Additional information
by Kathy Eckles Hooker (Author), Helen Lau Running (Photographer)
Witness the time-honored practices of the Navajo as shared by wisdom-keepers who live close to the land and follow ancestral ways. In the nineteen chapters of We Walk the Earth in Beauty, readers will learn practical methods for living in harmony with an austere landscape.
"Everything that surrounds us gives us life," writes Navajo educator Lisa Puente Siyuja in the foreword. "Throughout history, the Diné (Navajo) have learned how to live off the land and provide for their families. ... This book captures the essence of such stories of Diné families who continue this sacred relationship with Mother Earth." Watch and listen as Hazel Nez weaves a rug, Mary Joe Yazzie fires a clay pot, and Sam Worker stitches a pair of moccasins for his wife. When author Kathy Eckles Hooker and photographer Helen Lau Running collected their stories and photographs in the 1980s, such methods were widespread among the older generations. As those generations pass away, traditional methods are in danger of being lost. Thanks to its careful descriptions of everything from making yucca shampoo to building a hogan, this book is like a time capsule, holding Navajo wisdom for everyone to appreciate.Author Biography
Author Kathy Eckles Hooker taught Navajo (Diné) students at Dilcon Boarding School on the Navajo Reservation and at Flagstaff Unified School District. Her lifelong appreciation for Indigenous cultures has resulted in two books, "We Walk the Earth in Beauty" (originally published as "Time Among the Navajo" in 1991) and "Voices of Navajo Mothers and Daughters: Portraits of Beauty" (published in 2022).
Photographer Helen Lau Running (1945-2014) was born in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, Caribbean, of Chinese and Afro Caribbean ancestors. She came to America with her husband, Marine turned photographer John Running. They raised their family in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Helen's love for the people and cultural landscapes of the Colorado Plateau led her to document traditional people's lifeways and environmental stewardship in photos and champion the stories and work of other artists.
Number of Pages: 120
Dimensions: 0.5 x 9.1 x 9.1 IN
Publication Date: November 12, 2024
