Indigenous Influences

Tribal Jewelry with a Growing Following

 

Try on a piece of Thelia Foster-designed jewelry and you can almost hear the tribal drums of West Africa and the Barbados from where the Alberta-based artist traces her cultural roots.

 

Foster’s distinctive silver rings, necklaces, earrings and broaches have an ancient, primal quality that captures the imagination and nourishes the soul.

 

Much of her work features Adinkra symbols, developed in the 1700s by the Ashanti people in what is now called Ghana. The Ashanti adorned their clothing with Adinkra symbols while mourning the death of loved ones. The symbols expressed the qualities – such as resourcefulness or courage – that the mourner wished for the deceased.

 

Over time, the symbols’ role evolved beyond funerals. They came to represent uplifting, motivating, character-building attributes that people wished for themselves and others.

 

Adinkra symbols continue to be popular today in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. And, thanks to artists such as Foster, they are also gaining popularity in North America and the Caribbean. She is helping to spark a growing wave of interest in tribal jewelry.

 

“Many people who buy my jewelry feel drawn to a particular Adinkra symbol,” says Foster. “Sometimes it’s the wheat stalk that symbolizes God’s grace, or the Mate Masie symbol that translates to knowledge. Whatever the symbol – and there are hundreds of them – its related qualities often have special meaning and value to the jewelry owner.”

 

Wearing a ring featuring the Mate Masie symbol won’t suddenly make you more knowledgeable. But it can help you to pursue and gain strength from that attribute.

 

“I design my jewelry to be attractive,” Foster says. “But I also design it to help people draw personal conviction and comfort from it, and to feel good about themselves.”

 

Foster also designs her jewelry using certain gemstones and decorative metals to which medical and spiritual benefits have been attributed. The idea of reaping physical benefits from a gem, a crystal or a metal such as copper is gradually gaining public acceptance, just as herbal medicine gradually gained public acceptance.

 

“Wearing one of my necklaces is like wearing herbal medicine,” Foster says.
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