Oral history interview with Yonavea Hawkins

Title

Oral history interview with Yonavea Hawkins

Narrator

Hawkins, Yonavea

Description

Yonavea Hawkins, a professional artist, is well-known for her beadwork and drawings. She talks about growing up and loving art, but she recognized that being a full-time artist is difficult and instead followed a commercial art career in graphic design and production for many years. She explains how she first started making traditional clothing for her children and how that grew into her making more beaded cultural items for competitions, which led to her career as a professional artist. She describes her process and influences from Caddo history and culture. Hawkins discusses some of the challenges of doing intricate beadwork and the research that goes into all of her art. She comments on the teaching work she has done to help more people understand the specifics of Caddo culture. She also acknowledges the role dancing plays in Caddo culture and how that has impacted her life and work significantly.

Interviewer

Little Thunder, Julie Pearson

Keyword

Oklahoma Native Artists; Caddo heritage; Red Earth Festival; Creative process

Subject

Indians of North America; Artists; Interviews; Caddo dance; Indian beadwork; Drawing; Indians of North America--Material culture; Indians of North America--Clothing

Spatial

Oklahoma; Choctaw, Oklahoma; Alto, Texas

Citation of material

Oklahoma Oral History Research Program-Oklahoma State University

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