Skindigenous

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is a matrilineal society consisting of five founding Nations who later adopted a sixth nation to join their family. Kanen'tó:kon Hemlock is a traditional Bear clan representative from the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawà:ke, a small community located outside Montreal. Their traditional territory is divided between present-day Quebec, Ontario and New York State. From a young age, Kanen'tó:kon was fascinated by his culture. He began the art of tattooing to revitalize the lost tradition and ancient protocols. In this episode, he invites us to witness the first tattooing in a longhouse in roughly 300 years.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Stephanie Big Eagle grew up astray from her identity. She reconnected with her culture when she rekindled relationships in her home community, the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. She immersed herself in the fight for aboriginal rights and became a prominent figure in the Dakota pipeline protests, where her thunder hawk hand poke design became a symbol of the standoff. Stephanie found her calling as an environmental and Indigenous activist and full-time hand poke tattoo artist. She sees the revitalization of hand poke as a gift to be offered with love, gratitude, and respect, particularly for the ancestors.

Mo Naga is a traditional tattoo artist from Manipur, in the lush North East Region of India on the Myanmar border. While studying fashion design in his early 20s, Mo Naga stumbled across some interesting Naga textile designs and quickly realized their cultural importance. He gradually started researching, archiving and preserving them. His creativity and love for tattoos led him to create a neo-Naga style of design. Mo Naga now works diligently from his New Delhi tattoo studio reviving the traditional Naga tattoo culture of his people and the whole North East Region of India.

The Paiwan people are one of about 20 Indigenous minorities who make up roughly 3% of the population of Taiwan. When Cudjuy Patjidres discovered that his Paiwanese ancestors had a tattoo culture, he was surprised and amazed. Having developed his artistic skills from watching his grandfather weave and carve wood, he is now dedicated to preserving the ancient symbols and designs that were once common on the island.

Métis artist Audie Murray sees tattooing as a way for people to connect with their culture and communities when they are away from home. Audie’s art and tattoo practice draw from the duality in her life, especially her experience growing up in Regina and Lebret, and then moving to Vancouver to pursue her art career. She finds inspiration for her work in Métis beaded designs. When Audie returns home to Regina and Lebret, her work is centered around creating and learning from family.

Isaac Murdoch and Christi Belcourt founded the Onaman Collective, which represents a group of multidisciplinary artists who focus on land-based decolonization. They established a new traditional community called Nimkii Aazhibikong in Northern Ontario. Under the guidance of elders, they studied ancient markings from the past and are carrying them forward by tattooing individuals from various nations to unify the Indigenous peoples of the land.

Julie Paama-Pengelly is a veteran in the revitalization of tā moko Māori tattooing. Her studio in Mount Maunganui mixes contemporary and traditional designs and cultivates artists from all walks of life. With twenty years teaching experience, her art practice ranges from the use of symbolic imagery to pure abstraction in graphic design, painting, mixed media, and tattooing. Over time many misconceptions have surfaced about who has the right to wear and practice tā moko. Julie is one of the first women to practice in the male-dominated field. She is a strong voice for Māori women’s rights and continues to break down barriers to give women a place in tā moko and in the arts.

Pip Hartley is on a mission to infuse Auckland’s city core with as much Māori culture as possible. From her Karanaga Ink studio, she practices traditional and contemporary Māori tattooing, tā moko. Although her approach is always guided in Māori style, it is a dance between artist and receiver in telling a story that will become permanent. Pip embraces the power of artistic expression to inspire and educate. Karanaga Ink has become one of Auckland’s most respected Māori businesses in a very influential part of New Zealand. Pip takes every opportunity to educate, include and invite the modern world to step into Māori culture and gain a better first-hand understanding of her people.

Northern Canada is home to the oldest tattooing traditions on the planet. Ippiksaut Friesen, a well-known young Inuk artist, was inspired to follow the many Inuit women before her and develop tattooing skills for her sisters. Notwithstanding the challenges in maintaining and reclaiming Inuit traditions in a world strongly affected by contemporary society and climate change, the importance of female tattooing among Inuit women continues to grow. Ippiksaut hopes to play a vital role in the resurgence of traditional tattooing.

In the 1950s, warriors from the Dutch-controlled Maluku islands who were fighting alongside Dutch soldiers against the Indonesians were brought back to the Netherlands by force. As a descendant of that Moluccan diaspora, Joe Patty-Sabandar has been rediscovering and reconnecting with his traditional ancestral culture. As a tattoo artist, he is very keen to preserve and share Moluccan culture as it existed before the Portuguese colonized the Maluku islands. He is part of a group of third and fourth generation Dutch-Moluccans who are thirsty for knowledge and the ancient culture of their homeland.

When Haida artist Kwiaahwah Jones picked up the needle and traditional Haida tattoo practices that were once outlawed, she inspired a whole new generation to embrace their Haida culture and make it their own. She has curated Haida art exhibits across Canada but found her true calling in Haida hand poke tattoos. Tattooing was an important part of Haida culture, signifying family lineage and rank in society. Kwiaahwah draws inspiration from being out on the land and water in Haida Gwaii. She sees the revitalization of Haida tattooing as a reconnection to her ancestors.

Manel Mahdouani is a tattoo artist living in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. As a descendent of the Amazigh people native to North Africa, Manel specializes in Amazigh tattoos. With tattooing traditions no longer practiced, her grandmother’s generation are the last to carry the traditional designs and knowledge. Since many still depend on oral transmission of their cultural knowledge, Manel travels to remote villages and searches for the knowledge found in the collective memory of elderly people. When she finds a tattoo, she takes pictures and adds it to her research. She then modernizes the design for present-day reproduction. Manel is the only person archiving traditional Amazigh tattoos.

Two Ravens is an Opata tattoo artist based in East Los Angeles. As an activist, he was injured at Standing Rock while defending land rights in North Dakota. He continues to use his art to unite and help Indigenous Americans in L.A. and across the U.S. reclaim their origins.