Across North America and throughout the Hawaiian Islands, Native people are engaged in artistic activities deeply rooted in the everyday and ceremonial traditions of their communities. In the face of dwindling or inaccessible natural resources, loss of elders and their specialized knowledge, the profusion of cheap mass-produced goods, and the use-it and throw-away attitude of so many, Native artists are nevertheless gathering natural materials and weaving them into objects of profound beauty and meaning. The 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions, examines the contemporary state of Native weaving in the United States and the ways in which Native baskets--and their makers--are "carriers of culture."

One of the most important developments in indigenous basket weaving has been the formation of Native weaving organizations over the past fifteen years, bringing together weavers from diverse places to identify and examine problems