Collections Spotlight with Leah Mata Fragua

During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and through the reopening afterward, the Coe Center partnered with First American Art Magazine to present an interactive Zoom series in which Native artists discussed artworks in the Coe Collections. Collections Spotlight brought deep dives into objects from the Coe collection to the public from the artist’s perspective. These events were free and open to the public.

Leah Mata Fragua is a member of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini (the people of tiłhini) Northern Chumash Tribe, located on the Central California Coast. She is a professor in the Indigenous Liberal Studies Department of the Institute of American Indian Arts.

She is also a visual artist focused on living forms of regalia and jewelry rooted in California Indian aesthetics and techniques. Her place-based art is grounded in an understanding of the past that is interdependent with the future and her relationship to her homelands.

Mata Fragua has earned top honors such as the Autry Indian Market Best in Diverse Cultural Arts (2012), Heard Museum Guild Fair First Place Traditional Attire (2013, 2016), Heard Fair Best of Personal Attire Classification (2018), Santa Fe Indian Market Second Place Personal Attire (2018). Mata Fragua was a Smithsonian Artist Research fellow in 2011, and a Master Artist for Alliance of California Traditional Arts in 2013. Most recently, Mata Fragua was the 2020 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Artist Fellow at the School for Advanced Research.

Mata Fragua’s education, which includes a B.A. in Anthropology and a M.A. in Cultural Sustainability, has afforded her access to various collections and archives to further her understanding of the technical and material expertise of yak tityu tityu (The People) and resisting the hindered access for community members whose relatives’ works are held in academic collections.

Most of the materials needed to create traditional Northern Chumash dance regalia and other material culture are site-specific and can require years of planning to complete each piece. The importance of gathering materials seasonally and with respect for the limits of each environment, even before they can be processed and then used, is a practice she engages in collaboration with homeland and her family.

Mata Fragua is committed to environmental issues that directly impact the ability to gather materials needed to sustain her artistic practice. Finding ways to assure each generation can sustain these art forms is an integral part of Mata Fragua’s process, and she incorporates her artistic practice with her intention as an educator, researcher, and community member.

Mata Fragua notes that this basket is a coil Ohlone basket with shellwork incorporated. Shells are common in basket and belt designs. She talks about how the basket materials used depend on the different regions the object is from. The basket start can also vary by community; this basket has a counter-clockwise start.

Mata Fragua began by discussing that this object is made from dark black soapstone, which comes from the islands; these islands are no longer accessible to the Chumash. The bowl would likely have been used to grind body paint or possibly as a toy. She noted that pre-contact, it would have been created using a pump drill and rock sanding.

She also noted that incised design of the snake can represent stories related to various serpent stories in Chumash culture, such as serpents that hold up the world or the Milky Way. The lizard is also important in Chumash stories and plays games with other creatures, such as snakes.

Mata Fragua identifies the piece as an earplug/gauge. The black material is called Pismu and is from the place of Pismu, which translates to the “place where the black stuff is”. Pismo Beach in California is the area referred to, and its name comes from the word Pismu.

She then discusses the materials used: natural tar from California, inlaid with abalone and olive shell discs. All the material is collected in the area, but many of the species are now considered endangered. The small beads on the front are olive shells. Chumash are known for their olive shells, and the beads used to be strung on strings. Mata Fragua also mentions that the Pismo tar was also used in their ocean-going canoes. The tar naturally rolls up on the beach and can be combined with pine tar.

Mata Fragua discusses that earplugs, piercings, and tattoos were/are common for Chumash culture. The earplugs would have been worn mostly by men, but different types of gauges can be gender specific. Leah notes she has also seen similar styles in pendants. She then discusses that American culture views piercings and tattoos as part of a subculture and more taboo; this can pose challenges to Chumash people who wear these things in the present day. She states that she is glad to see younger people wearing body adornment.