Tima Link | Photo: KCETTima Lotah Link is a Chumash cultural educator and basketweaver, and a consultant on KCETs Tending The Wild project. Her article Weaving the World Together can be read here. KCET spoke with Tima near the Santa Clara River, in the Chumash peoples traditional territory.
How did you learn how to weave baskets?
We hear a lot about loss of culture and loss of language in native communities. And its all true. A lot of our communities are working hard to bring back language, to bring back culture, to bring back knowledge of the land and the plants. We support each other.
In the old days, you would learn from a grandmother, or a grandfather. But that might not be possible today, so you learn from whomever is around. You go to the next tribe over the mountains and you say, I dont know how to do this, does anybody know? And they share, or you learn from a friend's cousin, or you learn from a book, or you learn by just going out and doing it.
Ive been at this for 25 years. Ive been coming to Juncus patches, and willow patches and tule patches, and over the years you see patterns. You become your own teacher, in many ways. And the plants teach you. They dont say anything with their mouth, but you listen and they teach.
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What do you make baskets out of?
Some of the plants that I weave with are Juncus textilis, Juncus acutus, tule, and willow. They all have their own properties. Some of them are used for baskets, some of them are for weaving houses or boats. They all have different qualities.
What makes basket weaving different now than it was in the past?
We live in a world of fences today, and those fences divide us. They are boundaries between us and the landscape, and I respect boundaries, I think we all do in this world today, but fences, borders, dams, some things were never meant to be.
One of the first things you learn when youre a child as a native is how to go over a fence, under a fence, or through a fence. Native people are never afraid of what the fences say, and theyll say some pretty awful things. When youre five or six, you learn a skill. You learn how to brush your teeth; you learn how to get through a metal fence.
Going under the barbed wire | Photo: KCET
Today I scale fences, I scale six foot fences [to gather]. I go under fences, over fences, through fences. But I don't always do that. Today we really try to talk to people about what a relationship could mean between us - Native people - and them, and how it could enrich both of our lives. I try, as much as I can, to make relationships between landowners, between the federal government, state parks... but every once in a while youll get a situation [where] it would take twenty years to get the okay to go there.
What is gathering like today?
I think part of being a good gatherer in todays world with lots of barriers is knowing how to be creative in getting the things that you need. When you live in a contemporary world that's paved over and divided by highways, how do you find the things you are looking for? You get in your truck and you just start looking. So you'll find what you need in unexpected places, and youll have to be willing to take a risk to get those things. Risk means jumping a fence, it means pulling over on a curve where there is no room, it means going over fences where there are dogs or poison oak. I have a million adventures trying to find the things that I need.
When youre five or six, you learn a skill. You learn how to brush your teeth; you learn how to get through a metal fence.
Being a gatherer is not just a practice; its a mindset. It means that no matter what I am doing, I am always ready. My mind is always ready, my eyes and my hands are ready to gather.
What's the relationship between basket weavers and the landscape?
When we gather plants, it's going to be used for materials and to grow. Every time we take something we have got to pay something for it. In society, we dont steal without paying for something, but in nature we seem to forget that its giving up itself, its life, and its well-being for the beneficial use of us, and we have to repay that. We make sure that what we take is going to be well used, and it wasnt just truly sacrificed for nothing.
Tima Link gathering Juncus stems | Photo: KCET
Can you talk a little about the Santa Clara River Valley?
The Santa Clara River is a really special place for us. We all come together to not only gather, but we also come to tend the land. Thats a really important part of what we do. Were not just here to take, were here to give back. Some trips we come together and we pick and we get excited. Other days we just come with our tools and we take care of the land.
This place is really special because the Santa Clara Valley is a place where the old basket weavers grew up. They were born here, they died here, and their baskets, the actual Juncus that they make their baskets out of, its from here. We feel that when we come back here, that theres a continuation going on of not only a skill and an art, but also of tending. Theres a balance to everything.
Is there a communal aspect to being a weaver?
Being a weaver nowadays and in the past was and is about weaving for your community. A lot of times, my community comes to me and asks, Will you weave me a hat? Will you weave me a mat to sit on? For instance, Our community needs a house. Can we weave an 'ap? - which is our traditional house. Weaving is very much a communal thing, though small baskets could be made [by] individuals.
Watch Tending The Wilds segment on weaving: Weaving Community
Do you consider basket weaving a hobby?
Theres not a day in my life that I dont think about weaving, or I dont touch weaving. Its not something I do on the weekends, I do it everyday. Whether I am dying or processing plants, tending these
