Alex

“A wise artist I met once told me in Navajo to be like water. No matter how much or how little there is, no matter what stops it or pushes it, no matter where it falls, what terrain it has to go through, it will continue to flow. Tó bee ííná. Water is life. So be like water.”

— Alex Holiday

Alex’s traditional upbringing provided her with the tools, knowledge, and resilience to withstand and overcome any obstacle in her path. Growing up with both Navajo and Slovakian bloodlines, she often faced peer ridicule and was deemed an outcast for not belonging to a particular group. Despite the one-dimensional categories others tried to place her in, she chose to embrace her roots and encourage others to appreciate their own multi-faceted backgrounds. As a singer and motivational speaker in her community, her words help to not only preserve the Navajo language, but to uplift her audience to understand and value their culture, learn their history, and reject society’s limited perspectives. Meet Alex. This is her story.

K: Please introduce yourself!

A: My name is Alex Rose Holiday. I’m Diné & Slovakian. I grew up on the Navajo Nation, I’m 23 years old and I’m a singer, motivational speaker, and artist. I am Tóáheedlíinii (water flows together clan). I was raised traditionally, and closer to my mom’s side of the family. My dad encouraged my mom to raise my siblings and I with our Navajo culture, and he even tried to speak to us in Navajo.

We didn’t get electricity until I was in middle school and we didn’t have running water until I was in high school. My dad would put sodas on top of our little trailer so we could have a cold can of coke haha. The watering hole near my parents’ house is not suitable for drinking, but in the summer & fall we would have fun washing our hair and bathing there. The nearest drinkable water was 15 miles away so we would save every container and water bottle to take there and fill it. This is how I thought everyone in the world lived and that the people in the movies who could turn a knob and have running water must be millionaires.

My grandpa is a well known hátaałii (medicine man), so I was always participating in ceremonies. On the weekends, I would get out of school on Fridays and spend the weekends dancing, singing, and praying. Most of the kids at those ceremonies would be playing in the dirt, playing tag in between the vehicles, laughing, and I would always want to go and play with them.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to go off and hang out with my friends in town. But my family always told me our duty was to help people, my duty was to do my part in helping my grandpa, I always had a role in the ceremonies he conducted. Instead of playing tag I was in the hogan with the adults praying and singing; instead of going to the movies with my friends, I was dancing around the fire until 3 am and then waking up at dawn to pray and continue. Instead of being covered in dirt, my skin was covered in ash, white clay, and red ochre. I am thankful for the way I was raised and for my traditions because now, and back then, there are so many more people who do not know their language and culture than there are people who do.

K: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that has defined you or made you stronger?

A: Growing up, I was bullied for not being full Navajo. Kids would call me “white girl” and when they saw my dad, they would tease me about him having white skin, blonde hair & blue eyes. In their eyes, I was white. In the western world’s eyes, I was Native American. I didn’t know where I belonged, and growing up, it felt like I wasn’t accepted anywhere. There was no group that I fit into.

If I could go back, I would tell my younger self that I never needed to be accepted in anyone else’s eyes but my own. At the time, I wanted to be like everyone else, to have a place where I fit into society. I’ve established my own place. I’m Navajo, I’m Slovakian, I’m a woman, I am human, a singer, teacher, model, artist, and always a rez girl at heart. I’m grateful for the way I was raised. I use my teachings to inspire others, no matter their blood quantum, no matter their race, age, gender. I write and perform songs in my Navajo language for people all over Rez, all over the country, and next year, on the other side of the world. My goal is to inspire people to accept themselves how they are, to learn their culture, their language, their people’s history, and to grow into their best selves. I hope through my songs and my art that I can contribute to keeping my dying language alive, or at least spark curiosity in someone.

K: What is one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?

A: You are not defined by your past, your family, or material things. People do not belong in whatever box society wants to put them in, we belong where we are and we need to just be. My role from a very young age was to help people with my grandpa and my family, alleviating them of sickness, pain and distress physically and mentally. That is the role I will continue to accept, gladly & eagerly for the rest of my life.

A wise artist I met once told me in Navajo to be like water. No matter how much or how little there is, no matter what stops it or pushes it, no matter where it falls, what terrain it has to go through, it will continue to flow. Tó bee ííná. Water is life. So be like water.

Jolan

Omolola