Aganaq Kostenborder on Weaving With Willow
Willow weaving is in the air at Groundwork! With our upcoming class The Story of Willow getting ready for production (pre-register here), we’ve been thinking about stepping out of the immediate moment and engaging in practices like willow weaving and wild willow tending that are multi-year processes, moving at the Earth’s pace rather than the pace of a society scarce on attention.
Our instructor Kelly Moody, who teaches our ecology classes and is slated to help create and teach our upcoming online willow cast, also runs a podcast! This is one of her earlier episodes talking with Aganaq Kostenborder on weaving with willow. Aganaq is a mixed indigenous weaver, craftsperson, seamstress, and artist living in Oregon. Kelly and Aganaq talk about her relationship to willow, rethinking weaving with culturally sensitive plants, watching plants and learning from them all throughout the year, how baskets can hold moments in time and place, how baskets can gravitate towards the people they are meant for.