#native stories

80% of all mainstream superheroes are white. The majority of which are cis male.

She is made of fire.

Born of the oceans and stars.

Revoked of her power and fueled by magic.

Forced to dwell the earth.

Her hips dip and rise fierce like waves.

Gliding across the dance floor.

She is a magician, a conjurer.

Invoking her spell on all around her, hypnotizing with each movement she makes.

She is made of fire.

Her eyes dark like coal.

Smiles and cackles like a coyote.

She moves forces of this earth with every spin, every stomp, every flick of her wrist.

Her hair flows wild like trees waving in a thunderstorm.

Each glimmer of light strikes across her sparking the next step she takes.

She is made of fire.

I've been doing research into trickster characters from different traditions because it's character I've always felt strongly drawn to and want to find ways to incorporate into my craft. However, I've been stumbling into a problem. The character that has resonated with me the most is the Raven of northwest native american traditions.

I am not native american and while this is a personal practice and I'd be approaching the tradition with respect, the last thing I want to do is utilize symbology that I have no claim to. I'm white and I don't want to ignore the history of the violent erasure and misappropriation of native culture.

I tried looking into traditions that I have more connection to (Italian and Irish specifically) but couldn't find anything that really spoke to me. I was born and raised in the pacific northwest and the stories of Raven feel very close to me in a way that other trickster characters don't.

BY MELISSA LOCKER

1 MINUTE READ

Molly of Denali is not just another podcast for kids. The Alaska-set action-adventure series is part Encyclopedia Brown, part American Girl, and all rooted in Native storytelling. The star of the show is Alaska Native Molly Mabray, who lives in the fictional Alaskan town of Qyah with her bush pilot mother and wilderness guide father. The adventure begins when Molly’s birthday cake goes missing just days before her 10th birthday. Being a curious young woman, she sets out to crack the case with the help of a mysterious raven and ends up finding something way better than a piece of cake.

That’s the first adventure for the upstart gumshoe, anyway, and fans can follow along over the course of eight 15-minute episodes that are sized just right for young attention spans. The podcast is a partnership between PRX, WGBH Boston, and podcast producer Gen-Z media and serves as a prequel to an upcoming kids’ TV show of the same name, which is coming to PBS on July 15.

While everyone loves a good mystery, what makes this podcast (and TV series) truly groundbreaking is that all the indigenous characters are voiced by indigenous actors, and Alaska Native voices are featured across the production, including in story development and creative direction. The theme song, which is featured in the PBS KIDS series and podcast, is sung by members of the Yupik Alaska Native band Pamyua, with music from Gwich’in fiddler Brennan Firth.

In fact, the series is the first nationally distributed kids’ show in the U.S. to feature a Native American lead, which is exciting but also depressing in that it has taken so long. As has been proven time and time again, representation matters, especially for kids, and having a story revolving around the adventures of a young Alaska native is a small but important step. And if you don’t trust me on the subject, here are Eva Longoria’s thoughts on the matter.

From my DA page. 

              The dead souls rose below her, fluttering like fog over the trees. Alistreena stroked the feathers of the owl perched on her hand. It screeched, impatient. Her hand went through the bird--her time was short. She opened her hand, the owl flapping out into the sky, moonlight gilding his wings. 

              She leaned back, skull thunking against the tree trunk. Silver eyes closed as she sunk to the ground to wait for her companion to return with the first batch of the souls she required for the coming year. 

Why is that? Simple, Indigenous people have the least amount of representation in popular media, and a fair amount of it is bad. The rest? Mostly X-Men and related characters. Which is fine, but it’s not great. Especially since modern X-Men comics have been dropping individual character’s cultures in favor of “mutant culture”, whatever that is.