It must be frustrating to walk by fast-fashion
shops and see “Native” patterns on clothing.
The impact of appropriation is not just hurt
feelings; it has real economic consequences as
well. Every time you see a fake ‘Native’ pattern
on a product at the mall, that represents a
missed opportunity for a cultural artist.
If there’s a demand for Native-inspired
products, consumers will continue to go to the
non-Native company that’s appropriating the
art. One important way to ensure that that
change happens is for Native-owned companies
to step up and start producing the apples to
apples alternative to products that feature
appropriated cultural art. That way, consumers
have an alternative.
We also need to be doing the consumer-
education piece effectively. That’s something
that Eighth Generation takes on. In doing that
and reaching a broader audience, we’re helping
to create economic opportunities for other
Native artists.
You discovered your love for art as an adult
and have a background working as a family
therapist. In your experience, which is
your preferred form of communication for
addressing social issues: verbal discussion
or visual arts?
You have to be able to do both. I think that
when you’re trying to address an issue, there is
no one solution that will work for everybody, and
so it’s important to have a broad range of tools
in your repertoire. For me, I really like using the
combination of art and words to be able to, first,
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engage people around the issues that I think
are important, and second, to lead them down
a pathway where they feel ownership over their
developing perspective on issues.
My goal is not to be didactic with words
or with my art, but more to spark curiosity
around the issues that will help them develop
their own opinions.
What role do you believe art plays in helping
people reconnect with, or further explore,
their cultural roots?
I think when people start to explore cultural
art, they find out that the cultural art is not
just marks made on a paper—they’re systems
of communication that have developed over
thousands of years. Practicing cultural art and
learning about cultural art is a good way to
start engaging with cultural values.
For me, exploring cultural art was a way to
reinforce my connection to the community and
to the collective history that I share with my
broader Native community. By incorporating
Chinese themes into my art, I’m exercising my
mixed heritage in a bold way and challenging
the notion that broader society has—that we
should fit into a single taxonomy.
What a lot of mixed [heritage] people
don’t understand is that connections to the
community aren’t something that you’re
entitled to by birthright. If you grow up in a
context where you don’t have connections to
your community, it doesn’t mean that you’ll
never have connections to your community,
you just have to go and put in the work. That’s