Aztec, NM – On Friday, August 12, Aztec Ruins National Monument’s 2022 Lecture Series will continue with Venaya Yazzie, who will be presenting “Trekking the Land of the Matriarch.”
This free event will begin at 7 pm in the Aztec Ruins Visitor Center, and last approximately one hour. All are welcome to attend.
Venaya J. Yazzie is a Diné (Navajo) / Hopi woman dwelling in the ancestral lands of her maternal family in the San Juan Valley in northwestern New Mexico. Her heritage is rooted in the Huerfano, NM, and Chaco Canyon area. Through her work in the Arts and as a researcher, she strives to reclaim the true historical past of Indigenous southwest people, and reaffirm land narrative and identity. Via her efforts in multi-media visual art and poetry her stories and
experiences re-establish the cultural landscape of “the People.”
Yazzie is alumnus of University of New Mexico (M.A. in Education and Indian Education), Fort Lewis College, the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Arts. She is a board member of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Native American Advisory Committee. Also, the Navajo Cultural Museum Board, Northwest New Mexico Arts Council and has been an Artist-In-Residence of: Mesa Verde National Park AIR Program, Dancing Earth- SEEDS Project and the Bisti Writing Project in the Four Corners. Her most recent projects include designing and installing a community mural in Bluff, UT in co-op with Friends of Cedar Mesa. In Fall 2021 Venaya was also commissioned to create a commemorative painting and poetry prose for Bears Ears Coalition which she titled, The Mountain is a Sister.
This event is made possible by assistance from the Chaco Culture Conservancy (CCC). The Conservancy is a New Mexico nonprofit 501©(3) corporation created to assist and support Aztec Ruins National Monument and Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
For more information, contact the Visitor Center at 505-334-6174 or visit our park Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AztecRuinsNM/) and click on “Events” to see the latest information.