WNMU Alum Part of the Award-Winning Zuni Olla Maidens
Western New Mexico University Alum Lynisha Dishta (MAT ’24) is a member of an all-women music and dance group, the Zuni Olla Maidens, which was recently awarded a highly prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. The Zuni Olla Maidens are one of only ten individuals or groups awarded the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts this year. The group was founded by Dishta’s great-grandmother, and it has remained a family affair ever since. The members of the group are Dishta’s aunts and cousins. The Zuni Olla Maidens perform social dances with water jars, or ollas, balanced on their heads. They dance in traditional regalia, including the turquoise jewelry that Zuni jewelers are known for, and they use drums, rattles and wooden rasps to accompany their songs. The group pays homage to the ancestral women of Zuni, who have traditionally been the ones to collect and carry water in ollas for their families. The pots that the...