When the Weaving Returned
Our family has always been creative—painting, sewing, crocheting, cross-stitching, making jewelry—passing down stories through each stitch and brushstroke. So when basketry returned to our lives, it didn’t feel new. It felt remembered. What began with quiet interest over the years became something more lasting when, in 2022, Theresa and Kelly joined a Tongva community basketry revitalization effort that brought our teacher, Abe Sanchez, into our lives. In 2023, Ramona and Dolores joined, followed by Abby, Juan, and Todd in 2024. From there, our circle of family weavers began to grow.
Weaving is now a shared family practice—rooted in love, responsibility, and the coiled techniques of our Tongva and Payómkawichum ancestors. It’s how we remember the ones who weren’t allowed to weave, and how we reclaim what colonization, boarding schools, and systemic erasure tried to take. We don’t just weave baskets. We weave memory. We weave to stay connected—to each other, to our ancestors, and to the future we’re shaping together.
Who Are Neyooxo Weavers
Neyooxo Weavers is a family rooted in love, memory, and neyooxo pedagogy. Our name comes from the Tongva word neyooxo, meaning “elder sister.” But in our lives, neyooxo is not just a role—it is a way of being. It reflects reciprocal care, shared responsibility, and the kind of love that flows in all directions, across siblings and generations. We are not a collective or an organization. We are family. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, sons, aunties, nieces, nephews, grandmothers, grandchildren and extended kin—walking with our ancestors and each other, reclaiming what was always ours.
Remembering Through Weaving
We weave because we remember. We gather to stitch, to share, and to learn together. Basketry for us is not just craft—it is ceremony, memory, and cultural resurgence. Our baskets hold stories, grief, laughter, and deep prayer. They remind us that our knowledge lives in our hands, in our bodies, and in our relationships. Our practice is guided by neyooxo pedagogy—a framework of love, accountability, and kinship. It teaches us that mentorship is not about hierarchy, but about showing up for one another with care. Whether we are teaching or learning, speaking or listening, we honor the knowledge that flows through our family and through the land.
Our Weaving Practice
We practice coiled basketry, a traditional technique rooted in our homelands and guided by memory, precision, and care. Each basket begins with a central button and grows in spirals—bundled coils stitched tightly together to create both form and story.
With Abe Sanchez's guidance, we’ve learned techniques specific to the Tongva and Payómkawichum. This includes reading ancestral baskets—recognizing start styles, stitching direction, tension, and rim finishes as cultural knowledge carried through generations.
We use materials gathered with respect and intention:
- Sumac (Rhus trilobata): flexible, strong, used as the stitching element.
- Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens): straight, durable, ideal for coiled bundles.
- Juncus (Juncus textilis): pliable, colorful, used for stitching and form.
- Acorns, shells, and elderberries: used to dye materials for natural designs.
Each step—from harvesting to splitting, soaking, and weaving—is part of the basket’s story. The process reflects not just skill, but love, memory, and return.
Where Story and Practice Live
This space is a living reflection of our journey. It exists to honor, protect, and remember the teachings passed down through story, song, and lived experience. It also serves as a digital archive—a place to document our family’s weaving practices, reflections, and growth. Here, we gather what might otherwise be forgotten. We trace the threads of memory and practice so they can be carried into the future. We share not to perform our culture, but to stay rooted in it—to return to what was interrupted, to carry forward what endures, and to do so with integrity and love. Every stitch, every story, every gathering is part of something sacred. This is how we remember. This is how we stay woven.