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From heavy metal to a blacklight pow-wow, a culmination of artists came from across the region last weekend for an Indigenous Comic Con festival. They reflected on Indigenous history and celebrated their culture. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Emma VandenEinde brings us part two of her story.
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- Multimedia artist Shaun Beyale (Diné) stands behind his art booth at the áyA Con festival. He grew up reading Marvel comics and later was able to contribute to Marvel’s Heritage Voices comic book. (Emma VandenEinde / KUNC)
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- Rhyia JoyHeart and Mercedes Archuleta with the United Indigenous Dancers stand outside the McNichols Civic Center building where the áyA Con festival was held. JoyHeart danced the Jingle Dress Dance and Archuleta danced the Fancy Shawl Dance at the festival. (Emma VandenEinde / KUNC)
The áyACon event also featured creatives like Shaun Beyale. The Diné multimedia artist worked on a few pages in Marvel’s Heritage Voices comic book.
“I grew up on Marvel Comics, so, you know, for them to come and reach out to me, you know, that made that little rez boy in me happy because, you know, I never thought that would be something possible.”
He believes Indigenous artists can embrace the contemporary without forgetting their ancestral roots.
“We do live in modern society, but at the same time, you know, we do hold on to our culture.”
Danielle Boyer (enrolled citizen of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), a 22-year-old engineer, also presented at the Con.
She made a talking and singing robot that looks like a tiny minion with cat ears.
Boyer says it also helps preserve native languages, like Ojibwemowin.
“It’d say a phrase like ‘Buju. Hello, Say it back.’ And so it encourages the child to respond to the prompt.”
She also started the STEAM Connection, a nonprofit focused on bringing robotic education and building materials to Indigenous youth for free.
That idea came out of the discrimination she faced in trying to join robotics clubs.
She hopes Indigenous youth will pursue their interests — even when these industries are predominantly white.
“We’ve always been scientists, we’ve always been inventors, we’ve always been creating really awesome things…spaces like this comic con uplift that, uplift our voice, uplift the ability for us to decide what we want to pursue.”
That’s the main reason Kristina Maldonado-Bad Hand wanted to create this Con.
She said that when she invited some friends to present their anime work, they questioned if anyone would like it.
“And I was like, why would you question whether you belonged somewhere because you had something that was likable for the rest of the general public and assumed that it wouldn’t be likable for Native people?”
She hopes the Con allowed people to bond through shared connections and see that Native people are artists and fans of pop culture like everyone else.
“You can celebrate over fandoms and everybody can be nerds together and kind of celebrate that way.”
Organizers hope to expand AyáCon for its second year and partner with similar Indigenous events in the future.
The Cherokee Nation Election Commission certified Monday the 2023 General Election with Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner taking more than 62% of votes to win re-election and serve another four-year term.
Hoskin Jr., 48, is the 18th constitutionally elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
The 2023 Cherokee Nation General Election had 17,139 votes, up from 13,795 votes in 2019.
Of the eight Tribal Council races on the ballot, current District 6 Tribal Councilor Daryl Legg, District 12 Tribal Councilor Dora Patzkowski, District 13 Tribal Councilor Joe Deere, and At-Large Tribal Councilor Julia Coates were certified as winning reelection.
Other results include newcomer Kevin Easley Jr. winning the District 14 race.
The District 1, District 3, and 8 races will go to a run-off election on Saturday, July 8.
The University of Alaska Southeast congratulates faculty Dr. X’unei Lance Twitchell and Shu Guyna Donna May Roberts for their recent awards presented at the Sealaska Heritage Institute 2023 Culturally Responsive Education Conference.
Dr. X’unei Lance Twitchell of Juneau, UAS professor of Alaska Native Languages, was recognized with the Distinguished Leadership Award for his tireless work “to revitalize the Tlingit language” and being “instrumental in teaching the language and in developing materials to learn Lingít.”
UAS professor of Tsimshian language Shu Guyna Donna Roberts was one of seven Distinguished Educator Awardees, recognized for her “promotion and teaching of the Tsimshian language, having produced dictionaries and other resources,” according to the SHI press release.
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