Zuni Traditional Waffle Gardening
Teach the younger & older generations about Traditional Waffle Gardening.
Mission of the project
We have created this project hoping to teach our community and Zuni people about waffle gardens as it plays a role in our culture. It is a tradition that has been passed on for many, many years. Gardens/crops has a lot to do with the blessings we ask for in our prayers.
A problem that many of us have noticed is some people in our community lack the knowledge of their culture or they fail to learn about the traditions our elders once lived, whether it is them not being taught, or they just have no interest. It is important for the younger generations to be taught things like this because we are the next ones to carry on and live our tradition as many of our elders do today. Not just the younger generations, but also the generation of our parents (Gen Y). As the next up and coming generation, we need to prepare ourselves and learn as much about our traditions and culture so that we are capable of teaching our Zuni youth. By doing so, we would be on the path to keeping our cultural traditions alive, which is our ultimate goal as Shiwi people.
Our goal
Teach others about Zuni Waffle gardening. According to our survey results, not many people are aware, or taught a lot about traditional waffle gardens. Our goal is to help our coomunity/people through this website and teach those who are willing to learn about waffle gardens.
Why?
It is part of who we are. Gardening is part of our ancestry and part of who we are as Zunis. Back then, our ancestors grew their own food. They improvised and learned to use the natural resources around them. They knew/learned how to get things on their own.
Benefits
To ensure that the younger generation(s) will keep passing this knowledge down. We hope that many of our younger generations will get encouraged to learn about their culture, as it's the last thing we want to lose. Every generation after the elders will be the ones to keep the oral knowledge alive and passed down. Point is, we count on the people older than us to teach us about these things and they are the ones who encourage us. We want our youth to do the same to the people below them and not get too caught up in the 'melik'ya world'.
Outcome
Keep the tradition of waffle gardening alive. With the improvement and evolution of technology, we felt that creating a website could help us reach a larger audience. As our elders have said "the younger people know how to work phones better than we do." We hope that everyone who comes across this website finds it helpful and learns something new, if you didn't already.
It would be beneficial in many ways as we would eat healthier foods. A person in our survey stated, "My great grandma lived to be a 100 years old because of the hard work they endured and the fresh crops they ate." Many from our younger generation today are used to eating processed foods that can cause many health issues such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. Gardens were a way of keeping pesticides out of our bodies and ensure our bodies will get the natural nutrients and proteins that these fruits and vegetables carry.
We hope that you find this website helpful and encouraging. Elahkwa!
Questions?
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments please feel free to contact our teacher, Ms. Arin Peywa at arin.peywa@zpsd.org.
We would like to hear your feedback by taking our survey. Click on the button down below.