Among the most refined expressions of Native North American spirituality are the sandpaintings of the Navajo, who in their own language call themselves Diné, «the people». They are images of great complexity, laid out on the ground with sands, mineral pigments, pollen and charcoal, and destroyed a few hours later, at the end of the ceremony for which they were made. Their value lies not in how long they last, but in what happens while they exist.
The chanter and the ceremonies
Sandpaintings are part of the great Navajo ceremonies known in English as chantways. They are led by a specialist, the hataalii, a word that literally means «singer». The chanter spends years learning one or more ceremonies from a teacher: hundreds of songs to be performed in a precise order, prayers, gestures, ritual objects and the designs of the paintings.
Each ceremony has its own purpose and its own origin story. The best known are:
- Hózhóójí, the Blessingway, considered the backbone of ceremonial life: it is held to protect a home, a pregnancy, a journey or a girl's passage into adulthood.
- Klééjí Hatáál, the Nightway, a nine-night winter ceremony in which the masked Yé'ii dancers appear, impersonating the Holy People.
- Many other «ways», each linked to an area of life and to a mythic narrative.
The Holy People in the sand
The Navajo name for the paintings, iikááh, is often explained as «the place where the Holy Ones come and go». The figures depicted are the Diyin Dine'é, the Holy People of the myths: the Thunder People, the Wind People, the corn figures, the beings of the sacred mountains. They are drawn according to fixed patterns handed down by the ceremony's origin story: according to tradition, the holy beings themselves showed them to the ancestors.
The chanter, helped by assistants, lets the coloured sand trickle between thumb and forefinger with extraordinary precision. The figures are elongated, stylised, adorned with symbols of lightning, rainbow and corn. Often a rainbow in the shape of a holy figure surrounds the composition on three sides, leaving the east side open, through which good enters.
Sitting inside the image
The decisive moment comes when the painting is finished. The person for whom the ceremony is held is seated on the design, at its centre. The chanter takes sand from the figures of the Holy People and applies it to parts of the person's body, bringing them into direct contact with their power.
This gesture reveals the deeper meaning of the rite. The painting is not an image to be contemplated, but a place where the sacred becomes present. Whoever sits in it is identified with the holy beings and set back into the order of the world. When the ceremony ends, the sand is gathered and returned to the earth, usually to the north, because it has absorbed what had to be sent away.
Hózhó: harmony and beauty
To understand Navajo ceremonies one must know the word hózhó. It is translated as «beauty», «harmony», «balance», «well-being», but none of these words is enough on its own. It indicates the state in which all things stand in right relationship: the person with the family, the family with the land, the land with the sky.
A well-known Navajo prayer says, in essence: I walk with beauty before me, behind me, below me, above me, all around me. The ceremonies exist to restore hózhó when it has been lost. This is why their language is one of order, symmetry and repetition.
Sacred paintings and commercial paintings
Since the twentieth century some Navajo artists have made permanent sandpaintings, glued onto boards and intended for sale. Out of respect for the tradition, many of them deliberately alter the designs, changing colours or details, so that the work does not exactly reproduce a ceremonial image and does not carry the power of the real one.
This choice is instructive. It shows that for the Diné the boundary between art and rite does not depend on the beauty of the design, but on the context, the words and the person who makes it. A sacred sandpainting is not kept: it exists for the time of the chant and then returns to the earth.
In short
- Sandpaintings are part of Navajo ceremonies led by the hataalii chanter.
- They depict the Holy People according to patterns handed down by origin myths.
- The person being sung over sits at the centre of the painting, in contact with the power of the Holy Ones.
- The aim of the ceremonies is to restore hózhó, harmony and beauty.
- Ritual paintings are destroyed; commercial ones are deliberately altered.
