Hali Garcia’s artistic practice starts in Florida’s open grasslands where she plucks sweetgrass and palmetto fibers. The Seminole artist has built layers of callouses on her fingers — each one a testament to the hours spent sewing coils of grass into intricate baskets.
Garcia, who specializes in sweetgrass basketry, learned the tradition from older generations of women in the Seminole Tribe of Florida, who passed down their knowledge to her.
“ You went out, you collected this, 'cause this isn't something that you're able to just go grab from like Walmart. Sweetgrass basket making is a tedious art from start to finish, and you have to appreciate that this is an art form that fed you,” Garcia said.
While she’s versed in the fundamentals, Garcia is not afraid to experiment with new techniques and incorporate her interest in video games and anime. It makes her basketry unmistakable.
Garcia described one of her decorative baskets that was inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog. Red, blue and yellow strands represent different levels of the video game, and at the bottom, she stitched Sonic’s catchphrase “Gotta Go Fast.”
Now, the basket sits behind a glass display case at the HistoryMiami Museum, where it shares space with traditional pieces from fellow Seminole artists as part of the museum’s latest exhibit, “Yakne Seminoli” or Seminole World.
The museum partnered with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum in the Big Cypress Reservation to showcase more than 25 Seminole artists and a variety of art forms including basket weaving, wood carvings, textiles and paintings.
”Our mission is to safeguard and share Miami stories, to foster learning, inspire a sense of place and cultivate and engage community. And one of the great ways that we meet that mission is by serving as a vehicle for the community to express itself through the museum,” said Michael Knoll, the museum’s vice president of strategic initiatives. He explained that the collaboration allows them to amplify Florida’s rich indigenous history and make it more accessible to a wider audience.
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Many of the items on display, which were sold in tourist camps as a means of survival, speak to the Seminole Tribe’s resourcefulness. In the first half of the 20th century, these camps were meant to attract visitors who could experience alligator wrestling and canoe carving on the reservation. Work of other prominent artists such as Jimmy John Osceola, Erica Deitz and Elgin Jumper also depict daily life on the reservation and traditional ceremonies.
“ They speak to the resiliency of the Seminole people — the fact that they're thriving in contemporary times despite the challenges that they faced over the years,” Knoll said.
The exhibit not only looks back at the tribe’s history but also showcases its enduring legacy in a younger generation of artists — ones who mix contemporary and traditional styles.
“[The exhibit] kind of gives you an updated look at who we are and let you know that we are still here and that our crafts and our history and our culture is still thriving today,” said artist Wilson Bowers whose artwork is also featured in the exhibit.
Visitors will see that range of style in Bowers' floor-to-ceiling mural of a Seminole woman painted in a bold pop art style. Next to her, there’s a speech bubble that phonetically spells out “my family” in the tribe’s language. Bowers said he wanted the piece to reference the tribe’s matriarchal society.
He takes inspiration from graffiti, pop art and traditional patchwork designs — a tribal practice of piecing colorful strips of fabric in horizontal bands. His mom was a seamstress, and he grew up seeing her cut and sew in this style. The same clean, colorful lines found in patchwork can be found in his artwork.
“The culture and tradition and crafts is my foundation,” he said.
Bowers also leads arts workshops for young kids where he encourages them to play with patchwork elements by drawing their favorite characters, like Batman or Wolverine, in the same traditional style.
READ MORE: ‘I don’t want our legacy to die’: A family’s fight to keep Seminola’s history alive
“ I'll try to relay that to the kids — you come from a unique culture, you come from a unique background, and there's ways you could use that,” he said. “It doesn't always have to be traditional style like this or traditional style like that. It starts opening up their mind to different things.”
Garcia has been teaching basket weaving for three years, and has about 60 students. She said she’s heartened to see a growing interest in basketry in her community.
She said that basketmaking can be daunting at first, especially in the face of more seasoned basket weavers, but Garcia said it’s an opportunity to keep their traditions alive and embrace their culture — all while still cultivating their own style.
“ It's kind of hard to want to even step into the game [when] you're going up against heavy hitters. But the way I see it is, 'Well, they learned their style, they practiced it for many years. They figured it out. So let's find yours and let's cultivate that.'”
