Weaving Traditions
Andrea Cayetano is featured here on the far right, next to her daughter Chelsea & Martha, her mother. The women will offer basketweaving classes & a talk @ Clinton Avenue United Methodist Church, Kingston, NY on Feb 15th, 2020
An interview with Basketmaker Andrea Cayetano-Jefferson
Basket weaving is one of the oldest African art forms in the United States. The Gullah Geechee people are African Americans who have maintained a culture rich in African influences and have been creating baskets for generations in South Carolina and Georgia, and originally as far reaching as North Carolina and Florida. They make them using local plants wild harvested by hand—including sweetgrass, bulrush, and long needle pine—and woven together with strips of palmetto.
Thanks to an inspiring trip a few months back to Charleston, South Carolina, Circle Creative Collective’s team found just the right basket weavers to share their knowledge with folks here in the Hudson Valley and beyond. The Cayetano family make this beautiful usable artform, passed down literally hand to hand through the family’s line. Some of the family’s unique work is on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and can also be purchased in their stall at the Charleston City Market. Weaving love and skill into their work, each basket is an embodiment of history which carries with it rich traditions set down in Senegal and Sierra Leone long ago. In a too-often disposable and disconnected world, offering a link to the past and an authentic reflection of family bonds are important and urgent gifts. Not to mention that from start to finish, each of these heirlooms is completely eco!
This February 15th, 2020, Andrea will join her mother, Martha Cayetano-Howard, and her daughter, Chelsea Cayetano to lead two workshops and a talk as part of a celebration of Black History Month throughout Kingston, NY. We hope you’ll join us for their upcoming offerings, or at any of the other incredible workshops taking place throughout the day @ SANKOFA: A Day Of Traditional Craft presented by CIRCLE CREATIVE COLLECTIVE and MY KINGSTON KIDS as part of Black History Month Kingston.
Circle Creative Collective recently had the chance to sit down with Andrea and speak with her. From the subject of how these traditional processes have been viewed in Andrea’s family, to how a changing ecology and society affect the availability of materials, and more, join us here while we explore this ancient form through the words of a descendant of this renowned family of weavers.
CCC: How much time do each of you dedicate per day (or week) to weaving?
ANDREA: The average medium sweet grass basket takes about 8-10 hours to complete. We normally weave about 10-12 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week.
CCC: Do you experiment with different styles or mostly stick to traditional ones that were passed down to you?
ANDREA: I normally make simple styles and very few traditional baskets. Most traditional basket styles are very intricate and require lots of practice. I've always been "the breadbasket person". My bread baskets and bowls are what I'm good at so I stick to that. Mommy/Martha on the other hand makes whatever comes to mind. She sometimes incorporates old and new styles together.
CCC: Do you feel weaving/creativity is a spiritual act? Or more like a meditation? Just craft? Or art?
ANDREA: I feel like weaving is relaxing and like meditation. Mom believes that weaving baskets is more spiritual. The Bible speaks of baby Moses being found in a basket in bulrushes. One of Mom's favorite baskets to weave is an oval shaped basket made of all bulrushes which she calls a Moses Basket.
CCC: Do you sing certain songs or listen to certain music when you weave?
ANDREA: I listen to hip hop and rap music or watch t.v. when I'm weaving. I don't like mosquitoes or Charleston heat so I weave mostly indoors. Mom likes music, and to be outdoors. She usually is outdoors from dawn til dusk. Mom listens to Gospel most mornings and southern soul music throughout the day. If she weaves indoors she watches Westerns. My nephew says, “Granny! Baskets and cowboys all day!”
CCC: Does your family share any rituals or traditions before you begin to weave?
ANDREA: We don't have any rituals or traditions that we do prior to weaving. We just give thanks to God for another day on Earth, for health, and strength.
CCC: Has it been hard to convince the younger generations that this is a valuable line of work and an important carrier of cultural traditions?
ANDREA: As far as the younger generations; is difficult to get them onboard with this tradition. I personally have struggled with the decision to continue weaving baskets. I didn't want this to define my life. But I've learned to embrace my superpower. I can turn grass into art. Being a young basketweaver was once taboo and shunned upon. We were considered Gullah Geechee: country, uneducated, lacking understanding, or the workforce, and poor. All of these thoughts and comments are totally false but still are the beliefs of many in the Gullah community.
CCC: Are there particular stories your elders passed down to you about weaving and do you like to share these with the younger generations? This/these could be a myth, fairy tale, or family story.
ANDREA: Our family story starts out along highway 17N in Mount Pleasant. My grandmother Rosa (like most children her age then) didn't learn to read or write and had a third grade education. She had to leave school to help her mother Martha Barnwell weave beautiful baskets. My grandmother taught her 8 kids (6 girls and 2 boys) to weave baskets as well. My grandfather Stephen was never educated. He drove cement trucks just about all of his life. They managed to raise their family, build a home (that we all grew up in), and taught us work ethics. We were taught as children "man dat don work don eat," meaning everyone is expected to help the family. I tell my kids the same thing at least once a week. My fondest memories are of summertime as a kid at my grandparents’ house. The whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins) would come together (it seemed like every night) to sit on the front porch to weave baskets. That's when I took to weaving baskets. I didn't like bugs so I would sit on the porch floor next to my mom and aunt Linda and use the sweetgrass and pine needles they dropped to weave my own baskets. They saw my interest and the rest is history.
“‘I’VE LEARNED TO EMBRACE MY SUPERPOWER. I CAN TURN GRASS INTO ART.”
CCC: It seems that traditionally this has been a female craft, but are any of the men or boys in your family interested in learning and pursuing this as a means of income?
ANDREA: Men and women used to weave baskets equally until around the 1930's. Men and some women too were expected to bring in steady income. My grandmother would sell a bread basket for $.25 to $1 and I sell that same style basket for $200 today. Unfortunately, in our family there's no interest in learning or continuing to weave baskets by boys or girls. My siblings and 1st cousins were all taught to weave baskets and consider it something they will do once retired. One cousin has recently retired and she is currently getting refresher courses from her mom. My daughter (Chelsea) knows how to weave baskets and is learning the history of our family.
CCC: It sounds like wild harvesting is getting difficult because of development. Is anyone in your family planting specific crops for materials? Are you exploring other materials? Are you concerned about the environmental impact on your essential ingredients? Have only sweetgrass and wild bulrush been detrimentally impacted or are there others? Are you having trouble keeping up with demand because of issues with harvesting?
ANDREA: Harvesting materials.... Oh my!! I can remember as a young girl going to the grass fields being surrounded in a "forest" of sweetgrass. Now those "forests" are either on private property or cleared out for new homes. We've been written trespassing notices by police, escorted off of property we've harvested from for years by police, and fences put up to keep us out. We have not explored planting our own materials because it requires lots of land and we (Me and Mom) just don't like the feel of it. Sweetgrass that grows wild is easier on the hands. Bulrushes are found along the marsh areas. Our ancestors were given these “Uninhabitable lands” because of the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes. Now, we have GENTRIFICATION!! Everything that made Mount Pleasant, SC so special is being ruined because of progress. Even long leaf pine needles are being used for landscaping. Harvesting materials is our biggest issue because of keeping up with demand. Sweetgrass grass is harvested during the summer months mostly by the men in the Gullah communities. As these men get older, die, or move away the younger generations have no interest in learning or continuing to harvest.
CCC: Are you bringing any kind of basket weaving programs into your local schools?
ANDREA: Currently I’m not working with any of our local schools. I do have something in the works with Anderson University in Anderson SC in the next few months.
CCC: May I ask- what level of schooling did you complete? I am curious just to see how things have changed between the generations and to show that you have embraced this art, in spite of your hesitations.
ANDREA: I completed high school and a few semesters at a community college. I’ve been weaving baskets since I was 6 years old. I started going with Mom to Charleston City Market at 8. I never considered basket weaving a job, career, or even a business. It’s just what I do/did. The older I get (I’m 40) the more I realize that we’re losing our identity as Gullah Geechee people. It’s no longer taboo or frowned upon to speak my native tongue or weave baskets. I now have friends from high school calling me to give them lessons.
CCC: Did you have another dream career/medium/employment before you did finally embrace basketmaking?
ANDREA: I’m currently working as caregiver. This job has made me realize how much of our history is being lost. I’ve decided that this will be my last year as a caregiver. I’m going to invest more time into my art/craft. My dream is to travel in an rv with Mom and Aunt Linda educating people about our culture and Sweetgrass Baskets across the country.
CCC: Is there another style of basketry (from another culture) that you would like to learn, or that you admire greatly?
ANDREA: My father was from Guatemala. I would love to visit his home land and learn from my other ancestors how to weave those baskets.
CCC: Funny, several of our Circle women are in Guatemala right now, learning various traditional processes! It won’t be quite the same as learning from your ancestors, but I’m sure they would be happy to teach you what they learn and it could still be an important passing down of traditions. And that’s really what it’s about, isn’t it, just learning and sharing what we can, while we can?
Gratitude Andrea for taking the time to share your stories with us! -JW and Circle Creative Collective
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Circle Creative Collective is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the Hudson Valley that connects & inspires diverse communities by sharing and preserving traditional crafts & skills. Donations can be made here.
If you would like more information about this event, would like to interview our team for a story or live interview, or want to be a sponsor, please call Mary Jane Nusbaum at 845-323-1374 or email info@circlecreativecollective.org
Donations welcome of yarn, thread, fabrics, sewing and weaving supplies! Thank you!