Beading and reading

Last weekend I went to a workshop at the Woodland Cultural Centre. It was led by Sam Thomas, an Iroquois beading artist, and Munuve Mutisya, founder of the Akamba Peace Museum in Kenya. They are working together on a project that will be displayed at the United Nations this summer -- The Great Tree of Long Leaves.

There are fascinating parallels between the beading traditions among the Akamba and Iroquois. Both used beaded belts to record significant events (as in the Akamba replicas on the right in this photo and in Iroquois wampum). Colonization was actively hostile to these practices in both cultures.

This kind of cultural reclamation is not usually included in mainstream definitions of literacy work. It should be.

- Tannis