Northwest Indian College is expanding its Weavers Teaching Weavers program after receiving at three-year, $575,000 grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation.
Weavers Teaching Weavers, which has held nine conferences at NWIC’s main campus on the Lummi Nation, providers master weavers with a venue to share and pass down their skills and knowledge. With the grant money, conferences will be held for the first time away from the college’s main campus—the first will be held in Warm Springs, Ore., from Aug. 16-17, hosted by the Warm Springs Tribe.
The program is coordinated by NWIC’s cooperative extension department.
“I am very excited to take this event to Warm Springs,” said Susan Given-Seymour, NWIC’s cooperative extension director, in a press release. “Weavers love to get together, and it’s gratifying to have the resources to bring the event to weavers in Oregon. The Oregon weavers will be joined by experienced weavers from the Plateau Tribes of Washington and from Nez Perce. They will all sit down together and teach and learn from each other.”
The grant will also fund programs to help tribal communities learn about and develop skills related to their own tribal histories, cultural arts and tribal museum studies. Additionally, newly hired cultural studies coordinator Ethel Greene will use grant funds to conduct surveys on tribes in Washington and Oregon, as well as the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho, in a effort to assess NWIC’s development of a tribal museum studies program.
Registration for the Warm Spring Weavers Teaching Weavers gathering costs $90. For questions or to register, email egreene@nwic.edu or call 208-843-7409.