We have silver sun on one side of us, cobalt clouds on the other — a seemingly perfect metaphor for this time and season. The forecast insists that there shall be no snow, nor any chance thereof, before Thursday. My wrist says otherwise, the pain deep within it a usually-accurate herald of a change in the weather.
Whatever comes, we will be ready.
Today is a significant day for us, a marker that means nothing to anyone else, but for us serves as clear evidence of the blessings of the ancestors and the spirits. It’s proof, too, of the values we share: of a honor for old ways and an ancient earth, of a commitment to hard work and the walking of a good but often difficult road. It’s a mark of our love for each other, and of our respect for the larger world and ways of our cosmologies as old as time.
And so it is perhaps fitting that on this day we should feature the last two entries in Wings’s latest collection . . . and that their subjects should be what they are. As with the other five in this grouping, they embody traditional expressions of respect, one of the virtues that are the gifts of the spirits. But these two differ in seminal ways from the others in this set. The previous five entries might all be said to represent tools, specific items or actions that demonstrate respect in our way. The last two possess a different focus: one on the elders around whom our cultures are built, the other on the earth upon which they stand, both representing not a single tool or act but a way of life.
We begin with the first and smaller proposition, respect for the elders. It’s a spiraling hoop of earth and fire, the reds we have reclaimed as identity interspersed with ancient materials ranging from fossil to gemstone to coral to lava. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
For the Elders Coil Bracelet
Indigenous cultures are built upon respect for the elders, for the wisdom and experience acquired over the course of a life well lived. With this coil, Wings pays tribute to the central role they play in our traditions, and to the lifeways that insist upon their honoring, in the materials and shapes and shades of our peoples and our ancient spirits. Each end is anchored by doughnut-shaped rondels of marbled and mottled fossilized dinosaur bone, extending into glossy lengths of fiery deep garnet, the deepest of the reds. Separating dark red from light is a strand of round opaque onyx orbs, followed by the dusky rose hues of rhodochrosite nuggets. The pale reds give way to the black and white of fire and ice, snowflake obsidian spheres, each melding with freeform nuggets of Mediterranean coral in perfect flame-red crimson. The reds of the water spirits in turns flank a center strand of ancient earth,fire from below rising into the air to cool into basaltic lava rock, thence to become ovaled barrel beads formed of that most ancient of elders, Mother Earth. Sixth in The Respect Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; fossilized dinosaur bone; garnet; onyx; rhodochrosite; snowflake obsidian; Mediterranean coral; basaltic lava rock
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It serves as a reminder of the wisdom that comes with age and experience, and how closely it is bound to the wisdom held by Mother Earth and the spirits that are her other children, too. And it leads naturally to the final entry in this grouping, one that incorporates old materials fashioned by human hands to represent respect for the earth. From its description in the same section of the same gallery:
Stewardship Coil Bracelet
In our way, respect is not merely a commandment but a way of daily life, one that extends not merely to people or the spirits but also to our other relatives, the animals and the plants, and to stewardship of Mother Earth herself. Wings summons the spirits of the natural world to assemble in spiral formation in this coil, the better to remind us of our obligations. Each end is anchored by a strand of former water spirits, tiny beads formed of shimmering brown and white olivella-shell heishi; each flows into small polished wooden barrel beads wrought from the trunks of our cousins, the trees. The wood leafs out into brilliant green by way of a pair of strands of old hand-made ceramic watermelon beads, an ancient traditional art form; more warm brown wood then leads to the deeper banded green of malachite chips. Each length of malachite ends in another small group of burnished wood, flanking the center expanse of brilliant sky-blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise nuggets, trees linking earth to sky in a full cosmos to which we are bound in stewardship and interdependence. Seventh in The Respect Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; olivella-shell heishi; wood; hand-made ceramic watermelon beads; malachite; Sleeping Beauty turquoise
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
There is much made these days, in certain public circles, about what is being termed “climate activism” — and, as always with colonial endeavors, it expends much of its energy and focus in ill-considered and equally colonial ways. Our ways have always held the answers, but even now, they continue to be disregarded, our peoples shamed for some of them. A real climate activism would be one that stepped back and allowed Native people to lead, to set its terms and parameters, while getting to work shouldering the burden behind them. That will not happen, because self-appointed colonial “leadership” will never give up the spotlight, and will likewise never concede that perhaps others possess greater knowledge and wisdom. Merely appropriating a pseudo-indigeneity as a veneer will never work, and the alternative continues to be held unthinkable.
And so we continue as we always have, engaged in our caretaking of the earth in the ways open to us. This is stewardship, these ways as old as time itself, and even if we cannot save the whole world, we can preserve and protect our own small corner as much as possible in the face of colonial damage.
And perhaps — just perhaps — the spirits of our elders, now ancestors, the spirits of earth and sky and creation itself will join us this day . . . a day of renewal, one of love and honor and respect, of values and commitment and work shared, on a hard but beautiful road traveled always together.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
