Like many people or at least in my tech group of friends it’s well known Joe Rogan has a podcast that took years to build up. There are many instances and take aways but one bothered me is the negative takes on Native Americans that he only recently had a guest on noting the Native perspective as modern day people.
In 2006 I took I agreed to do a residency in Taiwan which was in and still is under political interference but aren’t we all these days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I had no idea what to expect of the trip because all I had known about the country was them as manufacturing. I went and ahead of my Alaska Native peers as artists.
When I arrived I was greeted happily by the curator and two Indigenous translators. What struck me and what worried me to begin with on travel is not knowing what to anticipate in way of need for tools and availabilty to make substantial work. I packed my essential tools that were a bit of controversy in themselves being ‘foreign’.
I wanted to bring along some items for gifting to my hosts but was warned in advance that It wasn’t allowed but it made me aware of of safety yet I wanted to share something in honor of true traditional cultural exchange.
Regardless I was fascinated to be somewhere to share culture and when I opened my camera lens to photograph the Viper sculpture the humidity was so dense it fogged the lens before I could get my eye agains the viewfinder. I discovered very quickly the climate difference and worried for my friends from Hanes and Angoon who were on their way. Shgen George and Clarissa Rizal became my sister and my auntie in the experience.
What struck me is arriving ahead of them and greeted with great disappointment on the faces of the tribal people when I was so excited to be there to share in cultural exchange. One of the men in the group was speaking angrily as I was taking my bags out of the small car at the curator and I was nervous. I asked the translators what was going on. One of them turned away and the other whispered “you are not like who he wanted you to be”. That was her limited translation and I thought to myself “what did I get myself into here”?
Thinking of mail order brides and people for show the way our people were once travelled as exotic and different and I felt like well here it is “I”m not different enough”.
The translators tried to calm things down and thankfully didn’t give up on me. I felt a panic and I notice a log nearby and asked if I could look at it and it was from one of the carvers there that brought it in and asked if I could show them my tools and work with them.
At the same time I pulled out my ipod to share photos with them of my family because of limited translation.
and I shared others that I was a bit embarrassed to show of my early work as they scrolled through my library but realize how limited the tech was at that time and how they perceived me yet at the same time feeling I wanted indigenous culture to thrive.
this image of George David and Greg Colfax carving together gave me some protection to be legit with them.
I managed to cram one small cedar block, three adzes and five crooked knives, a center line rule and a pouch of a nylon bag zipper for pencils. Most importantly was one small shipwright adze and a yew wood wedge.
It was 90 degrees out that day with what felt like a 100 percent humidity but I loved every minute of proving myself to a group of people I had no idea about on another side of the globe.
Kaoshsiung reminded me of what my dad talked about Los Angles being like as a Native during the Indian relocation act. Stressed of Native people out of place.
Shgen and Clarrissa arrived and I felt like I had been a good dog looking out for them in their arrival. I want to make a point here in writing in that when people write about dogs they say ‘begging like a dog’ or ‘sweating like a dog’ the negative connotations. In our culture dog and wolf are from the same stem of a branch.
I felt there was a reason I went there and understood or at least thought I did at the time but it was not a clear arrangement really. I had reluctance with the people I met at first just as they did with me but all the same it was about interpretation. When they saw I was skilled they took me in to see my value. I was no Winnetou but I was something of value nonetheless.
As artists we always have to hit the ground running for anything for public work because there is safety in mind of the public and how well engineering is going to meet with it and that is all above a level of translation barriers.
I never felt like more of a rock star being hosted by people from another land and we went to a festival with people in a venue much like Seattle Center but even larger. There were many bright feathered dancers and applause. I looked to the Indigenous translators at my side to see them shaking their heads in dismay.
I wanted to know but it wasn’t until three weeks in that I found out what the disappointment was about not being able to really speak with them about their dismay.
Two of the translators were from tribes at odds, Paiwan and Amis
They were in large disagreement about the leadership of their country and all that was in place. I felt treasured and at the same time feeling the dilemma of holding this inside this knowledge.
We all travelled on a small bus in a storm that is normal for them but different for us from the states. They have ‘normal’ storms that wash away their hillside roads and we were going to visit the Tao people on the other side of the mountain side. A woman joined who was Han Chinese who had a husband from Tacoma of all places with sources to help us because the curator was very inept.
on the way we met a man who was regarded as a bridge of people. He inspired me greatly. He held on to the old ways and at the same time embraced transition. What I admired in him was his ability to share the commonality in good. He was a poor artist who saw the humanity in the strife of the tribes and told me a story and reminded me of Beau Dick and Douglas David in many ways. For my lack of being able to translate his name was phonetically ‘se-kiul-yü’.
I should note weeks before going there I was nervous on what to anticipate because I hadn’t travelled before and a print group I worked with in Tacoma said his brother was a translator briefly and said to watch out for the large spiders.
He warned me about a blue spider the size of a human hand. And here I was speaking in this mans studio feeling like I captivated the people with my words in translation. The only one I was speaking to was Sekuliu and the Han Chinese tranlator along with Shgen and Clarrissa in hindsight. The Paiwan translator shared with me leaving the room I’m glad you survived because near the end that spider was noticed only by a few people and that’s why I motioned the “get off stage” wave at the neck because she spent time in England and I was really just boring everyone.
At the same time that I was floored that people wouldn’t look out for me it was also about who was paying attention and I can say for my counterparts I would never think of Shgen as someone who wouldn’t have noticed that because she was further back.
The next day we met the Tao people and the the Chinese translator and her husband who helped us along left us but they were invaluable. I lugged this case with my tools to show people what I had learned from our side of the world afterall. We set up and when I opened the case and showed them this small cedar block to demonstrate what I was taught they told me to put it away right away.
The translators told us we were family and we would see what real culture was NOT a show.
That night the people hosted us and in my best equivalent I would say it was like Neah Bay. The people hosted us who judged us once before but they planned for us and danced with us and sang.
At that time I only knew three songs but I did know Northern songs and Clarissa told me I need to dance for them because I knew how to represent.
I was blessed with the meaning of their dagger dance that was once danced with swords and knives. Under higher rule they were made to replace them with umbrellas.
It reminded me of one of the familiy interviews that Tsa-qwa-supp was moved by about the Kwakwaka’wakw. I don’t knot the name but it was along the lines of “the Queen said we were a colorful people and they surpassed us for generations and then we are supposed to dance for entertainment”?
The people when asked to dance with daggers again refused and made a show in rebellion with peace. The did this many times over the years and I’ve been cut off from many of them with social media for what I’ve been trying to communicate.
Auntie Clarissa was so moved by them she wanted songs to be shared from us and said “you know how to dance, look at them wave the paddle like we do leaning back I know you’ve seen that”!
And so I did reluctant but knowing I was a placeholder and sometime we have to improvise.
The days following we were left to fend for ourselves because the curator who hosted had been over extended for his entertainment. The hotel we went back to came from a call from him saying his wife was having a baby and we were on our own to get back to find our way home.
In panic what were we to do? It was the people who came together and they travelled out give money and pay for our flight and see us to the airport when we were used as the way some of our people were used as objects of ‘exotic’.
what I take away from it though in a message that received from one of the family is that spider over my head they saw as a protector. In their culture they see the nuisance as a worker like an ant that we look down on in this side of the globe.
I’ll never forget this when one of the tribal people there said to me
Any Salish speaker would say that is wrong in place of words or Tlingit but it’s the spirit in which it’s intended that speaks like lightening touching the water, not thunder in the clouds.
All this came from a song that had nothing to do with either of our cultures but a connection, a reflection across the water from one of my brothers long forgotten the moved me to write when I was feeling like I was alone. He read my posts about Bane and heroes and villains and translates English for the people there now. An important aspect to this is when they made myth about the people their under many oppressors they owned their perception of it. When I say that I was moved he reminded me after years of learning myth.
There was a tale about a great man who ventured the land spreading great teaching to the people like a Jesus figure. The people were said to demonize him and in that place suppressed but when they saw what happened and realized this they embraced these skullls that were made to make everyone fear them generations ago and make them with pride and not sell them.
The owned that image and the Viper became a great symbol of pride eventually.
By writing this I know I’m on a radar that was already thin but nonetheless I’ve said what i have to say from my travels and share that there are links and the politics are not tribal as one would say in a Western sense.
He reminded me of Sakuliu
of painting about the early logs on a fire outside their houses to gather to watch television
and this song captivated this so well and speaks volumes. If a picture is worth a thousand words a song that stays with you will last forever and in that is true value like lightening touching water.