BASKETRY

Mary Holiday Black, a matriarch of today's Navajo basket makers, has been quoted as saying, "This is how the world began, as a coil. The first people came up from the middle and walked around in a spiral. This shape is found in our fingerprints. It shows we came from the middle of the world". The coiled basketry tray, ts'aa', is thus a metaphor for the most fundamental and cherished beliefs of the Dine', the Navajo people.

The Dine' tell of their emerged into this world from a series of worlds below. Sacred beings, or Holy people, established the ceremonial use of the ts'aa' at some time in the middle of the world. Furthermore, for the Dine', the creative process is part of everyday life, guided by the fundamental principle of hozho. Hozho embodies a profound pervasive philosophical belief that integrates balance, order, harmony and well-being. Although this concept can be loosely translated as "beauty," the word has no actual English equivalent. Creativity, then, is a means of expression of Dine' cultural values.