Creative Responsibility
A few years ago at a Fall event an attendee came up to me admiring and asking about the origin of the Pendleton wool. I was so naive that I had no idea that this conversation was about to spiral at a ground shaking pace around indigenous artwork, ownership, representation, theft, poverty and systemic racism. It is something that still makes my heart hurt from my glaring ignorance, entitlement and lack of action until recently to do the work to educate myself and become an ally. Keeping in mind I am still all of those things but a work in progress.
My view on social responsibilities is shifting and just because I like something doesn’t mean that I can make it mine without further examination and understanding that I am looking through my social lens of being white, identifying as female and upper middle class. I have a responsibility to other’s culture and people to understand what that means to their community.
With that being said, searching out fabric that is designed by native designers lead me to Spoonflower. They provide independent designers a platform to offer their original artwork to the public with on-demand printing of fabric and pays the designers on purchases made using their designs. I’m working to build in native designs by native artists like the print above by 49Design that is a Blackfoot-owned, Two Spirit business. Their design team is composed of artisans of enrolled Thunderchild Cree, Kainai Blackfoot, Cherokee, and Tuscarora backgrounds. If you have any indigenous artists that offer their designs in fabric please let me know because I am always looking.
Trust me, I absolutely LOVE Pendleton wool. But I have a creative responsibility to give back if I’m going to use native inspired designs. Going forward 5% from every native inspired Pendleton wool pattern will be donated between Rising Hearts, Sovereign Bodies and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. Interested in reading a super truncated story on the complicated relationship between Pendleton & Indigenous relationship, here is a great article by Dwell. Want more information on the difference between native inspired versus original native art? Eighth Generation based out of Seattle is a great resource for education on Inspired Native vs Native Inspired with a decolonizing partnership model promoting ethical relationships between designers and entrepreneurs.
Being from Washington and Oregon, Pendleton is integrated into our identity from a young age. Our grandparents have a closet full of Pendleton wool button down shirts. Wool blanket collections are carefully on display throughout our homes. So, I know it’s a hard situation intersecting of history, familiarity, systemic racism and regional identity. I continue to use Pendleton wool but every time I go to purchase my next batch of fabric you best believe my thought process is definitely heavy in thought. I am always open to conversation so feel free to reach out to me as I am always learning and taking in information.
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Much appreciation-Jessie
