Skindigenous
When: March 13 at 4:30 p.m. (replays Wed. 10 a.m. and Sat. 6 p.m.)
Where: APTN
Centuries of colonization caused tattooing to almost fade from Indigenous cultures.
However, right now artists around the globe are embracing traditional tattooing methods and symbols and reuniting fellow Indigenous people with a part of their pasts.
This return to the roots of tattooing is chronicled in the new APTN 13-part TV series Skindigenous.
“For the tattoo artist it is also a form of activism,” said the series’ creator/producer/director Jason Brennan, a member of the Kitigan Zibi First Nation community near Ottawa.
“All the cultures we encountered their tattooing practices had almost disappeared because of colonialism. All these artists are bringing that back. They are breathing new life into it. It’s reclaiming who they are.”
One of the artists highlighted in the March 13 B.C. episode of the series is Nlaka’pamux tattoo artist, painter and scholar from Salmon Arm, Dion Kaszas.
Salmon Arm tattoo artist Dion Kaszas uses traditional Indigenous tattooing methods in his work.
“One of the first things that was forbidden and pushed down was our tattooing, because it is integrally connected to our world and life view, to our lands, and to our identities,” said Kaszas via email recently.
“ … when we today as Indigenous peoples mark ourselves in an ancestral way, we are beginning to stand, to fight, and to acknowledge that it is through the perseverance and strength of us and our ancestors that we can — Nlaka’pamux, Cree, Metis, Inuit, Tlingit, Haida, Nisga’a or Heiltsuk.”
Re-claiming traditional methods and symbols goes beyond acknowledging culture and history. Brennan says that during all his interviews and travels for the show he repeatedly heard how the traditional methods were a common thread that tied people together emotionally with their cultural histories.
“(Métis artist Amy Malbeuf’) said in many ways it’s like they are stitching people back together with their roots,” said Brennan about what she said in the second episode.
“That’s what everybody seems to say: that it is kind of like sewing something back into their souls.”
Much of the reconnection results in people regaining the pride that was snatched from their ancestors when traditions were quashed and outlawed.
“It’s about getting rid of the self-shame,” said Brennan. “This is who I am. I’m happy with it. I’m proud of who I am.”
For Kaszas, who owns Vertigo Tattoos and Body Piercing in Salmon Arm, being able to use a traditional method to place a traditional symbol on a fellow First Nations member is a vast and important responsibility and honour.
“I became aware of my responsibility to do something for the people to be, or to the coming generations after a young friend of mine decided to take his own life,” said Kaszas.
“I know the power that our ancestral tattooing traditions have in being able to anchor us into our cultures and our communities, and I always say that if that ancestral mark keeps one of our young ones, or one of our older ones, on this earth for one more lifetime, one more year, one more month, one more day, or one more minute, then it is worth it. So what it means to me to be able to do this work of traditional tattooing on other Indigenous folks is to fulfil my responsibilities given to me by the creator, and to attempt to leave this world better than I received it.”
Tattoo artist Sam Olman works during an episode shot in Mexico for the new APTN show Skindigenous.
One way of doing that is through mentoring others and teaching the traditional methods — methods Kaszas had to teach himself when he decided to turn his focus to what he calls “sleeping ancestral tattooing methods.”
He did extensive research and even went so far as to practice the traditional stick and poke and skin stitching methods on his own leg.
“The thing that makes me proudest about this work that I do is seeing the pride and joy on the faces of the people I have mentored, and the people they work with, when they finish applying their ancestral marks,” said Kaszas, who has 50 per cent of his body tattooed.
The idea for Skindigenous came about during a trip Brennan took to Thailand a few years back. It was there he saw someone getting a Sak Yant, or traditional tattoo, and became fascinated with Indigenous tattoos and those who practice the traditional tattooing methods.
Back in Canada his research led him to Kaszas who, along with Malbeuf and Jordan Bennett, started Earthline Tattoo School. A school that teaches traditional tattooing methods to Indigenous people.
Of mixed heritage like Brennan, Kaszas has found and nurtured a deep connection to his Interior Salish roots. He has studied his ancestry in depth, and is about to defend his thesis (Embodying the Past in the Present for the Future: Practicing, Supporting, and Highlighting Indigenous Tattoo Revivals Through Indigenous and Creative Research Methodologies) for his master’s degree in Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
Kaszas is just one of the many interesting and proud artists that appear and share their knowledge and culture in the Skindigenous series. The show is well travelled, making stops in the Philippines, Indonesia, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand, Mexico, Alberta, Toronto, Alaska, and Newfoundland.
Skindigenous TV series creator/producer/director Jason Brennan, left, watches as tattoo artist Jay Soule works on a client in Toronto.
The May 1 episode returns to B.C. and Prince Rupert for a look at the work of Nakitta Trimble. Trimble is the only living tattoo artist from the Nisga’a Nation, and she hopes to bring back the traditional process of tattooing known as gihlee’e.
The series’ website at aptn.ca/skindigenous is full of information and access to an app that gives artists from around the world a forum to record and view their tattoo art.
Related
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com