Native Artist by INDIGEFI

Erin Ggaadamits Ivalu Gingrich (Koyukon Dené Athabascan, Iñupiaq) is a carver and multi-disciplinary artist based in Dgheyey ‘kaq, known today as Anchorage, Alaska. Erin merges her carving practice with beadwork to create stunning visual art pieces rooted in her relationship with the Arctic and interior Alaska.

In this episode, Erin describes how relationship with the lands and wildlife are core to her work as a contemporary artist. Her pieces strike a balance between intricate and minimal, depicting a visceral familiarity with the fish she grew up harvesting with her family. Her pieces tell stories that bring awareness and a call to protect the fish populations in the Yukon River.

Northern Cheyenne sisters Jordan and Madison Craig are the founders of the lingerie line Shy Natives.

What started with Madi’s intimate garments hand-sewn to fit her and her sisters, became a full-on fashion label after she and Jordan teamed up to capture the essence of the brand. The Shy Native label bloomed with a captivating creative vision nurtured through sisterhood. By combining Jordan’s visual arts and Madi’s impeccable abilities as a self-taught fashion designer, the sisters have established Shy Natives as leaders in indie lingerie, occupying a rare niche which uplifts Indigenous intimacy, and opens a space for Indigenous women and LGBTQ+ relatives to exercise agency over their bodies and sensuality.

The sisters describe their community and DIY work ethic as the backbones to their business. The devoted customer base, collaborations with other Indigenous creatives rooted in DIY culture, and photo shoots with real people as models are what make Shy Natives thrive. Today, Shy Natives count some of the biggest names in Native pop culture as their fans.

Listen to hear from Jordan and Madi about the journey to creating the brand whose followers can’t wait to lap up the next Shy Natives drop.

Chloey Tláakw Sháa Cavanaugh, Lingít, is a graphic design artist with heritage in Ḵéex̱ʼ, Kake, Alaska. Inspired by the practices of her grandfather, Chloey’s modern formline designs spark dialog using playfulness and joy. Her deep commitment to the communities to which she belongs leads her to advocate for Indigenous and LGBTQ+ young people, and to create space for collective accountability.

Chloey’s work is available through her small business, Black and White Raven Company, and can be found throughout southeast and southcentral Alaska.

Sensitive content is discussed in this episode, including the role of missionary activities in so-called boarding schools and the ongoing impacts to Indigenous peoples today.

Leon Misak Kinneeveauk, Inupiaq from Pt. Hope in Arctic, Alaska, is an artist operating the largest ivory carving studio in Deghay’kaq, known today as Anchorage, at the Alaska Art Alliance. Carving walrus ivory is an original artform of Indigenous communities in the Arctic, stretching across Inuit lands in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.

In this episode, Leon shares the journey of discovering his role in community leadership after being incarcerated for a crime involving a death. Under Leon’s leadership, the studio offers a much-needed place of cultural belonging and camaraderie, that meets the specific needs of the art of ivory carving.

Jerome Saclamana, King Island Inupiaq, joins to share his years of experience in ivory studios, and what makes Leon’s studio a rare gem in the urban center of Anchorage.

Laine Neech.yanagút Yéil Rinehart is Lingít and Taos Pueblo, based in Lingít lands, in what’s today known as Juneau, Alaska. Laine practices the traditional Lingít artform of Chilkat weaving, an intricate craft that retains its traditional designs, meanings, and uses.

In this episode, Laine shares how their art practice is a natural way to express personal and cultural identity, and makes space to acknowledge the harms of colonization. Also, a peek at their ambition to increase access to the mountain goat wool used in original weaving practices. Their stories are imbued with gratitude for the communities of teachers from whom they’ve learned.

Dorthy is a professional performer and business owner of a dance company based on Dena’ina lands in Deghay’kaq, known today as Anchorage, Alaska. Dorthy’s talent reflects a lifetime of discipline and love for dance. She performs as Violet Lee Vamp. Along with her business partner, performer Lady Duchess, the two co-founded the Sweet Cheeks Cabaret dance company in 2013. Their work straddles the discipline of live performance, the closeknit community of small businesses, and the energy that comes with cabaret—a niche in live theater that combines entertainment with an artform that is gender-body-and-sex-positive, and where safety-and-consent come first.

Violet Lee Vamp and Lady Duchess have helped make Sweet Cheeks a fan-favorite in the Anchorage nightlife scene, frequently earning the company, and its cast of dedicated performers, awards in audience-voted theater and burlesque.

At the core of it all, as an Indigenous performer and entrepreneur in the small business community, Dorthy’s work marks a steady, subtle sense of ownership for Indigenous women in entertainment.

On the next episode of the Native Artist Series, Dorthy Wychesit Fredenberg is a professional performer and business owner of a dance company based on Dena’ina lands in Deghay’kaq, known today as Anchorage, Alaska. She performs as Violet Lee Vamp. Along with her business partner, performer Lady Duchess, the two co-founded the Sweet Cheeks Cabaret dance company in 2013.

The Native Artist Series takes a deep dive into the stories of Indigenous artists, spanning a wide range of artistic disciplines. From performance artists and writers, to carvers and weavers, artists share their unique stories and perspectives on navigating these fields while reclaiming native identity.

Performer, composer, activist, musicologist — these roles are all infused into his art and way of life. His music, too, transcends boundaries: unapologetically playful in its incorporation of classical influences, full of reverence for the traditional songs of his home,and teeming with the urgency of modern-day struggles of resistance.

A member of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Jeremy first did music studies in Halifax before taking a chance to work in the archives at the Canadian Museum of History, painstakingly transcribing Wolastoq songs from 1907 wax cylinders. “Many of the songs I’d never heard before, because our musical tradition on the East Coast was suppressed by the Canadian Government’s Indian Act.” Jeremy heard ancestral voices singing forgotten songs and stories that had been taken from the Wolastoqiyik generations ago.

As he listened to each recording, he felt his own musical impulses stirring from deep within. Long days at the archives turned into long nights at the piano, feeling out melodies and phrases, deep in dialogue with the voices of his ancestors. These “collaborative”compositions, collected together on his debut LP Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, are like nothing you’ve ever heard. Delicate, sublime vocal melodies ring out atop piano lines that cascade through a vibrant range of emotions. The anguish and joy of the past erupt fervently into the present through Jeremy’s bold approach to composition and raw, affective performances enhanced by his outstanding tenor techniques.

“I’m doing this work because there’s only about a hundred Wolastoqey speakers left,” he says. “It’s crucial for us to make sure that we’re using our language and passing it on to the next generation. If you lose the language, you’re not just losing words; you’re losing an entire way of seeing and experiencing the world from a distinctly indigenous perspective.”

A soloist and vibrant collaborator, Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) works across recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks, and has collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Caroline Monnet, Michelle Latimer, Martha Colburn, Tanya Lukin LInklater and Loren Connors. An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and pedal steel guitar, often sings through a megaphone, and is a producer of capacious field recordings.

She has performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Toronto BIennial in Ontario, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among countless established and DIY venues in the US, Canada, and Europe. In 2008 Ortman founded the Coast Orchestra, an all-Native American orchestral ensemble that performed a live soundtrack to Edward Curtis’s film In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), the first silent feature film to star an all-Native American cast. Ortman is the recipient of the 2020 Jerome@Camargo Residency, 2017 Jerome Foundation Fellowship, the 2016 Art Matters Grant, the 2016 Native Arts and Culture Foundation Fellowship, the 2015 IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Social Engagement Residency and the 2014-15 Rauschenberg Residency. She was  also a participating artist in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Ortman lives in Brooklyn, New York.