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests center around studying decolonial theory in storytelling, myths, and legends, and how individual experiences influence the collective memory of history. In her free time, Erin likes to ski, paint, and play music.

Gabrielle Miller is a first-year graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in Folklore and Public Culture at UO. She got her bachelor’s degree from Western Oregon University in cultural anthropology and linguistics. As a descendant of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Pechanga, she is interested in cultural sustainability and language revitalization within native communities and hopes to work with those native communities in the future. Her work here at OFN has given her inspiration and experience for working with folklife and amplifying indigenous voices. Her interests in folklore are ever-changing and evolving and she looks forward to researching the connection to folklore in our identity and expressions.

Intern Tiny Gallery Exhibit- Amplifying Ukrainian Voices: Ukrainian Folk Artists in Oregon

 

OFN intern and a Fulbright scholar from Ukraine, Iryna Stavynska, curated a Tiny Gallery exhibit Amplifying Ukrainian Voices, devoted to Ukrainian folk artists in Oregon. The exhibit is part of the Knight Library’s Tiny Galleries project that aimed to transform historic phone booths into places for UO students to present their research and engage with a wider community. Curating this exhibit offered Iryna a chance to present some of the results of her research with OFN, which focused on documenting living Ukrainian heritage in Oregon. Amplifying Ukrainian Voices tells stories of Ukrainian traditional artists living in Oregon and offers a glimpse into Ukraine’s history and culture.

Showing artwork and stories of Ukrainian folk artists provides a chance to both showcase Ukrainian centuries-old heritage, and at the same time – think about the current moment and demonstrate the strength of Ukrainians in their current fight for freedom. Even being thousands of miles away from their homeland, the artists featured in the exhibit are actively doing their part in supporting Ukraine by raising awareness about the war and donating their time and artwork in support of fundraisers for the purchase of medical supplies.

Despite their talent and diligent work, Ukrainian artists are struggling to find platforms and funding to showcase their art and present Ukrainian culture. This is largely due to the aftermath of the Russian colonialism of Ukraine as well as USSR’s efforts to erase Ukrainian culture by silencing Ukrainian voices, prohibiting publishing in Ukrainian, and persecuting and murdering Ukrainian artists. As Russian governments consistently (and successfully) worked to present Russia as the single most important representative of “Slavic people”, even after Ukraine’s independence in 1991 Ukrainian culture remains significantly understudied and underrepresented outside of Ukraine, including the US. Amplifying Ukrainian Voices was designed as a small first step in presenting Ukraine and its history to the wider UO community in a non-colonial way, allowing Ukrainians to speak for themselves and present their culture on their own terms.

The exhibit can be found on the first floor of the Knight Library (main entrance) and will remain on display till June 16th, 2023.

Media Corner-Alseny Yansane (Guinean drummer and dancer) 2018-2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program

Traditional skill/art/craft: Guinean drumming and dancing
2016-2017 Apprentice: Mamadouba “Papa” Yansane
Filmed by: Emily West Hartlerode
Edited by: Erin Wai
Watch Alseny’s previous video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd2jv…
Learn more about Alseny and the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program at Oregon Folklife Network https://mnch.uoregon.edu/taap-awardee…

Letter From the Director-December 2022

Fall 2022 brought exciting change to the Oregon Folklife Network. We launched our newly updated Culture Keepers Roster full of new features that readers like you requested. A cohort of new graduate students originating from four different countries joined OFN’s newly hired Program Coordinator, adding staff language fluency in Spanish, Arabic, French, and Ukrainian. We delivered our inaugural Future of Traditions newsletter to over 200 culture bearers across the state, communicating funding opportunities to those we serve. Add in that I attended my first in-person professional conferences since Oregon’s COVID shutdown, and the sum is a joyful revelry in collective work.

Amid this uplifting feeling, however, there is also pervasive distress in Oregon’s cultural communities and our global society. Though traditional arts may appear a quiet and quaint sidebar, sustaining traditional practices is actually a critical element in addressing some of our greatest problems. Cultural practices from leather tooling and basketry to storytelling and dance invest our time, energy, and commitment in our humanity; they connect us with our heritage lands, languages, and foods, and reinforce the beliefs and values of our people, whoever we are.

Practicing tradition is seldom easy, efficient, or profitable, yet it is far more than honoring the past. It is activism for the future. Being rooted in tradition is a tremendous act of resistance—a commitment to moving forward against forces of change. My deep thanks to Oregon’s culture keepers, many of whom we have yet to meet, for your stamina and endurance as you hold steadfast to your ways and teach the rest of us why culture matters. By working collectively to support traditional arts, we will preserve the richness of the past, steward the vibrancy of our future, and better the world we share today.

Staff Spotlight – Timothy Herrera

OFN welcomes Timothy Herrera as the new program coorStaff member standing outside of the Knight Library at the University of Oregondinator. Timothy recently graduated with a PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Oregon and has previous experience as a program coordinator for Centro Latino Americano.  In addition to bringing deep skills for working reciprocally with communities, Timothy is a Spanish speaker. He will be the primary contact for the Traditional Arts and Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), the Cultural Keepers Roster, Culture Fest, and the Statewide Survey.

As the new program coordinator, Timothy has helped execute our Oregon Culture Night series in the month of August. He has help coordinate the translations of TAAP guidelines, did bilingual outreach for the 2023 call for applications, helped develop a newsletter specifically for the artists on our Cultural Keepers Roster, has conducted an interview in Spanish while simultaneously doing English interpretation for the statewide survey, is supervising student employees and interns, and is currently helping equity & inclusion initiatives with the public programs team at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Timothy expressed: “I am grateful for this opportunity to serve the diverse communities of Oregon; to collaborate with state’s cultural keepers and helping address any needs they may have so that they can sustainably continue their traditions; to use the ethnographic skills that I have developed for public programming purposes; and to further develop OFN’s relationships with Oregon’s vast Spanish speaking communities”

We are excited to welcome him to the OFN team, to support our programs, and to better serve Oregon’s Spanish speaking traditional artists!

Artist Spotlight: Francisco Bautista

Francisco Bautista, a Zapotec fabric artist, is a 2021 TAAP award recipient.

Listen to a short excerpt from Bautista’s TAAP interview with OFN Interim Director Emily Hartlerode and graduate employee Jenna Ehlinger. Bautista worked with his son David for the TAAP program.

Francisco Bautista

Bautista was born in the town of Teotitlán de Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up learning to weave from his father and grandfather, both of whom made a living weaving. In 2003, he and his wife moved to Sandy, Oregon, where they began weaving and taking their rugs to Saturday Market in Portland and other shows in Oregon. As a member of the Portland Handweavers Guild, he has demonstrated Zapotec weaving at several fairs and shows, including Art in the Pearl.

Bautista has taught workshops about the Zapotec method of natural dyeing in Sandy and Bend, Oregon. In 2017, he shared his Zapotec weaving tradition with non-Zapotec immigrants from Mexico through a program sponsored by the Sandy Public Library at Sandy Vista Apartments. Additionally, he volunteers in many demonstrations and teaching programs throughout the community.

This excerpt was edited and produced by OFN graduate employee Lillian DeVane

Intern Reflections on Southern Oregon Traditional Artists Folklife Fieldwork Survey

This folklife fieldwork internship was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk & Traditional Arts program, to document culture keepers in the southern Oregon counties of Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas. Olivia Wilkinson has been working with OFN’s folklore specialist and retired executive director, Riki Saltzman, to learn how to document traditional artists and culture keepers who carry on occupational, food, music, craft, and other cultural traditions. This work is part of an ongoing statewide survey that has so far interviewed over 400 folk and traditional artists among the state’s federally recognized Tribes and across 35 of its counties.

Intern Reflections on Southern Oregon Traditional Artists Folklife Fieldwork Survey

 By Olivia Wilkinson

 

I interned for OFN’s folklore specialist, Dr. Riki Saltzman, during the Spring term 2022. I assisted with interviews and the resulting data collection for the 2021-22 Southern Oregon Folklife Survey for Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine counties. The experience laid bare the breadth of culture found in Oregon’s southern inland counties and the labor that goes into conducting fieldwork, even remotely.  

 

I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to sit in on interviews with culture keepers Shannon Stutzman, Linda Danielson, and Andrea Luchese. These three women have a special ability to bring people together through their traditional art forms. I somehow found a way to relate to each of them, despite our coming from entirely different backgrounds. 

 

Shannin Stutzman, whose heritage is Hanis Coos and Kalapuya, is enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. She is a youth educator, drummer, and storyteller. Stutzman’s interview consisted of a wide range of experiences. She started with her childhood experiences living in Coos Bay and growing up immersed in the cultural traditions of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. More recently, Stutzman and her family have been involved in with others in the creation and publication of a dictionary of the Kalapuya language. She is one of few people learning this sleeping language. Her dedication to the preservation of culture for future generations is just one reason why, during the interview, I felt like I had known her all my life. 

Screenshot of zoom meeting with Shannin Stutzman, April 13th, 2022.

 

 Linda Danielson is a folklorist and local old time fiddler who offers instruction at camps and performs throughout the Pacific Northwest. She plays with Shannin Stutzman’s mother, Esther Stutzman, in Slow Ponies, an all-women’s group that features western standards and some original compositions. Riki and I were able to meet in person with Danielson, since we miraculously all live in South Eugene. Danielson has been involved with folklore as a discipline for decades longer than I have been alive. It was humbling to speak with her, to say the least. I caught a glimpse of a world in which I am only starting to become familiar. 

 

Andrea Luchese is a hula instructor based in Ashland. Hula is an area in which the little knowledge I have has come to me recently. Our talk with Andrea helped me understand how vast the tradition is, from its roots in ancient Hawaiian history to its widespread celebration today. She spoke at length about what makes a good student and a good teacher, which both run deeper than just showing up to class. A good teacher is “living in accordance with that which we hold most sacred.”

Screenshot of zoom meeting with Andrea Luchese, May 17th, 2022.

 There is a level of exhaustion that comes from remote work, but when the work rewards me with a deeper appreciation for Oregon, it is worth doing.