"We Do Our Own Thing"

The Whirling Log Symbol That appears on our Wheels Forever Patch. Has appeared under different names and variations for communities across the world — manji in Buddhism, swastika in Hinduism. Specifically, for the Diné or Navajo people, whose interpretation we’ve adapted! Their ancestral homelands are in what is now called Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, the symbol is known by a variety of names in Diné bizaad (the Navajo language). It references the Diné Bahaneʼ or Navajo creation story and is generally understood as a harbinger of good luck, healing, and balance. 

Nazi swastikas and Whirling Logs are visually distinct and represent very different meanings in history! with the former angled as a diamond and the latter shaped like a square, which has been around thousands of years prior. Nevertheless, the Diné symbol was suppressed for decades by a settler-dominated art market that conflated it with the Nazi insignia. Over the past several years, the Whirling Log has begun to reappear in the work of several contemporary Diné artists. With the commercial and institutional success of master weavers, emerging artists, photo-based artists, elder weavers, and others, a new kind of settler taste has accepted this image back into the lexicon of contemporary art and permitted engagement with the Diné interpretation of the ancient Whirling Log.ort description.