Iva Honyestewa

Iva Casuse Honwynum (also Iva Honyestewa and Iva Lee Honyestewa; born 1964) is a Hopi/Navajo artist, social activist, and cultural practitioner. A Native American, Honwynum is best known for her woven baskets and figurative sculpture. Honwynum's most important breakthrough was the development of the pootsaya basket, called "a rare innovation in Hopi basketry".

Background Iva Casuse Honwynum was born in Gallup, New Mexico, to parents Richard Casuse (Navajo) and Shirley Casuse (née Mansfield; Sun Clan, Hopi). Honwynum is Sun (Taawa) Clan from the village of Songoopavi, Second Mesa, Arizona. Her Hopi name, Honwynum, translates in English to Female Bear Walking. She is included in the definitive guide to Native American jewelry makers by Gregory Schaaf of the Center for Indigenous Arts & Cultures.

Honwynum is expert at customary Hopi basket making, both the coiled basket (poota) and the sifter basket (tutsaya). Her grandmother Esther Honanie taught Honwynum to make her first coiled basket when she was ten years old. Honwynum did not revisit basket weaving until 1996, when she began lessons with her first cousin, Beth Dawahongnewa. Over the next ten years, Honwynum perfected her craft by making baskets for ceremonial purposes and began to introduce what would become her signature innovations. Her confidence grew, finally blossoming in 2006 as she began to enter art exhibitions and contests.

Shows, collections, and awards Honwynum exhibits at many venues, including three major juried, competitive Native American art markets: the Prescott Indian Art Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, and the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Honwynum has also won many awards, including 1st Place for Contemporary Basketry (for a pootsaya) and 2nd Place for Plaited Wicker Basketry at the 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, the Wilma Kaemlein Memorial Acquisition Award at the Southwest Indian Art Fair in 2015; Best of Division, First, and Second Place awards at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art exhibition in 2015 and 2016; Best of Category Sifter Baskets, First Place, and Second Place awards Gallup Indian Intertribal Celebration in Gallup, New Mexico in August 2011; 1st, 2nd and Honorable Mention at the Hopi Tuhisma Show in Kykotsmovi, AZ 2011–2014; 1st Place Butterfly Basket and 1st Place Geometric Design Division, Gallup Indian Intertribal Celebration in Gallup, New Mexico, in 2007; Honorable Mention in Basketry at the 2007 Museum of Northern Arizona Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture.

Honwynum was awarded the 2013 Artist-in-Residence award and fellowship at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. She subsequently was awarded the 2014 Eric and Barbara Dookin Artist Residency Fellowship at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe.

Honwynum is a subject of Sally Grotta's American Hands Project celebrating craftspeople through narrative portraiture and is on the cover of American Hands Journal volume 1. Honwynum also frequently lectures on Hopi arts and weaving and provides demonstrations.

In 2021, Honwynum was featured by the Arizona Office of Tourism, including a short documentary video, and the U.S. Parks Service, featuring a 30-minute interview discussing her artistic development and the Hopi culture.

At the 2022 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Honwynum won an Innovation Award and Judge's Award for her Whirlwind Waterweave and Flowers Life Sooyosi pootsaya baskets, respectively.

Social activism and community building Honwynum is a social activist, community builder, and preserver of Hopi culture. She has worked with community-building programs which include youth services and education, substance abuse prevention, and nutrition and health. Culturally, she is focused on providing support for the arts, Hopi language, and customary Hopi food. She is revising a Hopi cookbook for the Hopi Putavi Project in partnership with the Hopi Community Health Representative Office, the Hopi Special Diabetes Program, and the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Hopi Office. She co-authored "Understanding Access to and Use of Traditional Foods by Hopi Women," a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition.

Honwynum owns and operates Iskasokpu Gallery on Second Mesa, Arizona, which promotes Hopi artists. Iskasokpu translates to "the spring where the coyote burped." She also holds demonstrations and teaches Hopi cooking recipes (and has done so across many venues, including at the university level) and provides catering and private dinners.

The artist also has worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. She is closely related to the very accomplished basket maker, Adeline Lomayestewa. Both women taught Reba Ann Lomayestewa basketry techniques.