Julia Parker (basketmaker)
Encyclopedia
Julia Parker is a master basket weaver of the Coast Miwok
and Kashaya Pomo tribes and a student of the great basket weavers of the twentieth century, Lucy Telles
(Yosemite Miwok/Mono Lake Paiute), Mabel McKay
, (Cache Creek Pomo), and Elsie Allen
(Cloverdale Pomo). Over the last forty years, Parker has become one of the pre-eminent Native American
basket makers in California. A respected elder of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
and long-time resident of Yosemite Valley
, Parker is prolific artist
, teacher
, and storyteller
.
Since 1960, Parker has been working as Cultural Specialist at the Yosemite Museum
, where she interprets the traditional ways of the Native peoples who populated the Yosemite Valley for generations to park visitors. She has taught and lectured across the United States at universities, cultural centers, and schools. She has traveled to Alaska, Hawaii, and Australia to meet with indigenous artists and has been invited by numerous museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian
in New York City, to consult with specialists about collections stored in their facilities.
Parker’s work is in permanent collections of the National Museum of Natural History
, Smithsonian Institution
, Washington, DC; the Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park; the Norwegian Ski Association headquarters, Oslo, Norway; the private collection of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
; and numerous other private collections.
In 2004, Parker's work was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition, The Past in Present Tense: Four Decades of Julia Parker Baskets, installed at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek. In the same year she was featured in a segment of KQED’s program Spark. In 2006, California College of the Arts
conferred an honorary doctorate to Parker, and in 2007 she was the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.
Coast Miwok
The Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native American people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek...
and Kashaya Pomo tribes and a student of the great basket weavers of the twentieth century, Lucy Telles
Lucy Telles
Lucy Parker Telles was a Mono Lake Paiute - Kucadikadi and Southern Sierra Miwok Native American basket weaver.-Background:...
(Yosemite Miwok/Mono Lake Paiute), Mabel McKay
Mabel McKay
Mabel McKay was a member of the Long Valley Cache Creek Pomo Indians. She was the last Dreamer of the Pomo people and a basket making prodigy....
, (Cache Creek Pomo), and Elsie Allen
Elsie Allen
Elsie Allen was a Native American Pomo basket weaver from the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California in Northern California, significant as for historically categorizing and teaching Californian Indian basket patterns and techniques and sustaining traditional Pomo basketry as an art...
(Cloverdale Pomo). Over the last forty years, Parker has become one of the pre-eminent Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
basket makers in California. A respected elder of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians. The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition by the U.S. government pursuant to the Graton Rancheria...
and long-time resident of Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...
, Parker is prolific artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, and storyteller
Storyteller
- Films and television :* Narradores de Javé , a 2003 Brazilian film by Eliane Caffé* The Storyteller , a 2009 American horror film* The Storyteller, a 1988 television series by Jim Henson...
.
Since 1960, Parker has been working as Cultural Specialist at the Yosemite Museum
Yosemite Museum
The Yosemite Museum is located in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in California. Founded in 1926 through the efforts of Ansel Franklin Hall, the museum's displays focus on the heritage and culture of the Ahwaneechee people who lived in the valley...
, where she interprets the traditional ways of the Native peoples who populated the Yosemite Valley for generations to park visitors. She has taught and lectured across the United States at universities, cultural centers, and schools. She has traveled to Alaska, Hawaii, and Australia to meet with indigenous artists and has been invited by numerous museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
in New York City, to consult with specialists about collections stored in their facilities.
Parker’s work is in permanent collections of the National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
, Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, Washington, DC; the Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park; the Norwegian Ski Association headquarters, Oslo, Norway; the private collection of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
; and numerous other private collections.
In 2004, Parker's work was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition, The Past in Present Tense: Four Decades of Julia Parker Baskets, installed at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek. In the same year she was featured in a segment of KQED’s program Spark. In 2006, California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts , founded in 1907, is known for its broad, interdisciplinary programs in art, design, architecture, and writing. It has two campuses, one in Oakland and one in San Francisco, California, USA...
conferred an honorary doctorate to Parker, and in 2007 she was the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.