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As we go forward, it’s important we reflect back. In this episode, we’ll be revisiting the extended interview done with Choctaw scholar Dr. Michelle Johnson-Jennings. Her work on the Yappali Project  - along with Dr. Karina Walters and Sandy Stroud - has been a core inspiration and foundation for the Inchunwa Project. Given the shift in the national politics, the Southeastern ancestral markings revivalization movement moving forward on the ground level in our communities, and the launching of our research club, we wanted to take the time to ground ourselves in the words share with us by Dr. Michelle Johnson-Jennings. 

As always (bilia ), yakoke hoke to all our Patrons! Ya'lls financial contributions help allows us to continue this podcast, research, and do community outreach - in person and online. If you'd like to join our Research Club or Book Club, go to Patreon.com/inchunwa. Basic access to the discord and to Book Club is available to our iskvlli achvffa tier ($1). If you'd like additional access to the Research Club, early access to episodes, and more, join at the iskvlli tahlapi tier ($5) or above. 

Keep an eye out on the launch of our merch campaign in September. We'll announce it on our instagram and Facebook accounts! Additionally, you can find supplementary material posted on our social media - as well as more resources in our linktree.

Finally Happy Labor Day Festival weekend to all Choctaw folks! And Happy Cherokee National Holiday weekend to all Cherokee folks in OK! Hope folks are having an amazing time, staying hydrated, and catching up with friends and relatives. As always - best of luck Tvshkahoma Ohoyo! And good luck to everyone competing in the Labor Day Stickball/Kabutcha Toli tournament out at Tushkahoma Oklahoma! 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

-Chahta Chatter Podcast: https://chahtachatter.buzzsprout.com/2429871

-Icho'wa Photographic Project Google Forum: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVP0rlyM61ZwrAj89Y_iWNPsY-TZlEpdOZBf1uN95Zu0tpsA/viewform

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Halito! If you've not yet listened to part 1 - which was released in the previous episode, please take the time to listen to it prior to starting this episode. In this episode, we reflection on Faithlyn's interview that we heard last week. Additionally, we'll explore what the revivalization movement looks like on the ground in Chickasaw Nation in particular, as well as where we hope the revitalization movement will be going.

Chickasaw photographer Destiny Green is continuing her project where she is taking portraits of folks who have received their southeastern ancestral markings. This is an important project as it’s documenting representations of ancestral markings in this early stage of the revivalization. If you’re interested in being a part of the at project, check out the linktree in our bio for the google form. Fill out that forum and Destiny will contact you if you’re eligible to be a part of the project: Google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVP0rlyM61ZwrAj89Y_iWNPsY-TZlEpdOZBf1uN95Zu0tpsA/viewform

Supplementary material and resources can be found on our social media: instagram.com/inchunwa and Facebook.com/inchuwa. Further resources can be found in the linktree links located on our instagram and Facebook. 

If you'd like to support Inchunwa and also get access to the the book club and/or the research chats, become a Patreon! Your financial support helps make this podcast, do research, organize community events, and more! Become a patron at Patreon.com/inchunwa 

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In this episode, we'll give a listen to the episode recorded back in 2022 of Faithlyn Seawright being interviewed by Olivia. Originally, this interview was meant to be shared during the second series. However, because Faithlyn had already received their ancestral markings on their hands, we decided to hold off to share it at a later date. Three years have passed since the initial interview, and it's been about a year since we last put out an episode. In that time, so much has changed not only for Faithlyn (who now famously received her facial markings during our May 2024 retreat in Broken Bow, OK), but also for the moment on the ground in general. In part 1 and 2 (to be released next week) we'll be taking a look back on Faithlyn's journey, but also where the Southeastern Revivalization Movement is on the ground currently, and our hopes for the future. 

If you'd like to support Inchunwa, you can do so by becoming a Patron at patron.com/inchunwa. Have you been researching the ancestral markings and/or visual language ? In August, or our patrons in tiers tahlapi and above, we'll be starting up a monthly video chat in our Patreon Discord Video/Voice channel. It'll kick off the monthly gatherings to discuss research that folks have come across together. In September, for our patrons in tiers achvffa and above, we'll be hosting a book club. For this first book, we'll be reading Drawing With Great Needles. This is a great book that covers Southeastern tattooing practices. You can join for as little as $1. Your financial support allows us to have this podcast, research, do community outreach, and more! Yakoke to all our patrons! 

If you've received your ancestral marks, belong to a Southeastern tribal nation, and are interested in taking part in Chickasaw photographer Destiny Green's Icho'wa Portrait Project, please fill out the google form. Destiny will contact you afterwards to have your portrait taken if you're eligible to be a part of the project: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVP0rlyM61ZwrAj89Y_iWNPsY-TZlEpdOZBf1uN95Zu0tpsA/viewform

For supplementary material, please follow us on our instagram: instagram.com/inchunwa and Facebook.com/inchunwa. Additionally in the linktree in our IG bio, we have many resources available for further information on history and ancestral markings. 

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Artists like Keli Gonzales play a crucial role in helping our communities envision futures they once thought unimaginable. Our fourth series of Inchunwa focuses on highlighting artists who significantly impact the revitalization movement. These artists showcase ancestral tattoos in contemporary contexts.

In this episode, we share our interview with Keli and reflect on her work. We also highlight our experiences with other artists, including Roy Bonney, Hotvlkuce Harjo, and Dustin Mater, who were among the first southeastern artists we encountered incorporating hereditary tattoos into their art. Through their creativity, we witnessed contemporary empowerment, which marked a turning point for our project.

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We attended IndigiPopX at First American's Museum in Oklahoma City. In this episode, we discuss our experience and share the discussion we led during the convention with guest panelists, Faithlyn Seawright, Nathalie Standingcloud, Brittany Postoak, and Dustin Mater.

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We've made it! This is our final episode of series three focusing on the experiences of folks who have received their traditional tattoos. In this episode we listen to an interview with Mvskoke artist and model Maddie Sanders. We're joined by guest hosts Heather Bryant (Cherokee) and Sierra Revas (Yuchi). In this episode we hear about Maddie bringing the Southeast to the Southwest, discuss how heather's tattoos have changed for them as they've become a mother, the importance of language and it's revitalization and more! 

For access to all the resources we've used for the Inchunwa podcast's research, check out the link tree in our bio on our instagram: instagram.com/inchunwa. Additionally I you're interested in joining our community research team, please email Lindsay Reeder @ [email protected] titled "research team". Finally if you'd like to financially support our project, become a Patreon at Patreon.com/inchunwa. 

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ANNNNDD WE'RE BACK! In this episode  continue the third series where we speak with southeastern folks who have received and bear their traditional tattoos. This time we're speaking with guest Jenna Walkingstick (Cherokee) and guest hosts Lisa Fruichantie (Seminole/Mvskoke) and Angie Comeaux (Mvskoke/Choctaw). We cover a range of topics including Jenna and Lisa's experiences receiving and bearing traditional southeastern facial tattoos, positive and negative experiences around receiving traditional tattoos, body sovereignty, accountability, diversity in NDN country, interconnectedness to land and of tribal nations, the role of plants, and more! 

Additionally we make some major announcements:

1. Lisa Fruichantie has become the first Executive Director of Inchunwa!
   • She'll be representing Inchunwa at the Bioneers conference in Berkeley 
2. Inchunwa will be at Indigi Pop X (IPX) April 12th-14th at the First American's Museum in Oklahoma City! We'll have a booth the whole time and will have educational and interactive activities - and maybe even a chance to experience what it might be like (briefly) to bear traditional designs. Like the Indigenous Futurisms Festival back in June of 2023, Brit'll be doing a live food demo on Saturday April 13th.  On Sunday April 14th, Inchunwa will host a panel with Chickasaw Artist Dustin Mater (@dustign); Cherokee Artist Keli Gonzales (@sideshow_kel); Cherokee & Mvskoke Tattoo Practitioner and Actress Nathalie Standingcloud (@nattatt8); Chickasaw Artist & Language Advocate  Faithlyn Seawright (@faithlyntaloaseawright); Mvskoke Artist & former Inchunwa podcast guest host Brit Postoak (@brittpostoak); Seminole elder & knowledge keeper David Frank; Seminole Nation member & Inchunwa Executive Director Lisa Fruichantie (@fruichantie), and Choctaw descendant and Inchunwa team member Brit Reed (@nitaohoyo). The panel will last for two hours with an intermission and a Q&A. Get your tickets at https://indigenouscomiccon.com/. 
3. In May, the Inchunwa Project leadership will be hosting a retreat focused on the design and build of our apprenticeship program. This closed gathering will include a diverse cross section of SE tribal culture bearers and wisdom keepers and made possible by a grant from the Southern Movement Media Fund.
4. To celebrate officially stepping into the second phase of Inchunwa and the amazing things to come, we will be hosting a raffle that will begin Saturday March 23, 2024 and end Friday March 29th, 2024. This raffle is a two night stay at the Golden Moon Hotel & Casino in Choctaw, Mississippi. In addition to the two night stay at the Golden Moon Hotel & Casino, it includes dinner for two at Phillip M’s, Breakfast for two at The Bistro, and - most excitedly 1 round of golf for two at Dancing Rabbit Golf Club and/or Spa Treatment for two at The Spa. 
   • Raffle tickets are $20 each
     • Proceeds will be going towards raising funds for the creation and development of the traditional tattoo apprenticeship program and building the Inchunwa Project admin & capacity structure for key items such as a website. 
   • Package can be used any time up to April 30th, 2024. As travel to Choctaw, MS will not be included, we encourage folks who live close enough to drive or are able to purchase airline tickets before April 30th, 2024 to participate. 
   • To purchase raffle tickets, go to our paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/inchunwa
   • Please include your email and social media handles in the description so that we can alert you if you win. 

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In this episode, we are joined by guest co-host Colleen Billiot (Houma) to discuss the interview with Heather Bryan (Cherokee). This was one of the first interviews that we ever conducted when we began this project and have been anxiously awaiting when we could share it out with everyone. As with the previous guests in this third series, Heather shares their experience receiving and bearing traditional Cherokee tattoos as well as information regarding Cherokee and southeastern tattoos. Brit and Colleen discuss Heather's interview, revitalizing culture, climate change, tattoos, and more. 

Colleen Billiot  is a citizen of the United Houma Nation in southeast Louisiana. She co-founded and help run the Houma Language Project and revived a traditional gathering of my people a couple years back. Cultural reclamation and preservation tend to be her focus. She also teaches self-defense to women for free/low cost which she started doing due to the high rate of MMIW that she wrote on for a previous job.

Heather Bryan (Cherokee) was born and raised in Seminole lands aka South FL.  They are an artist, herbalist and mama with a degree in Sociology and women’s studies from the University of Central Florida where they were also involved in student organizing and social justice activism. 

You can find more information discussed in this episode and previous episodes on the Inchunwa instagram and the link tree link in the bio: instagram.com/inchunwa. Additionally if you'd like to help financially support the inchunwa project and podcast, you can become a patron: Patreon.com/inchunwa

Additional resources/links:

Heather: 

@fury.of.femme https://www.instagram.com/fury.of.femme/

@ginnyandbets https://www.instagram.com/ginnyandbets/

ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (Dadiwonisi/We Will Speak)

@dadiwonisifilm https://www.instagram.com/dadiwonisifilm/

Colleen Billiot:

@curlynquirky https://www.instagram.com/curlynquirky/

Bvlblancha Collective:

@bvlbanchacollective https://www.instagram.com/bvlbanchacollective/?hl=en

https://www.bvlbanchacollective.com/

Tasso Time: 

https://sites.google.com/view/tasso-gathering

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In this episode we are continuing our third series where we talk with southeastern folks who have received and bear their traditional tattoos. We are speaking with Isabella Aiukli Adams (Choctaw) regarding her experience. We are also joined by guest hosts Britt Postoak (Mvskoke) and Anja Littlecreek (Mvskoke).

Isabella Aiukli Cornell is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and a young activist. She is the organizing member of Matriarch, and inter-tribal non-profit based in Oklahoma. In 2018, her Junior prom dress garnered national attention which highlighted the crisis of violence against Native women.
Isabella has been participating in activist movements against the epidemic of violence faced by Native American women and girls since the age of 14. She became an organizing member of Matriarch, an intertribal organization of women from different tribes, co-founded by Isabella's mother, Sarah Adams-Cornell.
Isabella Aiukli Cornell made a strong political statement at her prom in 2018 with a red dress bearing symbols of her Choctaw heritage. Cornell worked closely with the designer, Della Bighair-Stump, an indigenous designer belonging to Crow tribe, to create the applique design. The dress is a symbol of many indigenous women who have disappeared or have been murdered but never accounted for.
Isabella also created the skirt that Deb Haaland wore at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. She now runs Aiukli Designs - creating ribbon skirts for folks to wear.

If you've not yet listened to our first series, we encourage you to do so as it will deepen the conversation in this episode and all episode since the start of series two. The first series covers the history of native people in the US and southeastern peoples specifically. Additionally, series one discusses the intersections between southeastern tattoo history, mainstream tattoo history, and colonization. 

If you'd like to support our work and get access to early releases of episodes, a look behind the scenes, access to mini-sodes & unreleased  interviews, access to Patreon exclusive merch, become a patron. You can sign up by going to Patreon.com/inchunwa. 

Isabella Aiukli Adams: 

• @aiukli: https://www.instagram.com/aiukli/
• @aiuklidesigns https://www.instagram.com/aiuklidesigns/
• @aiuklimodels: https://www.instagram.com/aiukli_models/

Brit Postoak: 

• Britt Postoak: @brittpostoak https://www.instagram.com/brittpostoak/
• The show Britt will be in at Santa Fe Indian Market: https://www.instagram.com/keepersofthelandexhibit/

Anja Littlecreek: 

• @mvtothreads https://www.instagram.com/mvto.threads/

Inchunwa:

• @inchunwa https://www.instagram.com/inchunwa/
• http://facebook.com/inchunwa

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Halito everyone! This month we are breaking away from our usual and accustomed series 3 content and bringing to ya'll the recording that we made earlier this month of the discussion on traditional tattoo revitalization and futurity at the Indigenous Futurism Festival Northwest in Tacoma, WA at Alma. Believe it or not, this was the first time an Inchunwa episode was recorded all in one location. We were so grateful to have traditional tattoo practitioners Hotvlkuce Harjo (Mvskoke) and Michaela Taylor (Yupik) join us for the discussion. In this, we discussed some topics we've covered over the coarse of the Inchunwa podcast - as well as some topics we've not yet been able to cover such as: perspective of Southeastern artists incorporating traditional tattoos in to their art & tattoo practitioners. 

Due to the nature of live recordings, there may be some background noise. We will be releasing this panel discussion unedited - so there may be a higher frequency of “ums, likes, ya’knows” and longer pauses. Usually this is something we'd edit out, but we wanted to make sure we were able to get ya'll access to the recording ASAP. 

Additional Links:

Josué Rivas for the photos:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/josue_foto/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/indigena/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/indigenastudios/

Inchunwa:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/inchunwa/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/inchunwa

Hotvlkuce Harjo:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/dommivera/

Michaila Taylor:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/mnkonigt/

DJ Libbi:
IG: ​​https://www.instagram.com/dj_libbi/

Alma Tacoma (native run restaurant & venue space):
IG: https://www.instagram.com/almatacoma/

Website: https://almatacoma.com/

IndigiPopX:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/indigipop_x/

Website: https://www.indigipopx.com/

Watch the World Series of Stickball (WSS) live from Mississippi during Choctaw Days: https://www.youtube.com/@mbciworldseriesstickball2557/streams