Welcome to Arctic the Culture Cure, the podcast all about Canada's Arctic, the climate, the animals, the land, the people, the culture and what it can teach the rest of the world. I'm your host, Rob Fagan. Realistic and diverse representations of Inuit women and their relationships to their bodies is something that Iqaluit, Nunavut, based on artist Aviana McKenzie has made a central theme in her digital illustration practice, creating art that combats colonized views and understandings of womanhood and femininity. Aviana's work is created with a clear message of destigmatization and reinforcement of positive body image. Much of Aveanna's work is inspired by interactions she observes and engages in on social media. A place where women are both granted agency over their own bodies and representation, while simultaneously policed by others who seek to either shame or hypersexualize them. Colorism in the Inuit community and a fair representation of a wide range of bodies and skin tones is also important to her. And her series of middle finger images featuring traditional Inuit tattoos in multiple shades that are reflective of that diversity. Out of respect for her culture and her beautiful great great grandmother who bore traditional tattoos, Aviana took the step to adopt facial and finger tattoos herself. It was a step that makes her feel further connected to her culture and heritage. Currently, Aveanna creates a line of T shirts and products that feature her original digital designs under her label, Liak Creations. We are very pleased to have Aviana on our podcast today. Welcome, Aviana.

Hi.

Yeah, no, it's great that we can make time to get together and, you know, we have, as we were chatting about, we have listeners, you know, from around the world and could you may explain to people where you are today, where we're chatting with you today?

Currently you are chatting with me in Nunavut that is in the Arctic Circle of Canada.

And so is that your home community, Apiana?

No, I'm originally from and grown and raised from Rinconin Lit, Nunavut.

Okay, so it's just a move you made later in life as you were growing up and you. Was it for schooling or you just ended up moving to Kaluita as part of your life choices?

Just part of life choices.

Okay, so now we're speaking on July 1, and the COVID crisis is still kind of heavy on people's minds. What's the reaction to Covid been in Iqaluit? And I know there's no cases so far, none of it, which is fantastic, but how have people been coping in Iqaluit and doing things differently?

I would Say there is kind of a change of people using masks once in a while. But since there's still no confirmed cases, the issue is not many people are using masks, which isn't a problem at all. But they're also taking precautions of not standing too close together. I believe there has been less travel going to the south unless it's for medical reasons. And even then they're being extra precautious about that. I believe that they're doing tests the day before they leave for their flight back up north. So, yeah, I think it's going pretty well.

That's good. And I know just chatting to some folks, there was a bit of a fear in some of the smaller communities because there are, you know, some of the overcrowding in houses that if someone did get Covid, it might spread pretty quickly. So very, very fortunate and good people are taking those precautions in the communities up there. So at this time of the year, you know, July, it's an exciting time up north and things are changing, you know, into springtime. Could you maybe describe what the environment's like right now? You know, for people listening, is there still snow and what's happening to the daylight? What have your temperatures been like?

So I would say there's constant daylight. It does get a little bit dimmer, but it's not drastically dark. We do get sunsets still and sunrises, but it's not completely dark outside where you can still see across town. And the environment outside, there are still a bit of ice, and that's on the ocean and on the bay. But it's slowly, but at the same time it's melting fast. I would say about a week or two, maybe less. People can go actually boating in their big boats now and to go hunting further. I don't think there's any more snow. There might be just a little bit at the bottom of the mountains just trying to melt away slowly. But other than that, it's practically summer here.

Oh, nice, Nice temperatures has been, you know, to your memory, warmer than usual. Just about right for this time of year, it seems.

Just about right. It's. It's like, I would say it's not really predictable of whether it's going to be warm or cold. Some days. Some days it's warm, but it has cold wind.

Oh, okay, okay. So kind of a nice, nice seasonal temperatures. That's great. And nice that people will be able to start to get out in boats here, there pretty soon. That's always nice for people. I think if we're going to discuss your Art and the themes you focus on, it's important that people, you know, they understand your cultural background and your heritage. Could you explain a bit about your heritage for our listeners?

So I am Inuk and from Nunavut, so a background of what our heritage and our culture is about. We are originally known as Eskimos, what most people know, which is considered a slur because it's a term that was used by missionaries and many people who came from across the world and used it against us as a derogatory term. And many people don't understand that. So sadly, we're still known as Eskimos. And slowly, a lot of people are learning now and getting informative that we're called Inuit. And so other than that, would you want, like, a background of like. Exactly, yeah.

How about your family history? You said that you were, you know, originally from Rankin, and is that where your. Your parents were originally from? From that area of the Arctic.

So my mom is from Rankin and my dad is from Alcibia, and I believe that most of my family were around from that area. On my mother's side, we're mostly close to Chester. And since Rankin was made in the 50s, my great grandfather moved to Rankin, working at the nickel mine. So that's where we relocated from Chester. And my great great grandmother, I believe that there are a few journals written by Knud Erasmusen, and I have to try remember what his name was, but he was accomplished by Kannud. I think his name would probably be. Oh, I have to look it up, but I can.

Well, that's okay.

Yeah. But I believe my family and her would travel with them by walking from the west to Central and a little bit closer to Iglooli. Mmm.

Okay. Interesting that the, you know, where people traveled back, your relatives back in history, where they. Where they traveled. Now, obviously you're very proud of your heritage, and was that something that was instilled in you at a young age by your parents, or did it take some years and growing up to appreciate your culture as much as you do now?

So it wasn't very hard for me to accept and know my heritage because I did grow up a lot around my grandparents on my dad's side, and I was raised around the culture. And I believe few years of my life, I mainly ate our traditional food. And I strongly believe that's why I can't really eat regular chicken eggs or anything like that. Yeah. So from my understanding, I wasn't used to it at all when I was younger, so that's probably why I don't like the taste of it.

So right now you still primarily eat traditional food?

When I can. It's difficult here in. Because there's not many resources to actually go and get caribou. It's once in a long while. And since there's tags that are made for the population wise, it's very limited to go hunting for that. But for fish, seal and every other animal that you can name that we eat, it's very easy to access.

What would be. Now this may be hard to answer, but if you had to pick one, one traditional food that's your absolute favorite, what would that be?

I would probably say, speaking on what you can probably make most out of would be caribou because there's many dishes because it's similar to beef. There's a lot of recipes you can make out of beef. And even if you want the simplest thing, you can just have it as kwok, which is frozen.

Yeah, raw. Frozen caribou. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can tell people from personal experience that is delicious. So that's a really, in my opinion, a really good choice of a favorite food. There's no doubt. Now, your art, how about your interest in art and expressing yourself through the mediums of art? Again, is that something that came early in life, your interest in art? And was it just for fun at first and then it kind of transformed into a way of expressing yourself?

So it kind of started in high school when I took an art class for extra credit. And so I was enjoying it because it was more of exploring different types of art styles and techniques. So I found that what helps me the most and I found easier to use is painting. And I believe last year I just recently start doing digital art and learning more of it. I'm still learning now how to use and drawing different style types, which is fun and it's a great way to like express how I feel about a current situation or what's going on with society today.

Mm, well, that's. So it's something that you, you had that interest in high school, then you just kind of grew and grew and then you start to use it as that form of expression and using different mediums. It sounds like now than before as well.

Yeah.

You mentioned, you know, when I was reading about your art and the different themes in your art, you mentioned, you know, different themes or sources of inspiration for your art and just a couple things that. A few things that I picked up on that, you know, if you don't mind, you know, some of the quotes about your Themes, realistic and diverse representations of Inuit women and their relationships to their bodies and art that combats colonized views and understandings of womanhood and femininity and a message of destigmatization and reinforcement of positive body image. So a of lot. A lot of focus on womanhood, body image, you know, could you maybe the themes behind that. It sounds so strong. And what are the main themes there about womanhood and destigmatization that you're trying to get across with your art?

So from my personal experience growing up, I wasn't as what people would say, girly girl and all those stereotypes. I wasn't into that stuff. So growing up, for me, it was hard because how the lifestyles here, specifically upon Inuit, after Krishna happened and was introduced, a lot of our roles were created and portrayed a specific way. You had to fit the certain lifestyle. And a lot of people mistake that. Our traditional roles as women and our life, it was just to have children, it was to provide clothes for our men to stay home, everything like that. But when you look further in and you listen to stories that many elders speak about and you read all these old legends that were passed down, it wasn't like that at all. There's quite a bit of women that are known, like, if they don't have brothers or any uncles, anything like that of a male role, they would have to do it themselves. They go hunting themselves, they learn how to skin their catch, everything like that. And from experience, my mom, after she married my dad, she did know a lot about how to hunt, how to provide, how to basically do everything that a man was supposed to do. And so how I see it and hearing how people are raised, they come from very Christian or Anglican parents and families. And you see how they base all that on their lifestyles, where they stay home, they make children and they take care of them, while their men who go hunting alone or they go work and they provide like the men is, the men are the providers when it's completely opposite and that's not the traditional way. Like, you see all these stereotypes and it leaves us Inuit women to rethink how we actually are supposed to be. Like, with my family, it was nothing like that. We didn't have gender roles in our family. It was, if you are able to provide for your family, you provide. And that's one thing that really struck to me, that a lot of people don't have that privilege to be able to have that lifestyle, to be able to be providing for their family in different ways, such as hunting, working, Anything like that. It's all stereotypical. So based on my art, I want to be pushing that limit of how stereotypes are made for us women.

That's incredible. I mean, I think if you had to ask your average non northerner, and I think maybe even some people who live in the north, you know, what their image was of a traditional Inuit family, they would have that total concept of the man heading out hunting, bringing home the catch, so to speak, to his wife and her dutifully making the clothes and preparing the food. You make an important point. So one of those themes is that that traditionally wasn't the way it was done before Christianity came to the Arctic.

Exactly. Because if a man wasn't able to find a wife who was gonna sew for him, it couldn't be his parents, it couldn't be the sisters, it couldn't be anyone, because he'd have to learn himself. Exactly. And that's a necessity of surviving in the north, especially when it's in a.

Traditional way that, you know what, when you say that, that just makes good sense. So if I was growing up years ago and I was, you know, not in a community like Aqaluit, and I didn't have a wife yet, I'd be doing the sewing myself. I wouldn't be, you know, and my wife, even when I had a wife, she may not necessarily be doing that. She may doing the hunt, be doing the hunting. It was very collective. The family all supported each other.

Exactly.

No, thank you for that. That's a really, really important point. And I think people do have those misconceptions. You know, when you were had a chance to talk to your mom and different people again, what would other changes you can think of that Christianity brought to the Arctic along with some of those traditional male female roles. Are there others you can think of that people have talked about?

I would say it would be sexual orientation and identity. We don't have a specific term, but it's known as two spirit and other First Nations I can't name under my head because I'm slowly still learning about this background.

Yeah.

And from my understanding and from what I read was that it was two souls together, a female and a male role that lived, not lived. I don't know how to phrase it properly, but is in one individual, and that's who they are. It's like two spirit, basically. Like what the name is. But yeah, we did have that back then. And the problem with that is we don't have a term. No one knows what the actual term is. For us, what we used back then, and a lot of people believe that strictly it was female and male when it actually wasn't, because Christianity came and a lot of that, it's really against any homosexuality if you're not CIS and whatever like that. Sorry, I'm having a hard time to explain, but there's strict rules. Yeah, there's a strict rule of what kind of. Sorry.

On the Christianity side, there's a strictness to sexuality.

Yeah. And what your identity is, and it's solely based on if you're straight or you're not. And a lot of people would say back then, if you're gay, if you're bi, that was no such thing. And so it has to do a lot with residential schools and how it affected us Inuit to think how we are. And so what's happening today in Nunavut itself, we are slowly getting out of that mindset that there wasn't anyone that wasn't straight, there wasn't anyone who wasn't like the sex at birth and everything like that. It slowly making its way. As youth are getting older, they're getting more informed through the Internet and getting more resources to understand who they are as a person. And that tackles a lot of issues with the older age generation. And some people, my generation, who are against that because their family beliefs are strong. And so it creates harmful environment for anyone who is themselves. And they can't be because of the strictness, you know, so it's.

It's kind of a combination of. It's almost like colonial. Colonialism and religion, they kind of came together to the Arctic, you know, they kind of went hand in hand. And so in a sense, it's people rediscovering what those two things took away from them. Is that a fair comment? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

And, you know, one of the things that I did want to touch base with you on that, I think it definitely relates to that is I think a pretty big decision in your life was to go, you have some traditional Inuit tattoos. Inuit tattoos, and not just on your hands, but on your face, which is a pretty big decision in someone's life. And maybe you could just talk a little bit about that, because I know colonialization played a big part in those not being seen in more recent years. And what made you decide to take that big step to actually have those traditional tattoos, very visible tattoos.

So I was given the opportunity to learn more than I actually knew. Like, I knew nothing at all. I only knew that my family had them. And so after I took that Step and gained that information of at least the basics of what they meant and what they were for and the meaning behind them. It really changed my perspective. And I actually questioned how I was younger and what steps I am to take to decolonize myself and actually practice my culture and not a culture that was forced upon my family to be more. What people would like to say, civil, you know, like what the normal is today. It's so stigmatized of us in still having our same lifestyle that we had back then. Because there's a lot of question of asking, why can't we just act like every other person? We have access to Internet. We have access to everything you can name in the south, like the more Southern influences, you know. And so that really made me think, why are we being asked that? Why are we being asked to change who we are, how we live our life, and how our lifestyle is just for a comfort of people not being like. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. So you. Others have expectations of your lifestyle instead of you, you know, living your. Your traditional lifestyle the way you want to. And. And you have to be happy with yourself. So what. What was the reaction, you know, initially from your family and maybe from. I don't know, maybe just start with your family when you made that decision to have the traditional tattoos.

So at first it was hard. A lot of them do believe in God and are Christian, and I did have a fear of what they were gonna say because a lot of that revolves. A lot of my family did go to residential school. And my dad, he. He. He did go to 1. And a lot of people say, oh, he's not that old. He shouldn't have been. But it did stop in the 80s and Nunavut. Right, right. And so he did go at a young age. And so it was kind of hard because at the same time, it brings back of how much trauma is brought up in our family and what is shamed upon, like tattoos in the Christ. It's a taboo because it's known that, like, your body is a temple, you shouldn't change anything of it. And that's the issue that is brought up. At first, my family was mad and confused because I didn't tell them when it happened. And I understand where that madness came from because suddenly I have, like, a tattoo on my face, and I have a tattoo on my hand. And they were more worried of if I was gonna regret it because I didn't discuss with them about getting them. And their concern was I wasn't thinking long enough about them. I Wasn't thinking about the design or if I know at least what the meaning is and why I want to get it. They're thinking maybe I did it to make them mad at them, make them get mad, to get a reaction out of them. So it's kind of.

To speak.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so I got my first tattoos two years ago. And there's a lot that can happen within two years, especially how many of us Inuit women are getting our traditional tattoos now.

Yes.

There's no taboo against it anymore. Within that two years since I got them, like, you can look two years ago, no one. You can't even see one person with them. But now you see a lot of Inuit women getting them done, learning to do them, and just doing it for themselves to understand who they come from and where they're from, their heritage and everything like that. So the step for me to take get traditional tattoos, it is to know who I am. I struggled with a lot of my identity issues because I was told growing up I don't look Inuk and that I was an Inuk because I don't speak my language. And it was very hard. And getting these tattoos, it was something for me to reclaim my identity and to show those people that no matter what they'll try say to me, I'm always going to be who I am. I'm Enoch. And there's no doubt about it. I don't have to, like, prove anyone about it. I don't have to act a certain way for my identity to be known, you know, and that's. So this was.

Sorry, go ahead.

Sorry about that. So this was a step forward to accepting who I am without, like, feeling the hurt from before.

And that, you know, that sense of identity is so important. And I know that from, you know, personal experience, experience of my children. And I think that step that you took, you know, to give you that sense of identity is incredibly important. And, you know, the fact that when the north was colonized and religion went north, the people were taught that it was evil to have, you know, those tattoos again. Is that identity theft? Very much, in my opinion.

Yeah, it is like that. And a lot of issue that happens is since we started revitalizing these tattoos again, there's a lot of non Inuit getting them. And that's the problem. It's becoming a fashion trend to those who aren't part of our culture. It's a fashion statement for them when they don't understand the underlying trauma and effects it has on us individually to tackle colonism and make that out of our lives, for our children that we have or we're about to have. You know.

Thanks for clarifying that, because I think sometimes people have trouble understanding, you know, the. The effects of cultural appropriation, or they don't understand that when they do certain things that traditionally belong to the Inuit or other groups, and they don't understand that you're in the process of reclaiming those things. And then when they appropriate them, it takes away from that identity. So that's. That's a very important point, and I thank you very much for making that, because I think some people get confused about that who aren't from the Arctic and haven't gone through.

Yeah. And from what I've saw and the arguments that I had before were people saying, why can't I get them traditionally, even though I'm non Inuit? You have, like, what they call white tattoos. Because I have an anchor on my arm, which is traditionally done for, like, anyone who's from Europe. Right. There's sailor tattoos.

Yes.

And one thing that they don't understand is that's not part of a culture. It's an art form. And this is specific, done for a reason. It's spiritual beliefs behind them. It's personal meaning. It's not for, like, for show. It's. Yes, they're both tattoos, but one has, like, a sacred meaning behind them. They're not done just to be done.

Yes. Yeah. Now what? Sorry, go ahead.

No, it's okay.

What I was gonna say is what. What has the reaction been, you know, since you've had those traditional tattoos done? I'm sure you've traveled south, likely, you know, since that's happened, what's the reaction been from non northerners? You know, when you've been in a larger city, whether it's Ottawa or some location that you would travel to from Aqeluit. Have you had negative, positive? Just people kind of glancing at you, wondering what they mean? What has that experience been.

From? What I noticed when it was a person that wasn't white, what I noticed is they comment on them, but it wasn't ever in a negative way. It was always interest in them. They're like, oh, you have cool tattoos. Did they hurt when you got them? It was never, what do they mean? And what I got from people who were white from the south, it was more of, oh, those are nice tattoos, but why on your face? Can't you get it anywhere else? You only get a job because of that. Yeah. And there's quite a bit of people who actually were More passive aggressive to me. Whenever I was going anywhere in public, they would give me mean looks. They would stare and really point at me. Talking to someone with a disgusting face, like image on their face. And so that was the type of stuff. But I'd say the most advantage thing about having them on my face was no one would bug me. They wouldn't try saying anything. They wouldn't go near me. So that's a plus because, like, distance and whatever is great when you're walking down the street.

I would hope with time the reaction would become more of, you know, those are very interesting tattoos. What do they mean? What, What? You know, the people would ask you about your culture and offer you the opportunity to talk more about being Inuit and what that means. I would hope that becomes a positive part of your experience. Have you had any of that?

Yeah, a lot. A lot of Ba' e people, specifically elders that I've met down south who are from the north originally but are down for medical reasons or they just live there. There's one time I was at work and we were. Felicity, I can't say that word, but we were doing something with the community and Elder did actually come up to me and he was crying and at first I was like, oh, no, I don't know what to do. Then he said to me that he's very proud of me for having facial tattoos and that he hasn't seen them on anyone since his mother. And we had a conversation about that and he's just telling me how it reminded him of how it used to be back then and how beautiful his mother was known to be because she had these markings. And it's a very impactful experience. And just like thinking about it, that leaves an impact on those who it affected drastically. Like that Elder, like, he doesn't have that reminder only when he sees it now, and hopefully he does see that, that it's coming back. That we're proud of our heritage and our culture being here and not died out, you know, and not colonized completely, that we're reclaiming everything back.

That's a powerful experience with it. It makes me feel emotional just hearing that story about the reaction of the elder and I. I think that level of emotion just hard to express, but I think it's just a little bit of indication of what was taken away from people back then. And, you know, for younger persons like yourself to start to revitalize that again, I think that just shows the importance and impact of the steps you're taking. Yeah. Related to that as well. You know, one of the things that you mention in relation to your art and some of what the impact you'd like to have, you talk about colorism in the Inuit community and fair representation of a wide range of bodies and skin tones, and that's part of the inspiration for your T shirts. What do you mean by the colorism in the Inuit community?

So there's a lot of lateral violence against each other and especially negative comments from people who are from the south that never, ever went up north. And from that perspective, where they only know the stereotype, they only know what Inuit look like when they search on Google and they see traditional photos, they see what they want to see. And so when many of us don't fit that image, that stereotype image that you can see across the world on cartoons, animation, anything like that, as icons of Inuit, it portrays us as bowl cuts using fur jackets, everything like that. And the trauma behind that, many people don't understand when the bowl cuts come in, that's the hairstyle that was given to us in residential school, which is harmful. And you learn that later on in life, in school, when you learn it in high school about residential school, and that affects you completely because your perspective of how the world views you as a child is exactly how they're gonna see you and how they're teaching other children to see you. And so the colorism there is, many of us are like, we're not full Inuk. We have mix. We're mixed. And there's a lot of variety that people don't understand that we're not just halfway. There's many people who are half, like, black, half Hispanic, half Latino, everything like that. It's really diverse. How many people are half Inuk and half anything you can name of. Because there's way more Inui out there in the world that, you know, are like regular people who fall in love, have children with anyone, you know, not just Inuit. It's not strictly like that. And so the importance of there is the wide range of skin tones, right? Because many people see us as like a medium tone shade. And when they see anyone else who's darker or lighter, they say, no, you can't be Enoch. You don't look like that. You look like this culture. You look like that culture. You look like me, you look like you're white. You know, it's all talks of that. And that's something that I want to stop. I want more understanding of for people to understand we're not the stereotype that they put us in. And a Lot of people that get surprised when I say that I'm Inuk, or like, your eyes aren't like, you know, they aren't squinted or anything like that, which I don't understand where that stereotype comes from. Which probably comes also as how many of us are portrayed as Asians, you know, and that comes up, we're given that stereotype too. And they're like, oh, it's the same thing, which is really harmful to our children. And people who have to hear that, like, I've heard that many times. They're like, your eyes aren't squinted. You don't look Asian. You're not, you know, you look white. You look like you're every other race. But, you know, but like, what does the Enoch look like? Yeah, if you can ask anyone, exactly what does the Inuk look like? I look like my parents, they're Inuk. But I don't look like every other person that I know that's Inuk. Like, we don't look all the same. That's the thing that many people don't understand. And people who are just learning about us, they have ignorant comments, and that's like, very understanding if they're just learning. But if they don't try listen to what we have to say, if they don't try understand and take those steps to change their perspective, then that's the problem that's created there, and that's the racism that they build on themselves for not trying to listen or learn and educate themselves. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah. So is that that whole concept of the different shades of skin, people who aren't familiar with your art, There is a series of T shirts you have where it is the middle finger being held upon the T shirt, and there are the traditional tattoos on the hand. And I think you do those T shirts in different shades of color. So is that's the point you're trying to get across, is that whole thing? Well, don't. You know, I'm giving the middle finger to people who feel that Inuit should look a certain way. We're different shades. We're different eye shapes. We're all very different. Would that be the theme? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but would that be the theme behind that, that T shirt?

So the theme behind that, those middle finger drawing is basically, it's a variety of things. So I did a brief description that you can see on the Facebook page or the Instagram page of what they mean. But basically the design of the middle finger is we're told, we're told and made to be quite quiet for so long. And so you don't want to say anything, but you want to do something. And what's a better way to tell someone to fuck off than giving them the finger? Right, right. And so I drew that. And when you're thinking more of like, what's needed and its representation and its skin tones and like, you think, what are children gonna see? And yeah, of course they're gonna see this. Like these drawings, since they're on T shirts, whatever. Like, I'm not gonna be ashamed of that. Like, it's everywhere on movies. If you watch a movie with a kid, they're gonna see something that's like, you know, that's not kid friendly. Especially if they're watching YouTube, anything like that. You have access to the Internet, they're gonna see something. And so one thing I found is important is different representation. It doesn't matter, like, you know, what, what your skin color is as a nook. And that goes back to what you see as a kid. You either see that it's a really fair skinned person or it's a really dark skinned person. There's no in between. And it's usually the lighter skin that's represented more, especially in the media. When you see cartoons from way back then, there's no diverse roles, none at all. And throughout the years, you slowly see that, but they're more tokenized. And so what I wanted is in my art, it's important to show more varieties, especially when you see how art is made for Inuit. They're light skinned, there's no darker representation. And that's really important to highlight, to have more darker representations for those kids that can't do anything about their skin tones at all. You know, like they can't relate to any other character if they see in only cartoons or wherever they see it's lighter skins. Like, there's no majority of people, Inuit who are lighter. That's. That's totally wrong.

Yeah, it's arranged.

Yeah.

No, it's very interesting that we're shouting right now. You know, maybe kind of appropriate given the black lives matter, indigenous lives matter movements that we're seeing, you know, all over the world right now. And I think your T shirts become even more expressive during this time. And you talk about, well, you know, it's kind of, you know, giving the middle finger to people wanting you to be silent. And in a way, the black lives matter, indigenous lives matter, Inuit lives matter. You know, those, those movements are raging against the expectation to be silent about the injustices that are happening. So do you. I mean, personally, I see your T shirts becoming even more relevant. Do you feel that way?

I wouldn't say that they are something, because that should be part of, like, used for this movement, because it would be taking away from Black Lives Matter, and that's not what I want at all. So I'm not going to be advertising them anytime soon. I'm not going to be like, you know, creating art at all at this moment, because that would mean I'm taking it away. And. And this movement of Black Lives Matter is really important to see, because when you learn about our history as Inuit, all our agreements and our rights in Nunavut were inspired by the Civil rights movement completely. We wouldn't have gone where we are today without seeing that in the media, without seeing how they did it and seeing the history being made in the States. If we didn't see all that, we wouldn't be strong enough to have our own land. You know what I mean? Creating the land claims agreement, we wouldn't have anything at all like that. We don't know how to fight back. We wouldn't know how to claim our rights as Inuit at all if we didn't have any of that movement. So it's really important for us Inuit to stand with them, because every other time when we have an issue, a social issue, any issue at all, they're there as our allies. They don't make it about them. You know, they help us, they stand with us, and they help with whatever they could. So it's important.

Sorry, I was just gonna say. So at this point, what you're saying is it's more important for you to stand with them and support them at this stage in time.

Yeah, exactly. So what my process is, with my art and everything, I'm keeping that completely off. And it could wait, honestly, could. And this is important time in life where you can either be on the right side of history or you can be on the wrong side, and that's how it's gonna define you completely as a person.

Mm. Thank you very much for that. That's really important points now. There's, you know, you're shifting back and looking just at the. The Arctic. There's so many things happening in the north right now in the Arctic. There's food insecurity, there's climate change, there's loss of language, but at the same time, reclaiming language and reclaiming culture, you know? So as we talked about casting off colonialism, what are your hopes for the Arctic and the Inuit people going forward.

I honestly hope we have more opportunities to make changes. And a lot of things that happen is connected to the government, and it's the federal government, our own government, everything like that. It's controlled and basically on a system that was made for white people and based by white people. And that's the issue that I see in our system, in our government, is it's not for our own people. It's not fixed for our people at all to make a change. It's not fixed for us to have a change in our communities, our problems, everything like that, solely based on how we should be able to adapt, not what we need to improve. So what I see for the future, I really hope a lot of Inuit youth, or Inuit in general, are able to speak up more and fight for what's needed in our communities, fight for the resources we actually need, and fight for the basic rights that we need as people to live and survive completely.

Very powerful. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure, Aviana, having you on the podcast today. I really appreciate you making the time. And you're a new mom. You've got a young daughter, so I know that that takes a lot of time with a young one that's so young. So, again, thank you so much for making the time to be with us today.

Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.

Yes. So thank you very much. And everyone. We've been with Aviana McKenzie, if people want to take a look at your art or, you know, some of the work you've done. Aviana Uliak Creations. Is that what they look at on the Internet?

Yeah.

Okay. And that's.

I could forward you a link if you want to add it to the description, if it's easier.

That would be fantastic. So again, I'll put that up for folks in the description of the podcast. And it's Uliak Creations, and we've been chatting with Aviana McKenzie. Thank you very much, Aviana.

Thank you.

You take. Thank you for listening to this episode of Arctic the Culture Cure. For more information about my novels or to inquire about my presentations, please Visit my website, www.robertfagan.com. we'll join you again on the next episode of Arctic the Culture Cur.