Craft night builds community

Freshman Katie Faulkner leaned over the small deer-hide bag she had been working on since last Thursday. Her bag, already sewn and fringed, was ready for decorative beading.

She created this project at First Nations Educational and Cultural Center’s Craft Night. Faulkner, an art student, created her own design and figured out how to string the beads in the correct order.

Mary Connors, FNECC program assistant, said she and director Brian Gilley changed this week’s craft night to Tuesday in anticipation of a few prospective IU graduate students from the Oneida tribe who are visiting from New York.

Connors said the meetings, which are typically at 6 p.m. every Thursday and involve teaching various Native American crafts, are a way to bring in students who may not know where FNECC is located.

“We’re not on the way to anywhere,” Connors said. “People have to come out of their way to come here, so you have to give them a reason to come.”

While the Oct. 11 turnout was small, which Connors attributes to the date change, the craft night on Oct. 6 was crowded with students and community members.

John Johnson, Galvlo’I Awoha’li in Cherokee, worked on his small bag during the event. Johnson is a former IU professor of anthropology and a dancer in the Cherokee nation Twigh Twee group.

“I hang around here a lot,” Johnson said. “I teach basket weaving. I attend board meetings. I’m on the (Twigh Twee) drum crew.”

Sonya Atalay, an associate professor of anthropology, brought her two sons to Tuesday’s craft night. They sat next to her on the floor, playing, as she beaded moccasins.

“(The craft nights) get people together who have something to work on,” Atalay said. “It’s a really nice way to build community.”

Director Brian Gilley said before the craft nights started in spring 2011, FNECC staff and other Native American IU faculty members would gather to work on personal projects, eat and laugh together.

Now in its second semester, Gilley said the craft night continues to bring people together.

“It’s an opportunity to build allies,” Gilley said. “We’re not just here for native people.