Chakotays sister, Sekaya in ceremonial Maya clothing :)
The clothing I’ve drawn is specific to Cobán, Guatemala, as the Q’eqchi’ clothing varies depending on the region. I’ve been wanting to make a post that details a bit of the cultural significance of design choices I make; sadly, I just haven’t had the time to draw or post. Nevertheless, I was able to make this drawing of Sekaya, paired with my knowledge of the Q’eqchi, to create a bit of a fun side project for me. I’ve done research on this particular group for a while now, and funnily enough, the most challenging part of all this for me is actually drawing the clothes, as it is one of my biggest weaknesses, haha. Anyways, this is a lengthy post for anyone who is interested in learning more about Mesoamerican cultures through my Chakotay lore-building art. (I’m aware of the recent selection of an Indigenous group for Chakotay. I chose to make him two ethnicities—originally Lacandon and Q’eqchi—long before Prodigy and decided to keep the q'eqchi' decision.) Without further ado, please enjoy this read about ceremonial Q’eqchi’ women’s clothing.
The Q’eqchi’ are a Maya ethnic group that primarily occupy the department of Alta Verapaz in Guatemala as well as the Petén and Izabal departments and Belize’s Toledo district. I’ll be discussing the ceremonial clothing that Q’eqchi’ women wear for various special occasions, some of which are Rab’in Ajaw, Paa’bank Cultural Festival, or Princesa Tezulutlan.
The tupuy: A nine-meter braid worn in the hair of Q’eqchi’ women. It represents many aspects of womanhood tied to Maya cosmological beliefs. The red represents blood; its length represents the nine months of pregnancy. The yellow tethered ends represent the feathered serpent, and the tupuy is divided in two to signify the duality of the human.
Chachales: Often multiple necklaces are stacked upon each other and are made of silver to represent nature and display the elegance of a woman. There are various designs of the chachales that may sometimes include other materials such as jade or red braids.
Güipil: Handwoven on a backstrap, the güipil's embroidered patterns can vary on the individual, but it typically includes flowers, seeds, or animals that connect the women to nature, their ancestors, and the cosmos. The white represents the women’s purity, and the variant of güipil called the Picb’il, which is pure white with no colored embroidery, has delicate white patterns sewn into it.
The history of contemporary huipiles/güipiles in Guatemala is long and complicated. They were once used to identify indigenous people based off their color, designs, and style, which disclosed the wearer's age, income, race, and community. This made them targets of extreme violence and exploitation. In the modern era, Indigenous women have redefined and reclaimed the huipil as emblems of resistance and pride in their heritage. To this day, the Maya continue to wear unique huipiles and other clothing based on their ethnicity or region, embracing their differences and honoring their distinctive Maya beliefs.
Corte: The corte represents darkness, mother nature, and the four sacred cardinal directions. Often there will be a stripe or band located towards the bottom of a woman's corte that represents the feathered serpent.
Items not included in my drawing that may also be worn:
Anillos (rings): Women may wear 20 rings, one for each finger, which references the 20 nahuales of the Maya cosmovision and also represents nature.
Perraje: The perraje is a versatile piece of fabric that will either be worn on top of the head to block the sun's rays, be carried between/in the arms, or be worn as a shawl to shield from the cold.
Los aretes (earrings): The earrings a Q’eqchi’ woman may wear represent the phases of the moon.
Examples of different regional Q'eqchi' ceremonial clothing (Cahabón and Lanquin):
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An up to date headcanon design for mama. Its taken me a while to be able to see her face in my head. I've tried to force myself into drawing her before without a sure idea of what she looked like. But im rather satisfied with this. I hope this design feels more like a real person 🙂
Also, I want to keep my headcanon of her being from Guatemala, thus making chakotay Guatemalan/Nicaraguan, just because its so much easier to find information on both the contemporary and historical culture. Plus its kinda apart of my hc that he's 2 different ethnicities. With that being said, mama, or as Christie named her, Tananka, was born in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. I'm still deciding which municipality, probably either Chisec, Lanquin, or Cahabón either way, she is Q'eqchi Maya :].
I hope yall like her! Sorry I havent been around here on tumblr much :/
The story is unfinished for now but I intend to complete the rest of the panels this summer after school is let out :).
I really hope to post more about my concepts about trebus this summer when I have some free time but im taking classes so idk if I will. It makes me feel guilty posting specifically to tumblr when I know I should be working on homework lol.
But in the mean time here's some basic info on these 3:
Chakotay and ixpo are the same age
They meet at age 3
"Tata" is their pueblos ilonel, medicine man/curer
Lieutenant chakotay is working as an admin at the Academy for someone who was his mentor back when he was a cadet. (I don't have a name for him yet 😞). He is very demanding of chakotay, and chakotay is learning that shore duty isn't all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, in his opinion, it's more challenging than space duty. Luckily, his sister Sekaya is on earth in school as an undergraduate linguistics major and is living with him. He enjoys being able to come home to family, despite the fact they argue frequently <3.
I'm going to post my hc info chart for this age when school is out and when I can think of a department name that he works in 😅 (its going to be some sub field of anthropology as the andorian is an anthropologist himself :3)
This is a test run for me because I've struggled with organizing these info pages/progression art for a hot minute now 😅 I would appreciate any feedback so I can make changes for the others I have :D!
But yeah, this is a very brief overview for my headcanon lore for (ensign) Chakotay. I've based a lot of it on the book Pathways and the show itself. Ive made changes from what Jeri Taylor wrote because that book was written during maybe the 2nd or 3rd season of Voyager so there ended being lore missing from his story that was mentioned in later seasons, like his sister/interest in anthropology. I've still loosely followed the same series of events and growth, but luckily, unlike Jeri, I have time to develop more characters to his story and dive a little deeper on specific moments in his life :] anyway I hope yall like this cause if so there's more to come :D! (Much later though I'm too locked in for school 😓)
Doodle of Chakotay and his baby sister sekaya spending time with eachother :3
Quick headcanon backstory on them to give context to the art: they're 8 years apart, so chakotay left home when she was 7. They were super close before he left, and it devastated sekaya when he did. Though initially this impacted her quite negatively, she was able to find support in the community. She grows up to find interest in linguistics and grows a strong desire to pursue it academically. Chakotay and sekaya meet again only 1 other time (when he was in the Academy) before they meet again when chakotay returns home for their grandfather's death. He his roughly 28, and she 20. It's a rough meet up as they don't know how to speak to each other anymore. They semi patch things up before he leaves again. A few years later chakotay is at his shore duty command in san Diego and at this time sekaya finally decides to attend college on earth. She lives with him in his apartment, and they spend 4 years bonding, arguing, and learning each other :3
This is like surface level of what I had in mind but hopefully it's not too long ❤️
I know no one asked, but I made this drawing guide on chakotay for an art trade, but thought I’d share it here too just in case. It’s been such a trial and error trying to nail his features exactly. I don’t think I’ll ever be perfect, but I’ve been pretty satisfied with what I’ve produced and recognized these past few months :).
Also some of the tips are specific to how I draw him at a young age, so just ignore those I was to lazy to get rid of it.
Also also I’m not really an artist sooo… sorry for the lack of technical jargon cuz I really don’t know lol
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