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TERROL
DEW JOHNSON
Tohono O'odham
Terrol
Dew Johnson, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, is an award
winning basketweaver and cofounder of Tohono O'odham Community Action
(TOCA). Terrol began learning to weave baskets in school when he
was just ten years old. Terrol has been weaving since he was ten-years-old
and is now recognized as one of the top Native American basketweavers
in the U.S. He has won top honors at such shows as Santa Fe Indian
Market, O'odham Tash, The Heard Museum Fair and the Southwest Indian
Art Fair. "My work reflects who I am as a person... my culture...
my family... the desert. I have learned much from my elders about
tradition, patience and technique. I combine this respect for tradition
with my own visions of the world I see around me. Many times I dream
a design, and it haunts me until I actually weave it. Heritage and
vision combine in my work, reflecting the world in which I live."
Terrol
recognized many of the challenges facing weavers and other members
of the Tohono O'odham community. In 1996, he co-founder Tohono O'odham
Community Action (TOCA), a grassroots community organization dedicated
to creating a positive programs which are based in the O'odham Himdag
- the Desert People's Way. TOCA now has four programs: 1) Tohono
O'odham Basketweavers Organization; 2) Elder/Youth Outreach Initiative;
3) Tohono O'odham Arts and Culture Program; and 4) Tohono O'odham
Community Food System.
In
1997, Terrol was part of a core group that founded the Ha:sañ
Preparatory and Leadership School. In October 1999, Terrol was named
one of "America's top ten young community leaders" by
the Do Something organization in recognition of his contributions
to the revitalization of a healthy and sustainable Tohono O'odham
community. In 2001, Terrol curated an exhibit of basketry masterworks
for the Heard Museum in Phoenix. He is co-author of the book Hold
Everything! Masterworks of Basketry and Pottery from the Heard Museum.
In 2002, Terrol was a recipient of the Ford Foundation's Leadership
for a Changing World Award along with TOCA's Co-Director Tristan
Reader.
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