Genna Martin / The Herald Shaylene Jefferson, 16, of Suquamish, waits in the boat for her uncle, in Mukilteo, after a day of crabbing in Puget Sound on June 11.
The Coast Salish people gave it a name that sounds much like Mukilteo.
It means “good camping ground,” said Michelle Myles of the Tulalip Tribes Lushootseed language department.
Mukilteo was the gathering place where in 1855 territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens signed the Point Elliott treaty with representatives of 22 tribes and bands of native people from the greater Puget Sound region, now called the Salish Sea.
History is big in Mukilteo, which was the first non-Indian settlement in Snohomish County. It was established about 1860 with a trading post. A fish cannery and sawmill followed later.
Mukilteo is still all about summer.
A walk-on ferry ride to Whidbey Island, beachcombing and picnic, a tour of the lighthouse, a beer at Diamond Knot, fish and chips at Ivar’s and produce from the Wednesday afternoon farmers market in Lighthouse Park off Front Street.
It’s all there in old Mukilteo. You can easily spend a full day enjoying it, so plan accordingly.
Any tour of Mukilteo has to start with its lighthouse, which opened in 1906 to guide ships in and out of Puget Sound and continues to be the city’s most enduring icon.
The Mukilteo Light Station, surrounded by native Nootka roses, is on the National Register of Historic Places. From noon to 5 p.m. on weekends you can climb the 38-foot tall lighthouse tower to see the now-automated carved-glass Fresnel lens and take a look around.
The 17-acre park along the beach has improved greatly since the city took it over from the state in 2003. Be sure to check out the park’s Coast Salish artwork created by Joe Gobin and James Madison of the Tulalip Tribes.
Kids have plenty to do, on the beach or on the playground. Educational signs help people understand what’s in the water and how to help keep it clean.
Even on a rainy day at the park, you can picnic under a shelter and enjoy the calming water-island-mountain view that seems incongruous with the fact that just a few miles away is a huge regional metropolitan area.
Mukilteo was incorporated in 1947 with a population of 775. Land annexations and development off the Mukilteo Speedway have increased that number to about 21,000 residents.
After the lighthouse, the beach park and a round-trip ride on the ferry, take in lunch at the Diamond Knot Brewery on the west side of the ferry or at Ivar’s Mukilteo Landing restaurant on the other side. You also can walk a block or so up the hill to Arnie’s seafood restaurant.
Another option is the Red Cup, located in a delightful little shopping block at Fourth Street and Lincoln Avenue across the street from the Rosehill Community Center.
The coffee shop offers breakfast and lunch, served up with a beautiful view. And from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays throughout the summer, Red Cup Cafe hosts an open microphone that attracts an eclectic mix of performers.
It’s no wonder that Mukilteo’s Rosehill Community Center is the site of dozens of weddings throughout the summer. The views are outstanding and the grounds include wild roses and other native and drought-resistant plants.
Inside, check out the display of work by local artists, the historical photos of the former Rosehill schools and Crown Lumber’s mill.
The beautiful little cemetery includes a great view and the weathered gravestones of town founders Morris Frost and J.D. Fowler, along with headstones of Japanese mill workers.
The memorial is a bronze sculpture of a Japanese origami bird that sits on a white pedestal, symbolizing peace and commemorating Mukilteo’s long history with its Japanese community.
Finish your visit with a walk on the trail at nearby Japanese Gulch, a 144-acre forested park where the families of Japanese immigrants lived.
Selena and Mark Chino are featured in the “A Thousand Voices” documentary for their involvement with domestic violence victims and their encouragement of the empowerment of Native American women. (Courtesy)
A former Mescalero Apache president and a first lady of the tribe will be featured in a documentary.”A Thousand Voices,” filmed by Silver Bullet Productions.
Sandra Platero served as president after the resignation of Fred Chino and before the election of current Mescalero President Danny Breuninger. Previously, she served as vice president and on the tribal council. Attempts to reach Platero for an interview were unsuccessful.
Selena Chino is the wife of Mark Chino, who served as Mescalero president three times. She was a victims’ advocate and tribal liaison with the Nest, Lincoln County’s only domestic violence shelter, and she served as a state tourism commissioner.
Selena and Mark attended a rough cut screening of the documentary on June 5, and the film is slated for a final version screening July 21, free at Buffalo Thunder (Resort and Casino) in Santa Fe. Check the Silver Bullet website for the time. Silver Bullet films also usually screen at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. and air on the Public Broadcasting System, a company spokesman said.
“I’m extremely proud of Selena,” Mark said. “She and her efforts to help domestic violence victims came to Pamela Pierce’s attention in mid-2013, and Selena was asked to appear in the film. She was recognized purely through her own efforts, as I already had left office.”
Pierce is chief executive officer of Silver Bullet Productions, a nonprofit founded in 2004, and based in Santa Fe. The organization with staff and volunteers stages cultural workshops with the aim of empowering Native American youths by raising their educational aspirations and by cultivating young filmmakers. The organization has produced 31 projects with the help of sponsors and recently received the Yawa’ Award for special projects, given to nonprofits that put actions to their words. The company’s “Canes of Power” also won four regional Emmys.
Silver Bullet was formed because of concerns by members of Native American groups over the loss of language, cultural and community, according to Pierce.
“A Thousand Voices” is the story of the inherent power of tribal women in New Mexico, and was filmed partly through funding with the San Manuel Board of Mission Indians. Besides the screenings and possible PBS airing, the film will be presented to students, who will participate in writing the curriculum and discussion guide that will accompany the documentary, following a pattern for all of Silver Bullet’s films, Pierce wrote in a memorandum to participants before the rough cut was screened.
“The production of this film has been a wonderful journey,” Pierce wrote. “Each of our participants has been revealing in ways that educate and shatter stereotypes.”
“A Thousand Voices” looks at the traditional roles of tribal women and poses the questions of how stereotypes from the media and literature altered the reality of tribal women, what are the universal lessons to be learned from the traditional values and the current status of Native American woman; and what are the threats to native communities, if women do not continue to play their crucial roles?
Selection process
As a domestic violence survivor and victims’ advocate, former first lady of the Mescalero, a state tourism commissioner, a store manager, and since May, a front desk manager and concierge for the tribe’s Inn of the Mountain Gods, Selena Chino was a natural choice for inclusion in “A Thousand Voices.”
A panel of tribal advisors from a variety of tribes, and representatives from Silver Bullet looked at the candidates.
“You can be a wonderful person, but you may not always come off as being able to state what your beliefs are and have the courage to state them,” Pierce said. “It’s not enough to stand for something, you have to be able to say it in a way that other men and women can relate to you. That certainly was true for Selena, Mark and Sandra.”
“The theme of the film is about the inherent strength of tribal woman and how that strength diminished or changed because of the white invasion from Spain, Mexico and the United States, and then return again to the strength of women that goes back to the beginning of time, and still is there despite the challenges,” Pierce said during a telephone interview Wednesday. “That strength is there in our modern current New Mexico tribal women. The reason Selena and her husband were selected was because they represent that strength. Selena represents it in two ways. She is married to a previous president of an Apache tribe and that takes strength to be married to a leader, no matter what your gender, and to be involved in a political family. And also because of her commitment to empowering women who have been victims of domestic violence. It was important to include that voice, not just from women. Selena and Mark together represent a belief in the hope for tribal women to survive domestic violence. It was obvious from the first time I spoke with her that she was somebody I really felt would enhance the message of the film.”
For Sandra Platero, “It was the strength of being a woman leader among other tribes that do not have women leaders,” Pierce said. “She certainly was a spokesperson for her language and her leadership.
“I think both women and their families deserve praise. It takes a lot of courage and determination and they showed that.”
Selena Chino
“I received a phone call in September from Pamela Pierce with Silver Bullet,” Selena said. “She mentioned there was a big meeting and they were kicking around who they would want to interview. She didn’t say who suggested my name. I had to go up to Santa Fe anyway during the Indian Market, We arranged time to talk. She came to Buffalo Thunder and we sat down. Thee project focuses on Indian women of power and how they have juggled their involvement with government, plus tribal culture and being a mother, how they keep culture and traditions alive while still doing all these empowerment things.”
Initially Pierce was looking for ideas for the project, Selena said.
“I mentioned that from 2008 to 2010, I worked as outreach coordinator at The Nest,” Selena said. “I was an advocate on Wednesdays, and that’s where my domestic violence and sexual assault training came from, helping residents. Then I became liaison between the tribe and Nest. (Pierce) began focusing, because I mentioned that domestic violence is the number one killer of Native American women nationwide. We started talking about that. She said she would really like to interview me. About that time Mark walked by and I introduced them, and she dragged him in. He was involved with the Nest too, being the president and volunteering. He spoke about how his view had changed from (his years in) law enforcement and what he learned from me being involved with the Nest. She wanted to interview him too.”
After seeing the raw cut of the film earlier this month, “It blows our minds to be involved with something like this, to be on PBS, in schools with workbooks,” Selena said.
Although the couple no longer has a daily involvement with the Nest, Selena said it is part of their lives.
“I still help as much as I can,” she said. “I still have people calling my cell phone just because they need help. I have people who stop me and ask questions, because they know me. So I still help out people even though I am not directly involved with the Nest anymore. People know I’m here (at the Inn) and ask how did you do this facing this situation and who can I call and who can I talk to.”
Selena can empathize with those exposed to domestic violence, because she dealt with the behavior in her first marriage.
“My life is very complicated story,” she said. “My mother went to school at Pasadena City College. She was not raised on the reservation, because of a program of relocation of kids on the Hopi reservation. There was a grant in the 1950s that helped send a student to a family, who helped support them and put them through college while they took care of their kids and helped around the house. That’s how she ended up in Pasadena. She also was a runner up for queen in the Rose Bowl Parade. She would have been first Native American queen had she won. She always encouraged me to go further, not to stay on the reservation, to get involved in a lot of interests.”
Selena’s father died in 2002 and her mother in 2006. “She was very beautiful inside and out,” Selena said of her mother. “She met my father when her family lived in Winslow, Ariz. He was the boy next door and the parents were friends, They were college sweethearts, They got married, then they got divorced, they remarried and divorced again. And at very end were living together, because they got along better when they were not married. I was her maid of honor the second time. We lived in Grants at that time. I wasn’t raised on the reservation. I moved back here in 1978.”
Selena said she was married for five years to a “very abusive man,” and went through the experience of having her self esteem and confidence constantly assaulted, then pulling herself up and moving forward. “It’s been a long road,” she said. “I’ve been where they’ve been at the Nest.
“Then I met Mark, who is very patient, thank God, because I have all this baggage with me. But with confidence from him and his support, I know what a healthy relationship is with him. It’s loving, it’s supportive. Everything that he’s given me.”
The couple celebrated their 20th anniversary on April 30, which Selena said, “Is an accomplishment right there. We’re totally opposite. He’s so quiet and reserved. On the other side, I talk to everybody, have conversations with people I don’t even know.”
While Mark was in office, Selena often accompanied him on trips, including the nation’s capitol, developing personal relationships with dignitaries and elected officials such as (New Mexico former attorney general) Patricia Madrid, Gov. Susana Martinez and Secretary of State Dianna Duran.
“As a former tourism commissioner, former first lady, the facets of my life are so complicated,” Selena said. “I don’t think I’m really involved in a lot of stuff. I do it, because I enjoy it. I just do it to help people, not add things to my resume.”
Those interviewed for the film were Georgene Louis, Acoma attorney and state legislator; Richard Luarkie and family, Laguna governor; Lela Kaskalla, past governor of Nambe; Sandra Platero and husband Paul; Selena Chino and husband Mark; Christy Bird, 16-year-old singer from Santa Domingo, who performed on a commercial for the Super Bowl; Rose B. Simpson, Santa Clara artist; Patricia Michaels, award winning designer on Project Runway from Taos Pueblo; Veronica Tiller, Jicarilla Apache historian and author; Navajo woman weavers from Two Grey Hills and Toadlena Trading Post; Luci Tapahonso, Navajo poet lureate; Matthew Martinez, historian and grandson of Esther Martinez of Ohkay Owingeh; and Liana Sanchez and family, owner of Avanyu LLC Construction company, San Ildefonso.
Heritage High School students filming a scene for ‘Lady of the Woods,” a project for their multi-media class. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
TULALIP – Quiet on set. Camera frame. Speed. Mark it. Action!
Brian Berry, Tulalip TV’s Director of Video checks over scenes to shoot with Tulalip Hertiage High School students during filming “Lady of the Woods,” a Heritage multi-media class project. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Tulalip Heritage High School students recently held their filmmaking debut on Friday, June 13, with a little help from Tulalip TV, subsidiary of Tulalip Tribes Communications. Through a unique collaboration between Heritage High School and Tulalip TV, multi-media students received a crash course on film production to produce a short film titled, “Lady of the Woods.”
The project, created by Heritage principal Shelly Lacy and Heritage teacher Cerissa Gobin, required students to not only learn pre and post- film production and editing, but also to create a script and act it out.
“A lot of times, as viewers, we don’t think about how a movie comes together,” said Niki Cleary, Tulalip Tribes Communications Director. “This gave our youth a chance to see that it doesn’t happen all at once from start to finish. They had the fun experience of shooting scenes out of sequence. The scenes, which happen one right after another in the movie, were shot on different days. Unfortunately, the students forgot to wear the same clothing, which made for some continuity issues, but really helped them learn some of the basic principles
Heritage High School student Adiya Jones worked as ‘Lady of the Woods” cinematographer during filming. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
of movie production.”
The short film, which started off initially as a game show in brain storming sessions, provided students the entire film production process on a limited schedule. This included learning filmmaking terminology, which to untrained ears, sounds a lot like random dialogue being yelled out by the director from behind the camera. Roll camera. Tilt. Speed frame. Fade in.
“I am very happy with what we were able to accomplish in such a short period of time,” said Brian Berry, director of video for Tulalip TV, who worked with students throughout the filming. “We all knew that we were working against the clock, and that was one of the skills that the students learned, time management with regard to productions. We saw a lot of interest from many of the students and we hope this spark will ignite a growing base of students who want to continue with this type of study and possibly career path.”
That’s a wrap. As part of the filmmaking process, students debuted “Lady in the Woods” to underclassmen during the last days of school completing their filmmaking process.
“The student participation has been amazing. Although listening to the lecture portion of class was tough, they really engaged once they got hands on with the equipment,” said Cleary. “Ultimately, we hope to train the Heritage students to the point that they are able to cover Heritage Sports with a student staffed video crew. The skills they learn can also be used to
Heritage High School students, Aryik Miranda, Shawn Sanchey, Jaylin Rivera and Desirea Williams rehearse their lines before filming their next scene for ‘Lady of the Woods.’ Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
produce a Heritage news program, public service announcements or any number of exciting video projects. We hope that the students who learn video skills at Heritage will be the next generation of Communications Department employees.”
Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com
Jackie McNeel Governor Jay Inslee, and his wife Trudi, (center) with Navajo Code Talker Kee Etsicitty, (far right) and Yakama Tribal Council Chairman JoDe Goudy on June 9, 2014.
Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee and his wife, Trudi, took part in the Yakama Treaty Days Parade on June 9, recognizing the Treaty of 1855 between the U.S. and the Yakama Nation. Governor Inslee stopped frequently to shake hands and exchange a few words with onlookers, as he made his way to the podium to join Tribal Council Chairman JoDe Goudy, who rode behind him on horseback in full regalia, and Navajo Code Talker Kee Etsicitty.
The parade included a rodeo, pow wow, golf tournament, softball tournament, salmon bake and some unofficial business — talks between the the governor and tribal leaders were held on the grounds of the Yakama Cultural Center. A group of young dancers, the Swan Dancers, also honored guests with a Welcome Dance.
Chairman Goudy proclaimed June 9 as “Governor Jay Inslee Day”’ for his commitment to the Yakama Nation. Goudy presented Inslee with a copy of the original treaty and the tribe gave, “so he could read it over and over and over again,” Goudy said.
The softball tournament was held a few blocks away and 14 teams participated. Most of the men’s teams were made up of players from different tribes. But team “Tribes,” from the Yakama Nation, took first place, and in second were the Muckleshoot “Warriors.”
On the women’s side, the Silver Bullets, made up of players from various reservations throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho, took first place and the Ice Ice Natives from Elwha finished in second. The winners received sweaters and a $400 payout.
Eighty golfers from 13 tribes gathered at the Mt. Adams Country Club. Golfers had the option of playing in a 4-man scramble tournament, divided between duffer and stroker divisions. They also had the option of singles match play.
The pow wow was held about 20 miles away at White Swan. Dancers gathered from far and near for the two-day event. The indoor pavilion was filled and vendors surrounded the building selling everything from frybread and Indian tacos to jewelry and beadwork. An adjacent building held stick game competitions.
Miss Yakama Nation, Jeanetta Garcia, and Junior Miss Yakama, Abigail Totus, were both presented at the parade and at the pow wow along with young royalty from other tribes.
The Treaty of 1855 involved all 14 bands of the Yakama Nation. Representatives of those bands make up the Tribal Council. The population is now upwards of 10,000 members on the 1.2 million acre reservation.
Every day, aboriginal culture is borrowed, copied, dressed up or watered down. Is that art? Or is it stealing? Appropriation, it turns out, is all about the attitude.
Last fall, two exhibits opened in Montreal, both centred on aboriginal themes. Beat Nation, a multimedia presentation by aboriginal artists who’d mixed hip-hop culture with their own iconography, opened at the Museum of Modern Art on October 16. The next day—purely by unfortunate coincidence—the Museum of Fine Arts boutique unveiled Inukt, a new product line featuring aboriginally-flavoured clothing, accessories and homewares.
Beat Nation was an unapologetic, boundary-crossing exploration of tradition and modernity, and largely a critical success. Inukt was a confused, haphazard jumble, and a public relations disaster.
Like its mock, made-up name, few of Inukt’s products bear any resemblance to Inuit art. This April, the website advertised everything from T-shirts and tote bags to throw pillows and arm-chairs, adorned with portraits of random Plains Indian chiefs, bought from an online stock image gallery. Other T-shirts feature west-coast imagery—though the items themselves have Anishinaabe names. And then there are the “Eskimo doll” key-chains, miniature versions of embarrassing kitsch holdovers from a less sensitive time, their survivors now scattered across dusty thrift store shelves around the country. “The cultural mishmash here hurts my head,” wrote Chelsea Vowel, a Montreal-based Métis blogger.
Inukt’s designer, Nathalie Benarroch, is Canadian; a self-described fashionista who’d just returned to her home country after 23 years in Paris when she launched Inukt. “I saw this country with a totally new outlook than the one I had when I left,” she states on her website (inukt.com). “Canada is beautiful and has an overall good reputation, but it still lacked glamour … Hence came the idea to renew with the history, culture and codes of Canada, while reinterpreting them fashionably, giving them a contemporary edge and exposing choice artists and artisans that are the New Canada.”
Her attempt to glamourize, however well-intentioned, didn’t fly. In fact, it crash-landed pretty much out of the gate. Within hours of Inukt’s opening, Benarroch had received so much flak on her Twitter and Facebook accounts, many from First Nations critics, that she had to shut them down.
“Some people wrote whole tracts on [her social media accounts], explaining how exactly [Inukt’s products] encroached on their culture, and yet still Benarroch was uncomprehending,” says Isa Tousignant, the reporter who covered the controversy in the Montreal Gazette.
Five hours after Tousignant’s article was published, the museum boutique withdrew its Inukt products from sale. What went wrong? Lots, and Benarroch was only a small part of it.
The appropriation of aboriginal culture has been going on since first contact. In some ways, it’s part of living in a multi-cultural world; that’s why you don’t have to be Inuit to paddle a kayak, or First Nations to wear moccasins.
But there are limits. Sylvie Laroche, manager of Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts boutique, claimed she didn’t see anything wrong with Inukt: “It’s tourist season now, and Europeans are nuts for this type of product,” she told The Gazette at the time.
“The free market idea doesn’t correspond to cultural responsibility in lots of ways,” says Tania Willard, curator of Beat Nation. “We can say people shouldn’t do that and it’s not respectful, but if people are buying it, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Inukt is hardly the worst offender. The headdress, a spiritual, sacred symbol for Plains Indians cultures, is one of the most controversial cultural objects out there. Headdresses are earned, not bought; eagle feathers are symbols of honour, and aboriginal activists in the U.S. compare warbonnets to army veterans’ medals. So when “hipster headdresses” became trendy, or when H&M Canada released a line of faux headdresses (featuring pink, green and purple feathers) last year, it was a problem. When Victoria’s Secret had lingerie models in headdresses in 2012, it was a problem. This past March, when cheerleaders at the University of Regina posted a photo to Instagram that revealed the team dressed as “cowgirls” and “Indians,” it was misappropriation, verging on racism.
Today, these transgressions don’t slip by without an uproar. “We have gone through the atrocities to survive and ensure our way of life continues,” Navajo Nation spokesman Erny Zah said in an interview following the Victoria’s Secret fiasco. “Any mockery, whether it’s Halloween, Victoria’s Secret—they are spitting on us. They are spitting on our culture, and it’s upsetting.” For the record, H&M withdrew their line with apologies. The cheerleaders were reprimanded and sent to cultural sensitivity classes. Victoria’s Secret also issued an apology, stating, “We absolutely had no intention to offend anyone.” Maybe so, but that naiveté is part of the issue. And Inukt is no exception.
“Canada uses aboriginal culture to sell itself or exotify itself,” says Tania Willard. “[Benarroch] said she was celebrating Canadian culture. And Canadian culture is in some ways an appropriation of aboriginal culture, and that’s a problematic history, and one that, today, we’re trying to right.” It’s not that non-native people shouldn’t be inspired by native art, says Willard. In fact, she has no harsh words for Benarroch herself. “The main thing there is to treat those designs with respect … and respect is acknowledging the original artist and acknowledging the original use of that work.”
With Inukt’s moccasins, Benarroch did manage to show some respect: she worked with Wendake, an aboriginal-owned business from the Huron-Wendat First Nation in Quebec, and mentions them on her website. Today, Benarroch says, she’s more sensitive to the issue: her latest designs lean away from First Nations symbols, instead using generic Canadian icons such as the maple leaf. (“Is that okay?” She asks plaintively when we speak on the phone.)
“That doesn’t mean other products in their line aren’t problematic,” says Willard. “I think the artwork [Inukt] is using for its clothing line should be properly credited as well. And I think they’d be more successful if they did that.”
It’s tricky. People take it for granted that aboriginal culture is free to imitate, steal and exploit. Then again isn’t that, rightly or wrongly, the way all culture evolves?
“Art is something we are inspired by and respond to, and we want that to be there,” says Willard. “I think that’s what makes art beautiful, the exchange in it. But how we do that—I think we can do that with a level of respect.”
But in the world of art, design and fashion, there are no rules. Lines are meant to be crossed. Should aboriginal culture, then, be off-limits?
Pallulaaq Friesen models an amauti made by Charlotte St. John; white inner duffles by Saskia Curley; mittens by Shepa Palluq; headband by Pelagie Nicole; kamiks provided by Friesen’s aunt. Photo by Dave Brosha
Amautis, Inuit women’s coats featuring characteristically wide hoods to carry babies in, aren’t what most people would consider sacred, but in terms of cultural identity, they might as well be. Whether they’re made from seal, caribou or eider duck skins depends on the region, and a young mother’s amauti is different from that of a widow. For many Inuit seamstresses, the patterns they use are part of their family heritage.
So when Donna Karan, the fashion designer and creator of DKNY, sent representatives to the western Arctic in 1999 to buy up Inuit garments, including amautis—presumably to inspire a future fashion collection—a million red flags flew up. Until then, amautis hadn’t gone the way of the ubiquitous, mass-produced parka; for the most part, you could only buy authentic amautis in the Arctic.
Pauktuutit, a Nunavut organization representing Inuit women, launched a letter-writing campaign to Donna Karan. Putting designer amautis on the shelf, they said, would erode a vital Inuit artform.
It worked: DKNY never released an amauti collection. But the case raised some urgent questions. What if it happened again? For many Inuit seamstresses, making garments such as amautis is essential to their livelihood. In 2001, Pauktuutit launched the Amauti Project, establishing the garment as a case study on how to protect Inuit culture from future threats. The workshop concluded, “All Inuit own the amauti collectively, though individual seamstresses may use particular designs that are passed down between generations.”
That’s still not enough, legally speaking, to stop DKNY, or any other designer for that matter. Since 2001, Pauktuutit has focused on intellectual property law to protect cultural objects. But though it and other Inuit organizations are active in the World Intellectual Property Organization and have been lobbying for over a decade, it’s still the federal government that decides the official policy.
And the federal government’s position so far doesn’t help much. In response to a WIPO questionnaire on the protection of, among other things, aboriginal culture, in 2002, Industry Canada stated: “[Some] aspects of folkloric expressions, which are in the public domain, are available without restrictions and thus serve to enrich the fabric of Canada’s multicultural society.”
Since 2002, that hasn’t changed. Even if it does, it might only create more problems.
Photo of Tanya Tagaq by Patrick Kane
Tanya Tagaq defies tradition. A fiercely talented trailblazer from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, she shook the world stage with her unique brand of throat-singing in 2001; since then, she’s collaborated with Bjork and the Kronos Quartet, and released two albums as well as a live recording (listen to her latest album, Animism, here).
While throat-singing is usually performed by two women, she sings solo. Her guttural energy has been labelled as primal, orchestral and free jazz. You wouldn’t want to restrict that. But despite her critical acclaim worldwide, not everyone back home approves.
“When I first started singing,” she says, “I was accused by fellow Inuit of appropriation.”
She was in her 20s. “I was putting it to music and doing it by myself, and there was a massive backlash … There were people who created a Facebook page to get me to stop. I heard Pauktuutit had a problem with me. All that was really hurtful.”
To her critics—most of them from an older generation, and, she adds, most of them never having been to one of her shows— she’d adulterated an artform that, like the amauti, is deeply rooted in Inuit culture. To Tagaq, what she’s doing is clearly not misappropriation: she is Inuk, and so her music is still Inuit art.
“I’m not trying to talk for everyone,” she says. “I’ve been though a lot of the stereotypical ideas of what Inuit people go through, so [throat-singing] is like protest music to me. I didn’t want to stand with a partner, nicely making some sounds … I don’t want to sound victimy to people.”
She recalls a non-Inuit woman from Cambridge Bay, Tagaq’s hometown, who grew up in the North and has taken up solo throat-singing. “I thought it was so cute,” Tagaq says, genuinely pleased. “If you’re from the North, that’s good. If you’re born and raised up there, and you’re part of the culture, then good, go ahead. But if you’re from Montreal and you’re just trying to sound cool, then no, that’s not OK.”
For artists venturing into aboriginal culture, “You need to make sure that you’re respecting the people,” she says, “and if one person [from that culture] has a problem with it, then it shouldn’t be done.” But what of her own critics?
Sometimes, she concedes, you can’t win. If her non-Inuit friend in Cambridge Bay had been the trailblazer, championing solo throat-singing, “I would’ve been fine with it,” says Tagaq. “But I think other people might not have been. The people who had a problem with me would’ve had a way bigger problem with her.”
Photo courtesy of Jeneen Frei-Njootli
To Jeneen Frei-Njootli, a young Vuntut Gwitchin artist from Old Crow, Yukon, the very idea of tradition is flexible. Consider what her own culture has adopted: coffee whitener, snowmobiles, fiddling. “Why can’t coffee whitener be a Vuntut Gwitchin food?”
There are some Vuntut Gwitchin stories she’d like to represent in her performances, installations and sculptures. But “because I don’t know them well enough, I am not allowed to use them,” she says. “That can also be counter-productive, because I’m a young person, I want to learn more about [these stories]. I want to interact with them and feel like they’re my own too. At this point, it’s really important to have as few barriers as possible for people who want to be knowledge-holders.”
Through her art, she hopes to lower those barriers. But being a cultural ambassador, she says, has its downsides. “It’s exhausting,” she says. As a student at Emily Carr School of Design, she often became the designated aboriginal expert, instead of getting to talk about her own work.
On a daily basis, she finds herself confronting people who, for instance, find it acceptable to wear feathered headdresses to parties. “How do you teach people the complexities of a situation … without alienating them? Talking about cultural appropriation in the bathroom of a bar is the worst way to learn.”
In the end, it shouldn’t be an artist’s burden to teach the world about cultural sensitivity. But for now, it’s emerging artists like Jeneen Frei-Njootli, established performers like Tanya Tagaq, and active curators like Tania Willard who are helping explore the boundaries of cultural appropriation and exchange, and nudging people toward the latter. At the same time, they’re challenging their own communities to embrace change. It’s up to the public to follow through.
Aboriginal culture “is not stagnant,” says Frei-Njootli. “It evolves and it grows. And I want to be a part of that.”
Tulalip Resort Casino in Tulalip, WA is proud to present two shows with Comedian David Spade Saturday, June 28th. Spade’s latest standup special, “My Fake Problems” premiered on Comedy Central on May 4th.
Spade became a household favorite during his five-year stint as a cast member of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in the 1990s. The comedian was also nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe and an American Comedy Award for his memorable role as Dennis Finch, the wise-cracking and power-hungry assistant on NBC’s “Just Shoot Me.” To this day, Spade’s television and film career continues to flourish. Most recently Spade was seen starring in Sony Pictures’ “Grown Ups 2” alongside Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Kevin James. The film was released on July 12, 2013, and it grossed over $233 million worldwide. The movie is a follow-up to Happy Madison/Sony’s hit 2010 comedy “Grown Ups,” which also starred Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock and Steve Buscemi and grossed $268 million worldwide.
On the small screen, Spade was recently seen on the seventh and final season of the CBS comedy “Rules of Engagement.” The show was produced by Sony’s Happy Madison Productions and centered around three men who were in different stages of their relationships: married, engaged and single. The half-hour situational comedy stared Spade as the content bachelor and serial dater. The show enjoyed excellent ratings throughout all seven seasons.
Spade began his career by performing stand-up comedy in clubs, theaters and colleges across the country. He made his television debut
on “SNL” and was soon named the Hot Stand-Up Comedian of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine. One of Spade’s most memorable characters on “SNL” (where he served as both a writer and a performer) is the sarcastic “Hollywood Minute” reporter on “Weekend Update.” He also started the catchphrases “And you
are…?” and “Buh-bye.”
Northwest Indian College Tulalip campus student Monica McAlister discusses her glass mosaic piece featuring a fused glass hummingbird to Northwest Indian College Art Classes exhibit guests. The exhibit is available until August at the Peninsula College’s Lonhouse Art Gallery. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
PORT ANGELES – Student artwork from the Northwest Indian College Tulalip Campus traveled 96 miles to the Longhouse Art Gallery at Peninsula College for a first-time exhibit. Northwest Indian College Art Classes is a compilation of the work of a dozen students and art instructor Bob Mitchell, which features art produced during NWIC’s winter quarter.
Pieces included glass mosaics, basketry, beading, and handmade jewelry using various art mediums. The exhibit’s centerpiece is a large story pole made with fused glass, featuring students’ Native American culture using animal designs.
On June 5, the Peninsula College held a VIP opening, welcoming local guests and students.
“The class has really expanded,” said Bob Mitchell, who began teaching art at the Tulalip campus five years ago. “We are doing glass fusing and jewelry. I can look over in class and see basket weaving and
Northwest Indian College Art Classes exhibit shown at Peninsula College’s Longhouse Art Gallery features a large fused glass story pole. Each panel was designed by NWIC student and reflects the Native American culture of each student. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
people passing on those skills to other people. The class is pretty student directed and the story pole is a good example of that. I came in with the idea and the frame, and we started thinking about how we could incorporate it into class. We gave everybody a panel and decided to do a theme and let everybody interpret it based on their culture. The student directive was they wanted to use traditional colors red, black, yellow, and white. We fused it and we finished with mosaic triangles that are a representation of bear claws from Tulalip.”
The story pole’s success means that future classes will be designing their own story poles. “The students bring a lot to the class with their skills. I feel very honored a lot of the time being in the class working alongside them. We need to show off what they are doing, so this is pretty impressive,” explained Mitchell.
Current NWIC Tulalip campus student Monica McAlister, whose work in the exhibit includes basketry and glass mosaics, said working on the exhibit and class project helped to keep her connected to her Yurok culture.
“Being at NWIC is like a home away from home. It connects you to culture and with people that support you. It is really uplifting to be able to get that sense of community, which for me was lacking for a long time because I am not from here. I took Bob’s class in 2012 and I fell in love with glass art. Art is such a big part of my life now and it makes me happy, and this all started because of NWIC.”
The Peninsula College Longhouse Art Gallery will be showing the original artwork of Bob Mitchell and students from NWIC now through August. The exhibit features NWIC Tulalip campus students Monica McAlister, Louis Michell, Denise Michell, Ed Hill, Shirley Jack, Alicia Horne, Sarah Andres, Teesha Osias, Annette Napeahi, Raven Hunter, Tatiana Crawford, Mark Hansen, and John Martin.
For more information on the exhibit please visit www.pencol.edu.
Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
A glass panel piece designed by NWIC Tulalip campus student Annette Napeahi is featured on a story pole in the Peninsula College’s Longhouse Art Gallery showing of Northwest Indian College Art Classes exhibit.
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
King Khan, rock & roll’s spiritual leader by way of Montreal, is returning to Off Broadway with psychedelic soul outfit the Shrines on Saturday, June 15, to promote the group’s latest, Idle No More. The album takes its name from a 2012 Native American movement to unite tribes for the betterment of their people and the environment. Khan’s interest in the campaign is personal.
“My heart really goes out to indigenous people,” he says. “[Growing up] in Montreal, when my father used to kick me out of the house I would seek refuge at my Mohawk friend’s house on the reservation. One of my best friends, who recently passed away, was another Mohawk on the reservation. It’s really horrible what has happened and keeps happening to the indigenous people. I hope that things change.”
Although Khan is best known for his wild stage shows and gleefully irreverent songwriting, this latest effort contains plenty of introspective moments as well. The album’s closer, “Of Madness I Dream,” seems drawn from an especially deep well.
“I read this line by Keith Richards once where he said that he didn’t really write songs, but he received them,” Khan explains. “I think that — especially in that song, when I was trying to figure out vocals for it — it was almost like I got kind of dizzy, and this thing just poured out of me. I feel like I received something from another place. That song especially sums up what’s wrong with the world, and how sometimes the simplest things can describe a complicated problem.”
The inclusion of socially conscious messages in what might otherwise be thought of as party music follows the tradition of one of his heroes, soul singer the Mighty Hannibal, who Khan says could “balance making fun music for dancing and freaking out while also making these really deep songs to inform the public to stay away from drugs, or to stay away from the American government.”
Social justice is a theme in another of Khan’s projects — a soundtrack to director Prichard Smith’s The Invaders, a documentary about the social work of the Black Panthers in Memphis. Khan says it will feature original compositions and music “picked from the spectrum of rhythm & blues and free jazz and, basically, great black-power music.”
“For me, a lot of inspiration comes from the music of the civil rights movement. It’s gonna change the perception of a lot of things, this documentary,” Khan explains. “It finally gives justice to all of the people who were blamed for all of the violence that weren’t responsible for it. It also shows a side of Martin Luther King that was hidden for a long time — when he asked the militants to work with him for the Poor People’s Campaign. I’m really honored to be a part of this film.”
Khan will be in St. Louis twice this year, reappearing with the King Khan & BBQ Show and the Black Lips on September 15 at the Ready Room. This lineup is especially exciting for his fans; it suggests the possibility of a performance by the Almighty Defenders, the gospel-punk supergroup composed of both bands.
That tour precedes the release of the King Khan & BBQ Show’s newest album, which will be out early next year on In the Red Records. “I think it’s one of the best records we’ve ever done,” Khan says. “We’re changing our name. We’ve been called King Khan & BBQ Show for a long time, and, to be honest, people always get it wrong. People don’t understand that Mark Sultan is half the band. Mark wasn’t getting the proper justice for being his own entity and a great singer and songwriter. We want to be called the Bad News Boys.”
King Khan considers Mark Sultan to be family, and, like most families, the two have had their share of troubles, including a temporary breakup. Shortly before the split in 2009, they were detained by the law on their way to a show in St. Louis which they infamously were forced to cancel.
As Khan explains, “The only reason we got in trouble was such a stupid formality. I mean, yes, you’re not supposed to carry psychedelic mushrooms around there. It’s just a rule of thumb that I stupidly did not adhere to. But I’ve never been scared in America — thank the gods that nothing bad has happened to us there. I think that, in a certain way, if you follow the right path, you’re protected. You know, a lot of people might not believe that, but if your intentions are good, then there is some kind of protection out there.”
“Sometimes, of course, the storm comes and destroys certain things,” he says with a pause. “But whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Photo by Pat Bolduc, courtesy A Tribe Called Red Ian Campeau, aka Deejay NDN, wears a shirt that an irony-impaired critic has called ‘racist.
Indian Country Today
Ian Campeau, better known as Deejay NDN of A Tribe Called Red, is an outspoken cultural critic, both as official mouthpiece of the DJ trio and a twitter provocateur. Campeau was instrumental in getting the Nepean Redskins football club to change its name (they’re now the Nepean Eagles), and sports mascots is one of his favorite topics to discuss.
It has to be a sign that you’re being heard when an irony-impaired curmudgeon calls for a boycott.
In a recent Instagram post, Campeau shared a note apparently written to the organizers of Westfest, a music and arts festival taking place June 13-15 in Ottawa’s Westboro Village. A Tribe Called Red is scheduled to play the final concert Sunday night.
“So we’re supposed to play Westfest next Sunday,” Campeau wrote. “The organizers have been receiving thinly-veiled threatening emails in protest to me performing. Here’s one of them. This is my hometown. So disappointing.”
Here’s the image of the letter, in which a critic complains, anonymously that the group is “divisive” and that Campeau is a “racist hypocrite” who wears a “racist t-shirt”:
A letter calling for a boycott of Westfest over A Tribe Called Red’s “racism.”
We’ve seen Campeau in a few different ironic t-shirts over the years, but the one that this individual is referring to is likely the “Caucasians” design (sold by Shelf Life Clothing), featuring a white version of the Cleveland Indians’ controversial Chief Wahoo mascot. Campeau wears the shirt in some frequently-used publicity photos:
A Tribe Called Red (left to right): DJ Bear Witness, DJ Shub, Deejay NDN (Ian Campeau). Photo by Pat Bolduc.
Many people complain about advertisements as an obnoxious way for companies to invade our everyday lives and cram their products down our throats, but that’s not all that advertisements are good for. The advertisements on this list are excellent examples of effective advertising strategies for social issue campaigns that let their voices be heard.
A well-made advertisement is designed to grab your attention and to remain in your memory long after you’ve left it behind, and that is exactly what many of these social causes need. Getting people to think and worry about various social and environmental issues (or even simply getting them to be aware of them) is important for raising public supporting and affecting meaningful changes. A few of these ads are, in fact, commercial ads, but it’s still nice that they champion socially or environmentally aware causes/products.
Just like with commercial advertisements, having just the facts is not enough. They are important, but the ad must also appeal to the observer’s emotions. Many studies have indicated that emotion can have a powerful effect on memory formation, ensuring that memories with emotion will last longer than those without.
According to “Father of Advertising” David Ogilvy, his contemporary, Howard Gossage, said that “advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest—it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.” We definitely agree, which is why we wanted to share this list of social cause advertisements with you!
