Tey wu lauw McQuillen

Hello, my name is Tey wu lauw Betty McQuillen. I am an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe of Northern California and a Tolowa descendant. I come from the villages of Turep and pecwan along the Klamath river. I am currently enrollled at Cal Poly Humboldt majoring in Anthropology with a focus on Native resource management and consultations. I have been very privileged in learning cultural practices, traditions, and lessons as well as being able to form numerous relationships within my community with women who are keepers of cultural knowledge.

I wanted to focus on those who have been most influential within not just my own life, but within my community as well. Since time immemorial, the indigenous women living withinYurok territory have been indomitable in groundbreaking advances in environmental protection, resource conservation, cultural repatriation, representation, as well as being instrumental in passing on knowledge to our next generations. For my piece, it is an interpretation of an acorn maiden or a spirit in my culture that is pure, strong, and resilient. A being that is capable of altering the balance of the world but is light as a butterfly.