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Richard Green
Re: Rhonda Besaw, traditional Eastern / Western Abenaki artist
To Whom It May Concern,
I write with regard to Rhonda Besaw, a New Hampshire beadwork artist of Eastern / Western Abenaki descent. Rhonda�s work has interested and impressed me for some time for its high level of technical and artistic excellence, as well as its roots in traditional Wabanaki tradition.
There is an established and growing number of traditional beadwork artists (sometimes referred to as �sewers�) among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) peoples - Rosemary Rickard Hill (Tuscarora), Mary Lou Printup (Tuscarora), Lorna Hill (Cayuga), Samuel Thomas (Cayuga), amongst many others.
The Abenaki, of course, are a Northeastern Algonkian people and one of the five members of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Compared with contemporary Haudenosaunee beadworker artists, the number of Abenakis who maintain their beadwork traditions is, at the present time, sadly limited. Indeed, Rhonda Besaw is one of a relatively tiny number of beadworkers continuing to work in the traditional style of her people.
For the Wabanakis of New England, Quebec and the Maritimes, beadwork is a crucial expression of cultural identity. Rhonda has a deep knowledge of her people's history and culture, and her beadwork embodies the rich repertoire of designs as manifested in early Wabanaki art. Though undeniably decorative and meticulously conceived, Rhonda�s work is also laden with symbolic content specifically relating to her unique community-based heritage.
I believe Rhonda is important and instrumental in a virtually single-handed revival of her
people�s indigenous applied arts and will, I am sure, inspire others to follow in her footsteps. In doing so, she ensures the survival of a rich and irreplaceable form of cultural expression.
If I can provide any further information that might be of help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Richard Green
20 February 2009
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