Bælâ bæl guiææ: my sister, the feather dragon

Size: 60x200cm; 2x6.5ft

Weaver: Beatriz Montaño Jiménez

Materials and methods: criollo sheep wool spun at the family owned mill of Tianguistengo. Hand dyed with aniline dyes in an exhaust method for color fastness. Handwoven on a Zapotec style loom of the 16th century adapted from European styles. Woven using a 7 threads per inch reed and wool rayon blend for warp.

Design, patterns and symbols.

This nested diamond fractal represents the universe that creates itself to know itself, a diamond within a diamond, an infinite journey of self awareness that expands or contracts at will. The diamond pattern is inspired from the skin of the rattle snake, the elders of these lands that we call home, they were already here before we got here since the last ice age. The snakes taught us how to keep the delicate balance of the earth and sky world, just like them. Snakes slither, undulate, and glide with their full body on the earth. Unlike mamals and birds, snakes depend on the sun to regulate their body temperature, thus they are literally deeply connected to the earth and skyworld. Snakes have also evolved for millions of years are snakes and we just started walking upright less than 2 million years ago, and we started to move out of africa 80k years ago, so we are the youngsters of the planet. When our ancestors arrived to a new ecosystem, they often asked for guidance to the spirits and animals that already lived there, in this continent snakes have been key stone species. In most of our stories our "gods and goddesses" in reality they are more like forces of nature represented in a certain way that is divinified and personified to relate to it and understand it better. We have the earth mother Coatlicue, that is weaving a skirt of snakes, the feather dragon (often called a serpent, but it is depicted a spiting fire) and the cosmic snake (fire snake) that descends from the sky world in the form of a lightning to open the sky for the rains to fall and bless the land. The water then falls and turns into a snake, wading the earth and penetrating into the underworld while making its way to the ocean (ni'is doü) so that it can rise again into the sky world and continue the water cycle. Snakes are powerful beings that produce the most complex molecules in their medicine (venom, depending on the dossage). We now are using snake venom compounds to cure antibiotic resistant infections, indigenous medicine people (curanderos and nawales) have known that and have been using it for healing and vission quests. The teachings of the snake are wide and varied, they are the elders of the planet and they warn us when we go astray from the original instructions for living on this planet. In our culture, snakes are not bad or evil, quite on the contrary, they are our teachers and healers, so much so that the word for snake in dixzaa language is Bælâ, that literally can be translated as "my sister". Grandmothers bride their hair with ribbons and make a snake crown that they place on top of their head, an ancient snake hair style that is still used in many native communities in Oaxaca and the wider Anawak continental region.