Iva Casuse Honwynum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Iva Casuse Honwynum
Iva Casuse Honwynum's Whirlwind (Bringer of Rain) pootsaya basket shown at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, 2017
Born	Iva Lee Casuse 1964 (age 60–61) Gallup, New Mexico
Nationality	Hopi Tribe, Navajo Tribe, American
Movement	Hopi basketry
Awards	Artist-in-Residence Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Many awards at Heard, Santa Fe, and Prescott Indian Markets' juried shows

Iva Casuse Honwynum (born 1964) is a talented artist from the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Tribe. She is also a social activist and works to preserve her culture. Honwynum is famous for her beautiful woven baskets and sculptures. Her biggest achievement is creating the pootsaya basket, which is a new and special type of Hopi basket. She developed this unique basket during her time as an artist-in-residence in 2014 at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About Iva Honwynum

Iva Casuse Honwynum was born in Gallup, New Mexico. Her father, Richard Casuse, was Navajo, and her mother, Shirley Casuse, was Hopi. Iva belongs to the Sun (Taawa) Clan from the village of Songoopavi, located on Second Mesa, Arizona. Her Hopi name, Honwynum, means "Female Bear Walking" in English.

Early Art Journey

Honwynum started her art career in 1992 as a silversmith and jewelry maker. She learned many skills from her father and other skilled artists. She used different techniques like Hopi overlay and lost-wax casting. Her work is even featured in a well-known guide about Native American jewelry makers.

Honwynum is also very skilled at making traditional Hopi baskets. These include the coiled basket (poota) and the sifter basket (tutsaya). Her grandmother, Esther Honanie, taught her how to make her first coiled basket when she was just ten years old. Honwynum started weaving baskets again in 1996, taking lessons from her cousin, Beth Dawahongnewa. Over the next ten years, she became an expert. By 2006, she felt confident enough to start showing her art in exhibitions and contests.

Hopi Basketry

Honwynum creates traditional Hopi baskets using materials found in her local area. These include yucca, willow, and three-leaf sumac. These natural materials give her baskets colors like white, green, yellow, black, and red. She also uses commercial dyes to add more colors to her designs.

Her baskets feature geometric shapes, pictures, and figures. Sometimes, she adds three-dimensional parts, like a domed tortoise shell or small serving pieces. Honwynum also likes to mix old weaving methods with modern ideas. For example, she made a sifter basket featuring the Denver Broncos, her favorite football team. She also creates large art projects that tell stories, like Where the Sun Fits In. This project explores the Hopi migration story using symbols from six different Hopi clans.

The Pootsaya Basket

In 2014, during her time at the School for Advanced Research, Honwynum created a new type of basket. She combined the sifter and coiled baskets, calling her invention the pootsaya. She had thought about this project for many years. For the Hopi people, art has deep meaning, so Honwynum took this project very seriously. She wanted to create something new that also honored historical designs.

For Honwynum, weaving is a spiritual activity that connects people. The pootsaya shows her strong love for her community and culture. She explained that the tightly woven coiled part of the basket represents a strong foundation for the community. The yucca strands tied onto the coil show people coming together again. This helps create a better community for future generations, not just for the Hopi but for everyone. This is the special meaning behind the pootsaya.

Honwynum uses traditional Hopi symbols in her pootsaya baskets. For example, she might place a spider and its web, or a whirlwind, in the center of the basket. The sifter part around the center then adds to the main image. Experts like Andrew Higgins from the Arizona State Museum have praised her work. Diane Dittemore, a curator at the same museum, called the pootsaya "a rare innovation in Hopi basketry."

Achievements and Recognition

Honwynum shows her artwork at many places. She participates in major Native American art markets. These include the Prescott Indian Art Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, and the Santa Fe Indian Market.

She has won many awards for her work. In 2018, she won 1st Place for Contemporary Basketry for a pootsaya at the Santa Fe Indian Market. She also received awards at the Southwest Indian Art Fair and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. In 2011, she won Best of Category for Sifter Baskets at the Gallup Indian Intertribal Celebration.

Honwynum's pootsaya baskets are part of the permanent collections at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson and the School for Advanced Research Museum in Santa Fe. She was an Artist-in-Residence at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in 2013. In 2014, she received the Eric and Barbara Dookin Artist Residency Fellowship at the School for Advanced Research.

Iva Honwynum is also featured in Sally Grotta's American Hands Project, which celebrates craftspeople. She often gives talks and demonstrations about Hopi arts and weaving. In 2021, the Arizona Office of Tourism and the U.S. Parks Service featured her work. At the 2022 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, she won an Innovation Award and a Judge's Award for her pootsaya baskets.

Community Work

Honwynum is dedicated to helping her community and preserving Hopi culture. She has worked with programs that support young people and education. She also helps with health and nutrition initiatives. She is helping to update a Hopi cookbook for the Hopi Putavi Project. This project works with the Hopi Community Health Representative Office and the University of Arizona.

Honwynum owns and runs Iskasokpu Gallery on Second Mesa, Arizona. This gallery helps promote other Hopi artists. The name Iskasokpu means "the spring where the coyote burped." She also teaches Hopi cooking and provides catering services.

Personal Life

Iva Honwynum has four sons. She attended Yavapai Community College and Northland Pioneer College. She is related to Adeline Lomayestewa, another very skilled basket maker. Both women taught basketry techniques to Reba Ann Lomayestewa.