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S.A. Lawrence-Welch
183 Plays5 years ago
S.A. Lawrence-Welch (she/her/hers|they/them/theirs)
S.A. is a Métis / Néhiyaw (Plains Cree) Indigenous Advocate, Organizer, Speaker, Activist, Artist & Writer.
Their main focus of work has been on the lasting damage the Residential School System, Indian Boarding Schools & The 60’s Scoop left on First Nations people. They are an advocate for community gathering and cultural connection as a form of healing trauma. S.A.’s goal is to see Indigenous representation and leadership in historically and presently non-Indigenous spaces.
https://www.instagram.com/lawrencewelchnw/
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:06
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And just a few announcements before we begin with our guest, S.A. Lawrence Welch, who's a First Nations activist based in Oregon. Her Instagram can be found at Lawrence Welch NW for Northwest. If you need to find her there, she has a lot of great material on Instagram.
Spotlight on Love Yoga Studio
00:00:33
Speaker
I wanted to mention Love Yoga, which is a yoga studio practice that I support in the town of Albany, Oregon. It's run and owned by Suzanne Davis.
00:00:47
Speaker
And just wanted to pass along that it's a great resource for yoga practice. There's an app, a LoveYoga app, but you can find an online library of sessions as well as an online feed at loveyogastudios.com LoveYoga Studios.com
Upcoming Podcast Guests
00:01:12
Speaker
In addition to this episode with SA Lawrence Welch, upcoming episode with Ben Westhoff, author of American Gangsters, Gangsters, West Coast Hip Hop, NWA, Compton's Most Wanted, and a great thorough history of that story.
00:01:34
Speaker
And that episode is actually going to be co-hosted first time with Sam Vellante, my nephew. He's a communications major down in Arizona.
00:01:46
Speaker
Also have an episode coming up with Nikki Lynette, hip-hop artist, also a mental health advocate and activist. Great music. She is in the process of recording a play that she wrote about her struggle with mental illness that will have the opportunity to talk about that project.
00:02:11
Speaker
and also her past creativity, a very prolific artist. And we'll also have the Portland Band coming soon, Death Parade, formerly known as Laura Palmer's Death Parade, and really looking forward to that episode.
Podcast Availability on Platforms
00:02:31
Speaker
The podcast is available on Audible now. Podbean is its source, host. You can find something rather than nothing at Apple.
00:02:42
Speaker
Amazon Music, Spotify, and most everywhere you can access your podcasts. I want to thank you for your support of the program and if you do enjoy it, ask that you share it with your friends who are interested in philosophy, art, and culture. Review the program and just thank you for your support and anything you can do if you enjoy the content to share it with people you know.
00:03:10
Speaker
And now, S.A.
Guest Introduction: S.A. Lawrence Welch
00:03:13
Speaker
Lawrence Welch.
00:03:32
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with the Sumpkin Rather Than Nothing podcast and we have a guest here, Essay Lawrence Welch, who I've encountered through her advocacy work on behalf of First Nations and her work in supporting the arts.
00:03:53
Speaker
and quite honestly making change and bringing awareness in the world. So it's been a really good to interact with Essay and I'm happy to introduce her to you right now. Tansay, Essay.
00:04:09
Speaker
I'll introduce myself. Traditionally here, so a Tanchai essay. Dishini Kashun Treaty 6 to Shin Clackamas, Calipoli, Chinook, Neuiken, Monfamy, Shinikashu, Lawrence, Anderson, Pei, Gardapee. Yeah, so what I just said is hi, my name is Essay. I Treaty 6 is my home, which is
00:04:39
Speaker
located in present-day Alberta, Canada, and across parts of the provinces. I presently live on Clackamas and Kalapuya in Chinook land, which is known by its colonizer name as Portland, Oregon. And my family names are Laurence Anderson and Garda P.
00:05:06
Speaker
Thank you so much. That was in my chest. Oh, thank you. Thank you. And in Albany, Oregon, where I am, the lands of the Kalapuya tribe.
Welch's Artistic and Activist Roots
00:05:23
Speaker
Essay, I wanted to ask you about when you when you were younger, a lot of our conversation is gonna be based on kind of like
00:05:31
Speaker
art activism along those lines. But could you get into a little bit whether any of those thoughts were in your head when you were younger about creating or awareness around advocacy? But in general, what were you like when you were younger? I was super cool. No, I'm kidding.
00:05:55
Speaker
I had tons of friends. No, I didn't. As a kid, I think I was a pretty stereotypical little bush rat kid. I grew up in the mountains just outside of Rocky Mountain House in Alberta, Canada. I was really fortunate to grow up outside of an
00:06:21
Speaker
an urban setting and get to have the experiences outdoors and learn things from my father about culture and protocol and the things that he was able to teach me from what he retained from his youth and knowledge he had and given his experiences of being a child of the Canadian residential school system.
00:06:49
Speaker
I was always asking questions and I was always interested in knowing why things were the way they were, especially growing up Native and also being told to hide my identity as a form of self-preservation. I definitely was a very artistic child.
00:07:14
Speaker
It just came as second nature to me. I was always making something. I was always inspired to create things. I was an only child or at least thought I was an only child until I was 17 years old when I met my sister who was actually a child of the 60s scoop era in Canada where children were forcibly removed or taken from
00:07:40
Speaker
Native parents and placed into adoption facilities to be assimilated and raised white.
00:07:48
Speaker
But yeah, so I had a lot of time. It was just my dad and I for a lot of years where I just needed to make outlets because he didn't know how to be a parent and I needed to be amused. But as far as it comes to advocacy, I always questioned why things were again, the way they were. So I can recall my first real interaction with
00:08:16
Speaker
Protesting that sort of thing was when I was 15 years old and I was in high school and I helped orchestrate a student walkout for a teacher who was being let go of and we definitely believed it was based on
00:08:32
Speaker
color and race issue because they were the only non-white teacher at the school. So I've always had a bit of tenacity in me to fight for right and justice, I guess. Equity. Yeah. And thank you for that. I work as a union rep in K-12 school system. And I tell you, you know, I've been in situations where I've taken on administration
00:09:00
Speaker
and asked, why do I know all the your employees of color? Like, why do I know them all? I shouldn't know them all. And it was just in the sense, even in a large district, that they end up in situations or questions or, you know, curriculum choices are questioned or kids are quote unquote uncomfortable in the class.
Promoting Indigenous Art and Culture
00:09:24
Speaker
And
00:09:25
Speaker
It's such a deep problem, but thank you for standing up for your teacher there. One of the things I was interested in, you have a lot of connections and do a lot of work with various groups. And as you know, on the podcast, I get into art as a vehicle or creating art and just its role in culture and in awareness.
00:09:55
Speaker
Could you chat a bit about your relationship and work with groups to promote First Nations or Indigenous art? Yeah, just kind of the more grassroots initiative stuff. I have
00:10:18
Speaker
I have had a lot of like incremental experiences with people regaining access to culturally significant art and that being used as a processes of healing and trauma that they've experienced. And I've also encountered situations where there's just a
00:10:48
Speaker
a level of ignorance when it comes to indigenous art, and I think that there's
00:10:56
Speaker
really great ways of educating people. I recently made some words on the internet, go figure, about how we can't really hold people accountable for what they were never given. And that includes information. And so I think that we can offer people information in a kind and in a good way.
00:11:21
Speaker
And then based on their reaction to and of course people are you know going to become defensive when they're given information that basically
00:11:30
Speaker
peels away and tears down their entire concept of why things are the way they are or whatnot. But one instance I have is my daughter, I've made it a really big point at her school that she was in from year one to year five, that I would go speak every year, especially around the
00:12:00
Speaker
the quote unquote native holidays because I even though I'm a guest on these lands you know I realize that people don't know how to access people so I always try and open that door but I definitely would go in and speak about my culture because again too you know we had to deal with this issue of
00:12:18
Speaker
a lot of people being ignorant or thinking that all native nations are similar and last year actually there was an auction at my daughter's school where classes will create these beautiful little pieces of art, you know, all sizes, shapes, mediums and auction them off to raise money for the school.
00:12:40
Speaker
in each class as a project. And I was reached out to by my daughter's fourth grade teacher, the teacher she had the year prior, because one of the mothers who was helping lead the art project wanted to do some indigenous based art with the children.
00:12:57
Speaker
And so she asked me about the protocol with that. And I said, well, what is she trying to do? She said she wants to do some coastal art. And I was like, well, she contacted anyone here, the people of these lands. So we got on an email thread and this woman was very much in love with Haida art. And I had a good chuckle because there may be Haida people here, but they're not from here. So why would you want to
00:13:24
Speaker
create something that doesn't honor the people whose lands you occupy and very much occupy illegally or unethically.
00:13:33
Speaker
And so I brought in a peer of mine who is from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, which is just outside of Portland. And they are a group of nations that had to come together due to genocide and create a nation unto themselves.
00:13:55
Speaker
And so I brought in a peer who is a teacher as well as an art teacher and has the schooling as such. And so she went through and basically taught the children a lot of really powerful words and tools and gave them an education on where they are. And it's so empowering because it was the parents that were so
00:14:23
Speaker
standoffish to it but the kids were so receptive and I think that that's so important as a part of art that you know when you're building something a medium you're like you know children themselves are working
00:14:36
Speaker
walking pieces of art because they're moldable and you can create them and they can create beauty themselves when they are given the tools that they need. So there's things like that where it's a one instant situation or whether it be the org that I am so fortunate to sit on the board of, which is the chapter house.
Art as Community Building and Healing
00:15:02
Speaker
currently based in LA, but spans throughout the Navajo Nation. And it's a way of using art to build community and create cathartic, like loving situations to bring people together and ensure that the healing process is elevated through working together and showcasing the beauty that is Indigenous art.
00:15:34
Speaker
Thank you. I heard in there, and it was really powerful as you described it, the impact on the kids, right? And I think it's worth noting, as you did, that whether it, I don't know what's the language and the materials, but it sounded like they were being empowered and being able to have the tools and the language in order to express themselves. Do you think it's as
00:16:04
Speaker
as simple as that, as I just said it? I think that, you know, children being given things that don't stunt them, you know, and that I think that's
Art as Storytelling and Cultural Preservation
00:16:13
Speaker
with anything, you know, art aside, you know, that's obviously a part of it. But when you give children the ability to grow and learn and don't stunt them by giving them information that will cloud their judgment or ability to cope
00:16:29
Speaker
with information, you know, because not all information we get and receive is, is something that's positive, right? So we need to learn how to cope with things. And, you know, watching my my peer who I love, just endlessly, you know, teach these kids traditional
00:16:46
Speaker
Works that you know are are were able to teach to non-native children, you know and and give them these gifts it is it's 100 empowering because they're going to go into situations asking things and in knowing Maybe their adult counterparts. Yeah one of one of the one of the the the big questions I ask is What is art and I was wondering if you could
00:17:16
Speaker
If you could if you could speculate on that Well, that's a loaded question, but I think that you know, obviously speaking from my own perspective I think art is an expression of a moment that in time that can either transcend or sit still in that in that period and It's
00:17:42
Speaker
It's visual storytelling, it's audiable storytelling, because art comes in so many forms, whether it be music, even literature, mixed mediums. There's so many mediums to create, and that's being tied to specific Native nations. There's woodwork, there's silverwork, there's
00:18:07
Speaker
There's painting, there's etching, there's play, sculpting. There's so many attributes. And for myself, some of the ways that I interact with art and the way that what is art to me is, as a Native person, it's something that ties me to my culture. So even though I am
00:18:30
Speaker
I consider myself a purist of mind, but not always in my actions. And so beadwork isn't necessarily something that was ours because it came with trade. It came with the trade when settlers and colonizers started coming to these lands. But quillwork, things that we were creating for painting, painting on robes, like buffalo calf robes, et cetera, that we would
00:19:00
Speaker
create as an expression of art, of who we were as peoples. And so to me art is something that tells a story, whether it be something again that transcends
00:19:13
Speaker
this moment or stay still in a moment of time to remind us what we are and where we came from because it's one of those things like food that, again, another form of art is a food that can speak to everyone no matter what language you actually speak verbally. I don't have a mic drop audio sound. I don't have an in-person producer. No.
00:19:41
Speaker
Thank you so much. One of the things I wanted to say to the audience in having talked and read some of the material you produce and some of the organizations you work with, I have particularly enjoyed
00:20:03
Speaker
The challenge to my thought system and in terms in an analysis that you've used of colonialism and what structures exist in this country and what type of mindsets, what type of language you can use that's permissible to use.
Decolonization Through Traditional Art
00:20:24
Speaker
um on that does it we just you're talking about what is art but does art have a role or what is arts role in challenging and or dismantling uh colonialism uh well i don't think that we can um
00:20:43
Speaker
to colonize things that were brought here. You know, we can only decolonize the things that were here and that were taken and kind of vulgarize to fit a narrative for the people that came here and wanted to be comfortable, right? I think that creating traditional art and partaking in traditional practices
00:21:13
Speaker
is how art can work to be a form of, or be one of the stepping stones to decolonization, where people can look at something and just accept it because that's the way it's given its integrity, right? Like it's, you know, whatever medium it may be. To see it in its original form is to understand that that's the way things were
00:21:43
Speaker
yes, things change, but we can always still understand that there's roots to everything that we're doing. I don't know if that necessarily makes sense, but I think that as art is something to counteract colonialism, the best way to explain that would be just to
00:22:07
Speaker
honor our ancestors and continue doing the things that were taken from us to pass on so we don't lose our identities.
Addressing Misrepresentation of Native Cultures
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, I wonder, Ed mentioned to you before, like if you take an art museum, and I have a question for you, kind of like a walkthrough.
00:22:34
Speaker
since talking to you and thinking about art in whether it's the depiction or let's just say simply the space or the presentation of First Nations indigenous art. So if we go to the Portland Art Museum, you know, art museums are, you know, traditional in format in general. And there was a Native Fashion Now exhibit
00:23:01
Speaker
And within the exhibit, as I was going through, I was interested, my mind was open, I was trying to understand what I was seeing, where it came from, who made it, what it means, who wears it, and happened upon the t-shirt, I'm not sure if you've seen it, I think it's like a dark color and then there's a greenish color and it's, I don't know,
00:23:27
Speaker
uh Caucasians rather than you know the the indians the cleveland indians a baseball shirt and i said um Caucasians so it seemed to be like in a like a subversive um a subversive act and i've seen people wear that in order to provoke discussions around what's known as washington's football club um now uh well i'll tell you i own that shirt do you
00:23:57
Speaker
Well, I love some version of it. And, you know, for me, I can't speak to my relations or my peers or any any kin across this these lands. But I'll say for me, when I wear it, I wear it as a statement of agitation and anger, because
00:24:19
Speaker
it's so easy to not feel things when they don't affect you, right? Like, and that's the thing, you know, I find that, you know, people want to know things, people want to ask questions, but at the end of the day, they learn something, but they don't understand it, right? So this is me wearing the shirt, gifting
00:24:41
Speaker
non-natives, especially white folk, the ability to be uncomfortable and get to experience that emotion, that range of feelings that come with it. So you're welcome, white people.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, I just thought it was it was it was fantastic. And like I said, I had gone through the experience because in looking at it and being like, okay, what is this right native fashion now? And there was I love the subversive elements that were in there. And I had seen a video of a guy I think it was in New York City might have been an African American gentleman in
00:25:22
Speaker
He went around all day, you know, just went around all day putting his body on the line and just look at it, right? Look at the presentation that's here. That's what's going on. So I- That response in the video, right? You see that response and it's jarring because you've got a black relative
00:25:51
Speaker
um standing and making a statement for another group of peoples who there is a kindred feeling of just misrepresentation and um again you know like uh the term like romanification or fetishization of of an entire group of peoples you know i know that i have peers and
00:26:15
Speaker
in uh black communities that definitely have spoken the same things that I feel and it it's amazing that it's so parallel right um to to know that your entire identity is something that people uh there's a saying like they want the culture but not the struggle right there's certain pieces of it or outcroppings of it yeah um well thank you thank you for that
00:26:44
Speaker
One of the things I was wondering if you could just kind of lend some insight as far as conversations about representation and
Combating Stereotypes and Fetishization
00:26:57
Speaker
culture. And I know, and I'm talking about First Nations, indigenous peoples, representation and culture. And we started that when we were talking about the chapter house and art arriving in that space. In general,
00:27:14
Speaker
I was wondering if you have ideas or way to place in this country the fetishization and sometimes infantilization, is that a word? That's a word, infantilizing of
00:27:33
Speaker
of native peoples. I've heard you comment in the past about how very few tribes, the Plains tribes in particular, I think you had said before, 11 Plains tribes that wore headdress, right? So we're talking about American tropes, American symbols of native peoples. What can be done about recognizing that
00:28:03
Speaker
that display and what can be done to help combat that display, which just perpetuates centuries old views of native peoples. So this is one of my favorite things to talk about, honestly, is, and I'm going to do a comparison of these quote unquote countries that, you know, arbitrary borders, Canada and the United States.
00:28:29
Speaker
So growing up as a First Nations person in Canada, First Nations people are celebrated, they are seen aesthetically, but they are hated. Like I have not experienced such systemic racism and hatred as I have in the prairies of Canada, even so much as my own family
00:28:56
Speaker
my European family making comments about how Indians are drunk, stinky, whatever, and then looking at me and saying, but not like you, you made something of yourself. So that's how deeply ingrained it is in Canada. And
00:29:19
Speaker
In the United States living here, I really realized that Native folks are treated like a thing of the past. Again, romanticized and fetishized for their things, but not for who they actually are or even recognizing the fact that they're very much present here.
00:29:43
Speaker
I forget where I heard it, but I know there's a story about a person that was in a secondhand store and a little girl picked up a doll and said to their parent, do Indians really look like this? And I guess somebody was standing right there and said, no, they look like this because they were a Native person.
00:30:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. But, um, you know, so those things of like, you know, kind of, um, and I don't even like the term Western culture anymore. Cause it's, it's, I call a spade a spade, this incredibly racist, uh, misogynistic, like just patriarchal garbage that we live in, in the United States is, um,
00:30:36
Speaker
really at fault for everything that we are sitting in right now as just people living on land. I'm not even just speaking about Native people, and this goes with Canada too, is that it's absolutely 100% the failings of these people that are in positions of colonial power, because power is such a, not a construct that I think
00:31:02
Speaker
is real. There's no such thing as power. There's a thing as such as like, there's authority, but there's no power. Power is something that was created to keep White men in a position to control. That's it, right? So I know, I know so many people that are doing things to educate
00:31:27
Speaker
in grassroots forms to let people know there's documentaries, there's speakers, there's people that are writing books, there's so much free information, but when your colonial structure is not telling truth, that's where the damage really stems from. And so, you know, we could talk about
00:31:55
Speaker
There's a documentary that came out a long time ago now, like over 10 years. It's called Real Engine, which is R-E-E-L-I-N-J-U-N. And it was directed by a fellow named Neil Diamond, who's First Nations from the North. And he depicted, you know, this like just kind of
00:32:22
Speaker
showed Hollywood's portrayal of the noble savage. And I blame that as well. People want to choose things that fit the narrative, that fits them and makes them comfortable, and they don't take anything from a holistic approach. I think that there's a lot of
00:32:44
Speaker
work that needs to be done to build back up. And I feel so sad saying this and it almost makes me want to cry. Like there's so much work that needs to be done to not only build up Native people in our own eyes, but to build us back up in the eyes of the people who occupy our lands because we can't undo what's been done.
00:33:12
Speaker
But we can build ourselves back up. And when we build ourselves back up, you know, maybe we'll finally be seen as human beings to other folks. Well, yeah. And thank you, S.A. And I think that's the part for me is like when I've when I've done my own research is, you know,
00:33:40
Speaker
40 year old white man in my my ethical credo has to do on the basis of what you just said as far as treating treating people as as humans and to be dealing with social problems where that foundational element we're still working on the foundational element of like see me
Critique of Hollywood Stereotypes
00:34:07
Speaker
And I think that's deeply embedded in that problem of the presentation. I saw that documentary, Real Engine, and I thought it was helpful for me. I saw it once, and I thought it was helpful for me to understand or collate
00:34:24
Speaker
the images, the powerful images of Hollywood in taking, you know, horrific racist pieces of shit like John Wayne, and, you know, just, just white male frontier hatred, like, in film, and in fact, that entitlement that's been created as Americana, right? Because like,
00:34:47
Speaker
You know, we're the only nation that really like, and by nation, I roll my eyes when I talk sometimes, but like, which no one can see right now, but, um, the United States celebrates Columbus day. No one else celebrates that. Like.
00:35:04
Speaker
like the idea of discovery, right? Because if you take away the idea of discovery, it just proves that there's no title or ownership to these lands, that everything was done so unethically and terribly. It's kind of gross, for lack of a better term, that this country is coasting by on an idea
00:35:34
Speaker
Like, and by an idea, I mean, like something that is, is, is a fantasy world. Like this, like the folklore of America is a hundred percent fantasy. Like I was back home and I could say back in my homelands and what's known as Montana, uh, earlier this year. And I, um, I was reading this plaque along the way and it was talking about this.
00:36:05
Speaker
like just Explorer and I think his name was Jedidiah Smith or something like that and how nice Springfield Oh my god is absolute cartoony. Yeah but It said that and this is the thing that got to me because as a peer of mine says, you know, you can't discover lands that are already inhabited right and
00:36:35
Speaker
Um, this plaque legitimately said that this white man rediscovered and I was like,
00:36:45
Speaker
like I actually have it on my Instagram page like my reaction photo where it's like it zooms in on the word rediscovered in my reaction face like as you go across the slides because I was like I felt like I actually like I don't subscribe to like the idea of IQ or intellect necessarily where it's like you have to do all these things but I felt like I was getting dumber. I can I can I think
00:37:13
Speaker
I think that can happen. I think people a lot of times with conversations, they think that can be neutral. Coming into contact with information is at least neutral or you can be improved by it. But I think you might have experienced, I've experienced an extraction of intelligence through that type of encounter. Rediscovery, the power of verbs. Do you know the name of,
00:37:43
Speaker
Go ahead. This is just a quick aside, and it's based a little bit on the American history.
00:38:00
Speaker
Do you know George Washington's, I think it was his Iroquois name, that he proudly wore and was constantly referred to his entire life, referred to himself amongst native peoples, and he was referred to as. Do you know what his name was? I hope it was Walking Eagle, but what was it? Destroyer of Villages.
00:38:24
Speaker
That's hilarious. I'd go with walking it all because he was so full of shit. But I think that the one thing I want to bring up is like, and I know, like, this is a big thing for me is what people want to be called or want to be referred to, because I'm so also tired. Like, I know that we're on the footsteps of, you know, Native American heritage.
00:38:44
Speaker
month here in the US, and I don't like being called a Native American. I don't even really want to be called indigenous. First Nations I'm like kind of okay with, but I want to be called a Cree and Métis or Machif person because that's what I am, right?
00:39:00
Speaker
I don't want to be lumped into some category because each nation has its own, um, languages, you know, practices, et cetera, and so forth. And the thing that always gets me with the Iroquois is that actually that was, that's the French name, right? Um, their, their name is Haudenosaunee, but you know, that's, you know, if somebody wants from that nation wants to be called Iroquois, great. But like, also I think we should be honoring the, their actual names.
00:39:29
Speaker
Yeah, we have that same thing with the Nez Perce, right? I mean, yeah. Well, and I think and I appreciate you saying that because I've encountered, you know, in even kind of framing questions and thinking about these issues, the question of language, you know, so I mean, philosophy in art, right? So the podcast about philosophy and art, but it's about
00:39:59
Speaker
language and language capturing you know reality or an attempt to capture reality and I've known or I hate to say recently discovered or realized how language you can say certain things in languages and other things you can't say so there's a natural
00:40:21
Speaker
feels to me sometimes there's just a natural limitation on the language or me referring to them as Iroquois, I would not know, you know what I mean? Like it's just trying to make the right reference point and like, you know, honor the name.
00:40:36
Speaker
Fundamentally. Well, and that's the other thing too. That's funny. It's like a lot of the names that were given to tribes or different indigenous folks here. You know, like I think about the Chippewa. I'm like, that's not really a thing. It's actually Ojibwe. And I've heard in passing that it was because the settlers couldn't say Ojibwe, so they decided to call them Chippewa.
00:41:03
Speaker
Well, even, of course, like your, you know, first name in a lot of a lot of folks have the, you know, the kind of typical example is that's too difficult for me to pronounce. Can I call you Manny? You know, that's actually, you know, what's really funny, and I'm going to share this with you right now, Ken, is I so I do run
00:41:25
Speaker
I do direct a program and I actually am hosting interviews of folks as well and it was funny because today I had to reach out to the guest and get the proper phonetic spelling of their name because I didn't want to mispronounce it and it was their English name.
00:41:49
Speaker
I felt so silly. I was like, I don't know how to say your name. And usually it's the other way around, right? Where it's like, you know, the ethnic name, right? I guess part of this is, I'll get to the question, but part of my journey on this podcast, and I try to cover a lot of topics, but
00:42:17
Speaker
I went down a path of learning, of deep learning that I'm still on. And it has to do with the intersection or the connection amongst the genocide and missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit in
00:42:39
Speaker
Canada and the United States connection to the environmental active activism of the pipeline protests the deep deep struggle With many peoples that are still in connected to the labor That constructs You know disrupts destroys the environment but also the the physical man labor the man camps and
00:43:08
Speaker
Around these areas in this incredible intersection of violence against earth horrific violence Generational violence against women That is that is that is still that is still going on I know you've done some some some work in these areas and it's a really a
00:43:35
Speaker
difficult area. The podcast, you know, I've done four episodes exploring this both from my understanding and try to bring awareness around this issue. I want to ask you a kind of a tough question, but when I talked about the different pieces that are going into this genocide, this environmental destruction,
Environmental Destruction and Indigenous Struggles
00:44:00
Speaker
and the man camps, how do you get at that problem, those threads, all those pieces melded in there? What do we do about that?
00:44:25
Speaker
This is a difficult one to answer because I don't consider myself an expert or a speaker on issues. As an activist, because you do, you do things, like what's to be done?
00:44:46
Speaker
Well, you know, my initial response is, um, I think, you know, as, as we want to be considered a progressive, uh, culture of, of people, I think that, you know, it's time to progress past, um, um, raping, uh, the land for it's, um, what colonizers referred to as natural resources. Um, and,
00:45:16
Speaker
and especially surrounding issue with MMIWG2S or MMIP, which is, you know, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples. We're also, we're from the land. We are the land. And when the land suffers, we suffer. And so, you know, I think that I made a strong time for
00:45:46
Speaker
my TMX pipeline rally. And it was that they brought with them disease, disease of the body, disease of the mind, disease of
00:46:07
Speaker
ownership and greed. And I think that there is a huge aspect of that there that basically means that we need to teach, people need to learn that people and land are not commodities.
00:46:37
Speaker
And that ownership is just a facade to hold that colonial structure of power. And I'm so in awe of my peers who continue to work on the front lines of these issues and MMIW that set up counter camps. I've seen what's happened in the
00:47:07
Speaker
my homelands in Alberta with the oil industry, and I've seen terrible things happen there to Native peoples. There's even a story. I was in Duluth, Minnesota last year, and a peer told me a story about how they were raising money to basically scrape the lake
00:47:37
Speaker
to bring the women that had been thrown off of boats home, the women that were taken and abused because of industry and cast away like garbage. And that really got to me because they treat the environment and they treat the people the same like it's disposable or always going to be there.
00:48:05
Speaker
That's that's that's the hard thing and that's the thing we need to teach people is that we need to honor The land and we need to honor the people that are of the land but because because they aren't from these lands can They don't care because they don't feel anything But we feel it Yeah, there's no there's no there's no there's no connection to yeah it's easy to abuse something that
Personal Journey and Activist Influences
00:48:35
Speaker
You have no connection to but these are the same people that will spout off patriotism And how can you be patriotic to something when you don't even take care of it Yeah, um, thank you and we're talking with essay Lawrence, uh welch and uh essay I have a some we got some
00:49:01
Speaker
some bigger conceptual questions that I'm assuming like the what is art? Mike Drop, you probably knocked out of the park. I love talking to you. What or who made you who you are? I am who I am because of Kishi Manatou who is the creator
00:49:27
Speaker
I am who I am because of Ne Papa who is my father. I am who I am because I have cultivated experiences and have been put in situations where I had no consent and I was forced to learn things.
00:49:51
Speaker
that have helped me grow and learn and experience every range of emotion to understand who I am from a foundational level, I guess, to be the best possible version of myself so I can potentially
00:50:20
Speaker
And I don't want to say inspire, but maybe inspire people who have been in situations where they have felt like they don't have value to know that they do and that there's validity to life. And so I think that the things that have made me is the range of
00:50:47
Speaker
Uh, the path that I've been on, you know, um, I can reflect on the negative things, but I, I reflect on a lot of the positive things because I get to still be here. Yeah. Yeah. Um, why is there something rather than nothing?
00:51:07
Speaker
Um, I could make a joke here, but that's good. Philosophy is just jokes. That's all it is. Just a bunch of horny molecules, you know, no, honestly, um, there's something because there has to be, um, because existence is, you know, like,
00:51:38
Speaker
I don't know how to articulate this without sounding like verbal diarrhea, but it's definitely, there's something because there has to be, because if there isn't, then we wouldn't. Right? So that's, that's, I don't know how to say that without sounding like the cheese slipped off the cracker.
00:52:06
Speaker
I like that. That guy that's like, you know, the one where he's like aliens and his hair is sticking straight up. That's me right now. Thank you so much. Um, uh, listeners, as, as you know, I've, I've, I've learned a lot from, uh, from essay and, um, you know, for you, I, I was, I was just wanting to let, let you know or give you the opportunity to extend, um, to listeners.
00:52:36
Speaker
The work that you do, the art, the advocacy, the groups that you work with, I think it's important to whatever your comfort level is to connect people to these issues. To whatever level of your comfort, could you let listeners know how to connect with your work in you? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that opportunity.
00:53:04
Speaker
I'm so proud that at the end of September on Orange Shirt Day, which is the 30th, I was able to announce the launch of my project, the Kakeichi Hayuwin project, which translates to healing through words, basically.
Projects and Organizations for Indigenous Culture
00:53:25
Speaker
It's a project that surrounds the community healing of those who have suffered the trauma of residential and boarding schools, the scoop, foster care and forced assimilation tactics by colonial governments. Personally, right now I'm focusing on so-called Canada, the US, and so-called Australia.
00:53:53
Speaker
But I hope to branch out more as the project grows. And basically, it's a way to learn history, but learn what people are doing to heal again and heal their communities and stop the trials of intergenerational trauma that affect every single Native person that I know.
00:54:20
Speaker
I also, and you can get ahold of me through that by visiting the org that I work with, which is Seeding Sovereignty. So it's seedingsovereignty.org backslash TKP. I also work with the Chapter House, which you can find at the chapterhouse.org, which is a art organization based out of LA and spans across the Navajo Nation.
00:54:47
Speaker
I also am the co-creator of the Oki Language Project, which you can find at okilanguageproject.com. It's a project to tell stories about Indigenous language, greetings, and how our words are so much more than just words, but they can tell stories.
00:55:10
Speaker
What else do I do? I work with Red Hawk Native American Arts Council, which you can find at redhawkcouncil.org, and it's been around for about 27 years. It's based out of New York City, and it is just a really great org that brings together arts and culture in
00:55:34
Speaker
in-person events and through online education. Unfortunately, this year we weren't able to do any in-person events due to the ongoing COVID crisis, but there's a lot available from them online.
00:55:47
Speaker
Gosh, I don't know what else I do. I do a lot of things, but I do all the things that I do out of a labor of love because I so truly believe in bringing people together through community work to heal. And I'm just so grateful that I've had the experiences I've had and
00:56:09
Speaker
the ability to work with so many incredible Native folks to learn from and to just cultivate, again, the best possible version of myself so I can continue to help everyone. Well, and thank you for your work and thank you for your time.
00:56:33
Speaker
I've, it's been important for me to meet you and to learn from you. And another thing too is on the podcast, over time, I've tried to, you know, we talk about art and there's conceptual and we talk about a lot of issues. But there's also pieces where I try to build in kind of like performances, whether it be musical and otherwise. And
00:56:58
Speaker
I would openly invite you and other artists or presenters space on the show for some of the art. If you find it appropriate and useful, I just wanted to make that open invitation to you to have presentation of art performance.
00:57:21
Speaker
on the show. I want to deeply, again, thank you for your time and really just that my opportunity for me, as I've said on the podcast, I'd like to extend this out to folks, but a lot of the podcast tends to be looking into things and learning for me, and you've certainly helped with that process.
00:57:47
Speaker
Deep thanks, Essay. I really appreciate you appearing on the podcast. Yeah. That means thank you, and I'm grateful. I'm glad to have shared virtual time and space with you today.
00:58:11
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. And I know we're both big comic book fans, so we could talk about that in the future, or we can delve into those at another time. Well, we could definitely bring up the new release from Marvel with the indigenous superheroes. So maybe we'll have a little chat about that sooner than later. On that point, is that out?
00:58:39
Speaker
uh is it oh yeah i don't know i haven't i don't know either well we'll we'll have to check i'll add it to the and i'll show you my uh collection of uh the native american uh action figures i have all right i'm i'm i'm i'm really digging i'm really digging what's going on here thank you again so much uh essay and i'm sure we'll talk again soon yeah hi hi thank you hi hi
00:59:14
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing.