Indigenous Instagram & Native Creatives
Indigenous Instagram & Native Creatives
By Bianca Miller of A Tribe Called Beauty
The title of this month’s issue is Creative Flow & Community Rhythm, which brings to mind the community that has been organically created on social media, between Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. I have connected with so many amazing relations through social media, people that I never would have met otherwise!
I also think about how so many Indigenous creatives and business owners have made a career of creating and doing what they love to do, thanks to the help of social media platforms. Of course we’ve always had other ways of selling our beadwork, our regalia, our Native crafts and ribbon skirts, like the Pow Wow trail. But, the internet and social media has made access to Indigenous owned crafts and products so much easier. It’s made it easier for the buyer as well as the seller. And when you think of the current time we’re in right now, the global COVID-19 pandemic, we haven’t been able to have Pow Wows, and most shops were closed which made online shopping and using social media to sell and buy these products and crafts from Native creatives the go-to option. With that being said, the online Indigenous community has done so much good for so many people during this time. Our people really stepped up and made sure to share content about Indigenous owned businesses and Native creatives as much as they could in order to help promote sales for those businesses and artists seeing as a lot of businesses and artists were and still are, struggling financially due to the pandemic. I have personally learned about, and have been introduced to, multiple Indigenous-owned brands and artists thanks to the Native community that I follow on Instagram.
We haven’t been able to go to Pow Wow, Sundance, Ceremony, Round dances or any of the gatherings most of us are so used to attending, which is where we get to see our loved ones, friends and family alike. This has made being able to connect with our relations through social media a lot easier for most of us. Not to mention, new events have sprung up like the Social Distance Pow Wow, Quarantine Dance Specials & the Hand Drum Competition’s that have been held on Facebook Groups & Pages. This has made it so that we get to put on our outfits and dance and/or sing. This has been much appreciated as a lot of us use singing and dancing for healing and this is the exact time when we need that healing the most. If it wasn’t for those specials, we wouldn’t have been able to dance for months and months. Dancing, Singing, Drumming, Creating, and Community are all huge parts of what make us who we are as Indigenous People!
The COVID-19 pandemic would’ve taken all of those things away from us, but as always, Indigenous people are resilient. We know how to 'make it work’, take care of ourselves and each other when the odds are against us. We know from the past, from the hardships that were brought upon our ancestors, grandmothers and grandfathers by the settlers and colonization that Indigenous People will ALWAYS find a way through it, we will always come out of what was meant to stop us and leave us behind. The colonizers didn't expect us to still be here today, with what was done to us and with what we have been through. The odds would say that we shouldn’t even still be here. But look at us, still practicing our culture, still raising strong Indigenous babies, still fighting for our land and our water, still doing our ceremonies and gathering our sacred, traditional medicines. We have our ancestors blood running through our veins and with the fight that they went through for us to still be here and all you have to do is look at how we created and found ways during the pandemic to still do the things that are apart of us like dancing and taking care of our community, it is absolutely clear that Indigenous People are so powerful, so resilient, so extraordinary, that nothing, no pandemic, no colonizer, no government, no racist President, can stop us.
To share some examples of this solidarity and resilience, here are some relatives from Turtle Island who embody Creative Flow & Community Rhythm.
Photo from A7G
“This is our way of practicing social distancing and safety, while offering consistent space for youth to gather and learn during these hard times.”
A7G
Assembly of Seven Generations (A7G) is an Indigenous owned and youth-led, non-profit organization focused on cultural support and empowerment programs / policies for Indigenous youth while being led by traditional knowledge and Elder guidance.
During this pandemic, A7G has held weekly virtual gatherings for Indigenous youth. These weekly gatherings are extremely important for them, especially during this time. For example, a lot of Indigenous youth that live in the city might not have other Indigenous youth to connect with or have resources to learn cultural teachings or connect with elders. I think that, especially with the extremely high rates of Indigenous youth suicide, weekly virtual gatherings like the ones that A7G have, are important in ensuring positive mental health, a sense of belonging, and just over all happiness during this pandemic. It gives these youth something to look forward to every week and that is so important and vital in making sure our youth make it through this pandemic.
Photo from A7G
The current weekly virtual gatherings are as follows:
Mondays: Virtual Tea & Chat, 6-7pm EST
Wednesdays: Virtual Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway Language Classes), 6-8pm EST
Fridays: Weekly Youth BBQ, 5:30-8:30pm EST
www.a7g.ca
For more information and to get the zoom links for the weekly gatherings send a direct message to A7G via instagram: @a7g_official
Kokom Scrunchies
Kokom Scrunchies is owned and operated by a 9 year old Algonquian girl. Her school was having a fundraiser to buy bikes and scooters for every student in the school so that they could head outdoors during class to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19! The school set up a Go Fund Me Page for the fundraiser and had almost raised $3,000 of their goal of $5,000. Mya decided to release a scrunchie using the yellow Kokom Scarf fabric and name it PETES after her school (Pierre Elliot Trudeau Elementary School) and donated all proceeds from the scrunchies to her school for the fundraiser. Not only that but she decided to have a raffle, if you donated to the Go Fund Me Page and sent Mya a screenshot proving that you donated, you were entered into a raffle for a kokom scarf, mask and scrunchie in the colour of your choice. Within a few days, the Go Fund Me page had reached its goal and the fundraiser was a success with the determination of a 9 year old girl and the help of Indigenous Instagram.
Scrunchies are still for sale at:
@kokom_scrunchies
www.kokomscrunchies.ca
Photo from Be the Next Her
Logo from Finding Our Power Together
Finding Our Power Together
'Finding Our Power Together is a collaborative partnership between young people in remote First Nations communities and Indigenous and non Indigenous allies in Southern Ontario. Our ultimate goal is to end preventable youth suicide in First Nations communities and support our young people to thrive.’
Finding Our Power Together hosted an online 6-week program called Building Our Bundle to learn mental health skills, cultural teachings and self reflection practices. I personally participated in the Building Our Bundle program and absolutely loved it. Every Monday the Finding Our Power team would post a video along with prompts for that week's lesson. The lessons ranged from ‘Honouring our Values’ which used the 7 Grandfather Teachings to share and teach that lesson to ‘We Are All Connected’ which was about Community and what that looks like and means to us. The Building Our Bundle program was hosted in the middle of Summer 2020 (July & August) and I think it truly helped all the participants get through a really hard time were all facing right now, I know for myself it helped with my healing and truly opened my eyes and taught me a lot of values and concepts that I otherwise wouldn’t have learned this summer!
learn more here:
INSTAGRAM: @findingourpowertogether
www.findingourpowertogether.com
Briskool & Nanook
I met Bri through a mutual friend, and have since been following her on Instagram. Recently I started following her now fiancee, Nanook, (congratulations on the engagement you two love birds) and have been so inspired by the work that they do with the houseless Indigenous community & encampments in Toronto where they both live. They truly do so much to help out our relations ‘living rough’ on the streets of Toronto: from helping with feasts, using their resources to help the community members get essential needs and services, Bri dancing in her Jingle Dress & doing healing dances for the community, to just simply being a friend and someone to say ‘I hear you, I support you, I'm here with you’ to our relations that need it most.
‘A lot of people dont suffer on the streets, thats a myth. Some peoples mental health (has) improved since being at the camp… And (a lot of) people choose to be on the street rather than housed. (A high majority of the people are) residential school & 60’s scoop survivors’ - Bri
Currently Bri & Nanook are helping the camp get winterized supplies for the coming months.
If you’re able to help, please contact Bri or Nanook via Instagram.
@briskool
@nanookfareal
Photo courtesy of Bianca Millar
“As Indigenous People we can not be homeless - we are houseless. The land that our people have lived on for thousands of years is our home.
”
Chief Lady Bird
If you don’t already know who Chief Lady Bird is then I promise you, you're missing out on a badass, talented kwe! I personally consider her to be one of the main people when I think about the Indigenous Instagram community. Not because I talk to her a lot, but because I see her absolutely everywhere I look on Indigenous Instagram and usually she knows about all the recent things going on and all the awesome accounts to follow. Other than that, she’s an extremely talented and very well known Indigenous artist. (We even have 2 big pieces done by her here in our local Indian Friendship Centre here in Hamilton, Ontario) Most people that follow Chief Lady Bird can spot her artwork a mile away, she has a very distinct style that I absolutely love and admire.
follow her at @chiefladybird
Photo from Chief Lady Bird
Artwork by Chief Lady Bird
Social Distance Pow Wow
A Facebook group titled ‘Social Distancing Pow Wow’ was created at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by the founder of an Indigenous owned clothing brand called Wampum Wear. Since all the Pow Wows for 2020 were cancelled due to the pandemic, the group was created for all the dancers that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to put on our regalia and dance, and for all the vendors to help after they took major financial hits while not being able to make their money at Pow Wows. Thousands of people have been putting on their regalia, heading out to their front lawns or backyards and recording videos of themselves dancing than sharing/posting the videos to the Social Distancing Pow Wow facebook group. I know that all the dancers and vendors that participate in the Social Distancing Pow Wow are extremely grateful that they were able to have an alternative to our beloved Pow Wow season. Dancers were able to do what they love to do, put-on their regalia and dance, and vendors were able to continue having a source of income that would otherwise have been lost.
