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Iva Casuse Honwynum (also Iva Honyestewa and Iva Lee Honyestewa; born 1964) is a Hopi/ Navajo artist, social activist, and cultural practitioner. A Native American, Honwynum is best known for her woven baskets and figurative sculpture. Honwynum's most important breakthrough was the development of the ''pootsaya'' basket, called "a rare innovation in Hopi basketry". She developed the pootsaya during her 2014 residency at the
School for Advanced Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...
in Santa Fe, New Mexico, having been awarded the Eric and Barbara Dookin Artist Fellowship.


Background

Iva Casuse Honwynum was born in Gallup, New Mexico, to parents Richard Casuse ( Navajo) and Shirley Casuse (née Mansfield; Sun Clan, Hopi). Honwynum is Sun (Taawa) Clan from the village of Songoopavi,
Second Mesa, Arizona Second Mesa is a census-designated place (CDP) in Navajo County, Arizona, on the Hopi Reservation, atop the 5,700-foot (1,740 m) mesa. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the CDP population was 962, spread among three Hopi, Hopi Indi ...
. Her Hopi name, Honwynum, translates in English to Female Bear Walking. Honwynum began in 1992 as a
silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...
and
jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...
maker and received advanced training from her father Richard Casuse (Navajo), Leonard James Hawk (Yakama), Roy Talahaftewa (Hopi), and Charles Supplee (Hopi). She has worked with many techniques including Hopi overlay,
lapidary Lapidary (from the Latin ) is the practice of shaping stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems (including cameos), and faceted designs. A person who practices lapidary is known as a lapidarist. A lap ...
,
lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) i ...
, and
tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertin ...
casting. She is included in the definitive guide to Native American jewelry makers by Gregory Schaaf of the Center for Indigenous Arts & Cultures. Honwynum is expert at customary Hopi basket making, both the coiled basket (''poota'') and the sifter basket (''tutsaya''). Her grandmother Esther Honanie taught Honwynum to make her first coiled basket when she was ten years old. Honwynum did not revisit basket weaving until 1996, when she began lessons with her first cousin, Beth Dawahongnewa. Over the next ten years, Honwynum perfected her craft by making baskets for ceremonial purposes and began to introduce what would become her signature innovations. Her confidence grew, finally blossoming in 2006 as she began to enter art exhibitions and contests.


Hopi basketry

Honwynum makes customary Hopi baskets using culturally-significant materials such as yucca, willow, and three-leaf sumac. Use of these local materials created a color palette of white, green, yellow, black, and red; however, she expands her palette with commercial dyes. She uses geometric, pictographic, and figurative designs, including the incorporation of three-dimensional elements such as a domed tortoise shell central to the basket design, serving pieces such as a ladle, sandals, and pedestals. Honwynum also has juxtaposed the ancient basket-making techniques with pop culture subject matter. For example, she created a
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
(her favorite football team) sifter basket. She also creates ambitious narrative works such as the project ''Where the Sun Fits In'', an exploration of the migration story incorporating six Hopi clans (lizard, water, tobacco, badger, fire, and sun) and their symbols.


Pootsaya basket

Honwynum developed a combination of the sifter and the coiled basket, which she calls the pootsaya, during her 2014 residency at the
School for Advanced Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...
in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She had considered this a project for years. Artistic imagery contains great meaning for Hopi people, so Honwynum did not take this project lightly. To build on historical designs and create something new, she needed a transcendent purpose. For Honwynum weaving is a spiritual and community activity and the pootsaya is a reflection of her deep affection for her community and culture.
Our communities, our lives have become so corrupted with alcohol, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, and even the politics. When creating this basket the purpose was woven into this unique basket. The coil portion is woven tight .. asa tight foundation for the community. The yucca strands as they are tied onto the coil represent bringing our people back together so we can become one again and make a better community for our future children. Not only for the Hopi community but for all communities throughout the world. That is the purpose behind the ''pootsaya''.
Honwynum explored the use of historical Hopi symbolism and subject matter, for example, a spider and its web, or a whirlwind, by placing a specific image in the plaque-like center coil of the pootsaya surrounded by a sifter section that reflects and enhances the central subject. Of Honwynum's innovation, Andrew Higgins, registrar of the
Arizona State Museum The Arizona State Museum (ASM), founded in 1893, was originally a repository for the collection and protection of archaeological resources. Today, however, ASM stores artifacts, exhibits them and provides education and research opportunities. It ...
, wrote: " onwynumcreate a truly unique piece of artwork. The whole process of gathering, preparing and weaving is very long tedious process. I have such tremendous respect for artists that go that extra mile to create something so remarkable." Diane Dittemore, Curator of the Arizona State Museum considered the ''pootsaya'' "a rare innovation in Hopi basketry".


Shows, collections, and awards

Honwynum exhibits at many venues, including three major juried, competitive Native American art markets: the Prescott Indian Art Market, the
Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...
Guild Indian Fair & Market, and the
Santa Fe Indian Market The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for ...
. Honwynum has also won many awards, including 1st Place for Contemporary Basketry (for a pootsaya) and 2nd Place for Plaited Wicker Basketry at the 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, the Wilma Kaemlein Memorial Acquisition Award at the Southwest Indian Art Fair in 2015; Best of Division, First, and Second Place awards at the
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western Ame ...
exhibition in 2015 and 2016; Best of Category Sifter Baskets, First Place, and Second Place awards Gallup Indian Intertribal Celebration in Gallup, New Mexico in August 2011; 1st, 2nd and Honorable Mention at the Hopi Tuhisma Show in Kykotsmovi, AZ 2011–2014; 1st Place Butterfly Basket and 1st Place Geometric Design Division, Gallup Indian Intertribal Celebration in Gallup, New Mexico, in 2007; Honorable Mention in Basketry at the 2007
Museum of Northern Arizona The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, that was established as a repository for Indigenous material and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau. The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist ...
Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture. Honwynum's pootsaya baskets are in the permanent collection of the
Arizona State Museum The Arizona State Museum (ASM), founded in 1893, was originally a repository for the collection and protection of archaeological resources. Today, however, ASM stores artifacts, exhibits them and provides education and research opportunities. It ...
in Tucson and the
School for Advanced Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...
Museum (Indian Art Research Center) in Santa Fe. Honwynum was awarded the 2013 Artist-in-Residence award and fellowship at the
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western Ame ...
in
Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...
. She subsequently was awarded the 2014 Eric and Barbara Dookin Artist Residency Fellowship at the
School for Advanced Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...
in Santa Fe. Honwynum is a subject of Sally Grotta's American Hands Project celebrating craftspeople through narrative portraiture and is on the cover of American Hands Journal volume 1. Honwynum also frequently lectures on Hopi arts and weaving and provides demonstrations. In 2021, Honwynum was featured by the Arizona Office of Tourism, including a short documentary video, and the U.S. Parks Service, featuring a 30-minute interview discussing her artistic development and the Hopi culture. At the 2022 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Honwynum won an Innovation Award and Judge's Award for her Whirlwind Waterweave and Flowers Life Sooyosi pootsaya baskets, respectively.


Social activism and community building

Honwynum is a social activist, community builder, and preserver of Hopi culture. She has worked with community-building programs which include youth services and education, substance abuse prevention, and nutrition and health. Culturally, she is focused on providing support for the arts, Hopi language, and customary Hopi food. She is revising a Hopi cookbook for the Hopi Putavi Project in partnership with the Hopi Community Health Representative Office, the Hopi Special Diabetes Program, and the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...
Cooperative Extension Hopi Office. She co-authored "Understanding Access to and Use of Traditional Foods by Hopi Women," a peer-reviewed article in the ''Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition''. Honwynum owns and operates Iskasokpu Gallery on Second Mesa, Arizona, which promotes Hopi artists. ''Iskasokpu'' translates to "the spring where the coyote burped." She also holds demonstrations and teaches Hopi cooking recipes (and has done so across many venues, including at the university level) and provides catering and private dinners. The artist also has worked for the United States Department of Agriculture.


Personal life

Honwynum has four sons. Honwynum attended
Yavapai Community College Yavapai College is a public community college in Yavapai County, Arizona. The main campus is in Prescott, with locations in Clarkdale, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley and Sedona. History Yavapai College was established in 1965 by means of a c ...
and
Northland Pioneer College Northland Pioneer College (NPC) is a public community college serving the communities of northeastern Arizona. Campuses are located in four of the largest Navajo County communities: Holbrook, Show Low, Snowflake, and Winslow. Five centers are l ...
. She is closely related to the very accomplished basket maker, Adeline Lomayestewa. Both women taught Reba Ann Lomayestewa basketry techniques.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Honwynum, Iva Casuse 1964 births Living people Native American women artists Native American jewelers Native American basket weavers Artists from New Mexico People from Gallup, New Mexico Hopi people 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women Navajo artists Women jewellers