Street roots., September 29, 2017, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • September 29-October 5, 2017
News
Page 11
PHO TO S CO URTESY OF RAVEN JO HN
BY TESSA V IK A N D E R
their crew and programs, (this) company
starts from a talented and diverse crew of
women, queer identified, indigenous and
rtist Raven John is carving her own
people of color. There is no glass ceiling to
path and finding work as a
break; we all come from a point of
.professional in spaces that celebrate
understanding and growth, each working to
both her indigenous and two-spirit identity.
our strengths,” John said.
Bullied as a teenager, John didn’t finish
“Our sexual and gender orientations have
high school. But now 28, she has a Bachelor
more to do with our spiritual and cultural
of Fine Arts and is working on a certificate
beliefs than simply being bisexual,
in Northwest Coast jewelry arts from Native
homosexual or gender-fluid or gendervariant
Education College in Vancouver, B.C. She
or transsexual,” John said.
was a featured artist at Vancouver’s Queer
Arts Festival this past spring, and she’s now
working on her second stop-motion-
Pushing back
animation film.
Before identifying as two-spirit, John
The term “two-spirit” is a way for LGBTQ
identified as a pansexual woman. It was only
indigenous people to articulate a gender
after coming to embrace and accept her
identity or sexual orientation that is
Coast Salish and Sto:lo identity that she
connected to their culture and spirituality.
adopted the term. Her decision to identify
I sat down with John in the college’s
as two-spirit is one of the many ways she is
lunchroom. Her voice was calm and
resisting the racism that she has witnessed
confident. She was wearing a turquoise and
since a young age.
purple thin-strapped dress that she made
“I know a lot of the hatred I received and
herself.
the bullying I received through high school
As a kid, John said, she loved the fantasy
was racialized, that it was because I was
dreamscapes in films such as “The Little
Native,” she said. “That was something that
Mermaid” and 1985’s “Legend.” Now, she
for the longest time I tried to ignore and
has turned toward stop-motion animation
separate myself from.
and was recruited to work for a local,
“I think attempting to be, or (to) act,
indigenous-owned stop-motion animation
colorblind is a coping mechanism that a lot
company, Spotted Fawn Productions. There,
of people use when they don’t know any
she creates sets, and sculpts the faces of
other way of moving forward.”
figurine-size characters.
When John was a teen, she distanced
“With 3D and illustrated animation ... it
herself from cultural practices, she said,
still comes down to a flat image or digital
because she didn’t want to “draw further
image,” she said, “whereas with stop-motion
attention from bullies and racists.” She
animation, you’re creating real things in real
recalls turning down her family’s offer of
spaces, and there’s a tactile nature to it that
teachings, explaining, “I did not want to
is just really alluring.”
wear my Nativeness.”
Beyond artistic fulfillment, John said, the
Aside from being public about her two-
production team offers her a safe,
spirit identity, John is pushing back against
supportive space where her two-spirit
racism and colonialism in other ways. She
identity is recognized.
“Where other productions aim to diversify has led several workshops on the impact of
Raven John, of
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residential schools, attended anti-fascist
rallies where she’s handed out anti-Nazi
buttons, and has coordinated art workshops
for indigenous youths in rural areas outside
Vancouver.
Make art, not war
Her work with youths is both a way to
move forward and a reckoning with her past.
John said she wants a different future for
indigenous youths.
“For the rest of my life, I’m hoping to
make art, and to continue to make art,” she
said. “I plan on taking up spaces that future
generations can see themselves in.”
While her future looks bright, John
laments that when she was younger, she did
not “think highly enough” of herself and did
F' .'.j
g 9
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'* w I H I J B
uses stopm otion
anim ation in her
art. “There’s a
tactile nature to it
that is ju s t really
alluring, ” she
says.
not believe that she could one day study art
at the university level. She also credits the
barriers to her self-esteem as being due to
the legal, institutionalized and social racism
that she faced growing up.
“But seeing the cleverness and humor
and talent in the youths from my
communities in Hope and in Mission and
Chilliwack, I know how far they can go, and
that they can go much farther than me in
their careers,” John said, adding that all
they need is the support and opportunities
she lacked in her youth.
“It’s been my goal to take up space in the
public eye,” she said, “to show indigenous
youth that they can do what I’m doing - and
that they can do much more.”
Courtesy o f Megaphone / INSP.ngo