Gueshliu/Anawak: turtle island

Size: 80x150cm; 2.6x5ft 

Weaver: Francisca Hipolito

Materials and methods
Criollo sheep wool in its natural colors and the cream hand dyed with color fast aniline dyes in an exhaustive method. 
Hand woven on a Zapotec walking style of loom and 7 threads per inch reed. 

Patterns and symbols.

If you live in the USA you should start referring to the continent as #TurtleIsland or any other native name for the continent, if you are not doing so already. In the area called "Meso-America" we refer to the Nort "American" continental plate as #Anawak, the place surrounded by the great oceans.
The Kuna culture of Modern day Colombia refers to the continent as #AbyaYala.
The Inca People refer to their land as #Tawantinsuyu.
According to the Minister of Education in Chiapas, this continent started to Called America since 11 of May 1499 and was first recorded as such in 1507 on a globe map created by German Cartographer #martinwaldseemüller. So there it is, the colonial history of Naming the Americas.

The World Council of Indigenous Peoples has proposed using the name Abya Yala, #Ixachilan or #RunaPacha.

The design has the smile pattern that reminds us that smiling and laughing is the source of all healing and we carry that medicine within us. We also have dots that represent the seeds we have been planting to nuture our body and spirit, we do not plant monocultures we make the milpa (corn, beans and squash) food systems embedded in local agroecosystems.

There are many ancient stories of wise turtle people that kept ancient knowledge alive and had the power of vision. The earth's crust is often represented with the turtle shell that brings music and thunder that announces the rains. The ancient ritual calendar was also represented with a turtle because many species have 13 hexagon like shapes in its back as there are about 13 moon cycles in a year.

The center of this rug has the eye of the feather snake as a symbol that helps us reach a much needed balanced view of the world: spiritual and earthly awareness.