Curandera Wisdom

Savian Czerny ‘25

Recently, I had the pleasure to meet Patricia Padilla, an 8th generation Curandera and Hopi healer, who currently lives in Taos, New Mexico. She was glistening with wisdom of all kinds, and she generously shared it all with us. She told us, out of the many things we learned from her, to memorize this statement/poem/passage written by the Hopi Elders. Out of respect for her wisdom and her wishes, I have taken each line of the passage and visually represented my own interpretation of the writing and I hope it adds to your own interpretation of the words. Take the time to listen to what you are reading, and take your time to notice all the parts of the photos. What do they make you feel? If anything at all…What can the Hopi Elder Statement mean for you?

As for the medium, this project was shot on a digital camera with the hopes of mimicking the slow and intentional process of analog photography. Everything was shot on a manual lens, without a functional light meter, which led to lots of trial and error in order to get the proper shot. I chose this limited digital format over analog so it would be reasonable to overlay text over the image, and I purposely chose a slower photography process in order to embody much of what Patricia spoke on. Intentionality, slowing down, listening.

These images were taken on the land of the Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache) peoples.