MIDDLETOWN— The commencement of the Water Basket project opened with a free public Pomo basket design panel discussion at Twin Pine, Saturday. Featured artists and culture bearers included Millie Simon, Wanda Quitiquit, Eric Wilder, Patty Ray-Franklin, Corine Pearce, Meyo Marrufo and Buffy Thomas.
The goal of the project is to paint Middletown’s two water tanks on Rabbit Hill with 360° murals inspired by Pomo basketry. The mural design will reflect the area’s history, people and ecology utilizing geometric and organic shapes that are symbolic of animals and plants native to the region.
“We have the most bio rich biodiverse area. We have more materials than everybody else. We mastered every single technique of weaving on the planet,” said Pomo basket weaver Corine Pearce. “I started weaving when I was young. My mom would tell me traditional stories a lot, and she also told me something that I say to kids now which drives me crazy: only boring people get bored. I kept myself very busy and I read a lot.”
For Pearce, every native tribe thinks that they’re the center of the world, “except in Lake County, where we really are the center of the world. Clear Lake is the oldest freshwater lake in California and in North America. If there were going to be humans someplace living it would be around this freshwater lake. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. We’ve been here forever. This is where we come from. I am made from the dirt from my bones. My blood is from the animals and the plants that were here, and the patterns that come up in baskets tell stories and they connect. There is literally a prayer going into every single stitch. I spend hours in prayer. It’s just so fun.”
The project is a collaboration between Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, Pomo artists, Callayomi County Water District and the Middletown Art Center (MAC). It is funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding from the Middletown Rancheria, the Water District and public support.
“I learned from the baskets, I learned from the plants. I learned from books I learned from museums. I learned from living weavers from other tribes because we didn’t have a lot of Pomo weavers around at that point who weren’t in their 90s or older. Representation is power. Nonnative people can see themselves everywhere: in every advertisement, every grocery store and every clothing store, and we can’t. Now is the time for representation. We are always going to be a part of this landscape,” she said.
Patty Ray-Franklin invited the community to participate, be supportive and ask questions. “My inspiration is actually because my tribe was terminated in 1965 and relocated to the Bay Area. I made my first basket with my aunt in Hopland, when I was 10 years old. Recently, I came back to weaving through the Pomo Weaver’s Society, which is a group of all of us weavers that just come together and work together. What inspires me all the time is my tribe, and making sure that our culture doesn’t stay sleeping. I sat on council for 16 years on my tribal council. One of the things I realized was that we really need to wake up our culture. What inspires me is my family, my tribe, my grandmother and my aunt,” the artist said.
An open call for proposals is available at middletownartcenter.org/waterbasket. A series of workshops led by Pomo Cultural artists Corine Pearce, Meyo Marrufo and Eric Wilder will support Native and non-Native participants in realizing their artistic vision.
Water Basket invites Native people to bring expressions of their innate cultural heritage into public space and non-Native people to learn about Pomo cultural heritage. Individual, collaborative and intercultural or multi-generational proposals are encouraged. MAC’s intercultural staff will provide artistic and technical support to prepare a 2-D rendering, as well as materials and supplies.
A jury composed of representatives from Middletown Rancheria Tribal Members, regional Cultural Practitioners, Water District board members, Middletown community members, the Middletown Area Merchants Association and Town Hall and MAC artistic staff will assess proposals and select two to three proposals for each tank to move to public input at several Middletown locations. Final selection will be made by the Water District and Middletown Rancheria.
To learn more and donate to support Water Basket and other MAC programs, visit middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.
