By: Stephanie Lumsden
A small group of Native women both from within and outside of the UC Davis community have begun coming together to braid bear grass every Sunday afternoon. This group is lively and filled with different combinations of ethnic identities and personalities. This weekly gathering is a chance to affirm cultural practices for one another and a space to commiserate about the stresses of grad life. Learning how to braid and becoming familiar with the feeling of bear grass was an act of communion for me. It's experiences like these that make me glad I chose to come to NAS at UC Davis.
A small group of Native women both from within and outside of the UC Davis community have begun coming together to braid bear grass every Sunday afternoon. This group is lively and filled with different combinations of ethnic identities and personalities. This weekly gathering is a chance to affirm cultural practices for one another and a space to commiserate about the stresses of grad life. Learning how to braid and becoming familiar with the feeling of bear grass was an act of communion for me. It's experiences like these that make me glad I chose to come to NAS at UC Davis.
The workshop is co-sponsored by the Native Women's Collective and the Me'Dil Institute. Bear grass has long been used by Native peoples who weave it into baskets. Its fibrous leaves, which turn from green to white as they dry, are tough, durable, and easily manipulated into tight waterproof weaves. Beargrass is used as the white "overlay" for basket designs. It is also braided or wrapped to adorn ceremonial dresses and regalia. (Information courtesy of the Me'Dil Institute).
Stephanie Lumsden is a graduate student in NAS at UC Davis. Her research interests include: Native feminism, social geographies of Indigenous women, Native peoples and the prison industrial complex, Native perceptions of space, place, and time, and internalized white supremacy within tribal governments.
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