This is a Forgery (CR)

I've always been interested in Native American culture, so a few years ago I took a class on Native American art and artistic practices. This specific piece is a rug, a traditional Navajo flat-weaving from the 60's on show in the Denver Art Museum Collection. I'm so enthralled by the patterns on these pieces, and this is only one of thousands of examples. These pieces hold a really strong spiritual existence, as well as an artistic manifestation. Thus, a reproduction would skew the importance of the piece itself: first, I wouldn't be spiritually connected to the weaving, as the Dineh people that traditionally weave these pieces would be. Second, the artistic practice of weaving the rug would be artificial. The means of weaving are passed down through generations in a tribe, and I would thus externally receive knowledge about the practice, creating an insincere experience of creation in comparison to the original.

I've also read a lot of literature about appropriation of Native American culture. Especially in the 60's and 70's, with the New Age movement came a large influx of commercial objects with Native American symbols and themes attached to them. I've read numerous accounts of Native American reaction to this, and feel strongly against it. It turns a deeply rooted spiritual culture into a commodity for consumption, which is really devastating to me. Granted there are a number of tribes across the country that hold open ceremonies solely for tourist income. However, I'm just ver sensitive to the idea of taking cultural and spiritual symbolism and art objects and turning them into artificial objects only for consumption. With this in mind, if I ever were to go through and create a forgery of this piece, I wouldn't sell it, but rather keep it for my own personal reflection and/or use.