#017 Carrying the whispers of our ancestors in every line and shade, ancestral skin markings tell stories deeper than the skin they adorn. As I sit with my guest Robin Humphrey, we navigate the intimate labyrinth of Indigenous identity and the revival of our Nlaka'pamux tattoo traditions. This episode is a canvas of cultural awakening, where ink and identity converge to celebrate the resilience and beauty of our heritage.
Embarking on this voyage, we unravel the threads of personal and collective healing that are woven through the art of tattooing. It's not just about the markings; it's a spiritual journey that calls for meticulous learning, a commitment to safety, and an understanding of the cultural significance behind each symbol. We illuminate the importance of mentorship and the guidance of organizations like the First Peoples Cultural Council, underscoring the thoughtfulness that must accompany the revival of these sacred practices. Robin, once a skeptic, shares his transformative encounter with ancestral markings and how it redefined his connection to our shared legacy.
As we close this chapter, the spirit of giving and community takes center stage. Tattoo artistry is more than a trade; it's a sacred offering that enriches both the giver and the receiver. We explore how tattoos serve as a bridge between generations, teaching and empowering, while also integrating indigenous culture into modern expressions like graffiti and fashion. This episode, rich in stories and insights, serves as a vibrant tribute to the ways in which we honor and elevate our traditions, ensuring they flourish for generations to come. Join us in this celebration of identity, art, and the unbreakable bond to our roots.
I hope you have enjoyed this episode, and I am excited to travel the world of Indigenous tattooing with you as we visit with friends and colleagues from across the globe doing the work.
You can find Robin at:
Instagram @robbness22
Check out my tattoo work at:
https://www.consumedbyink.com
Instagram @dionkaszas
Buy me a Coffee at:
https://ko-fi.com/transformativemarks
I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#017 Carrying the whispers of our ancestors in every line and shade, ancestral skin markings tell stories deeper than the skin they adorn. As I sit with my guest Robin Humphrey, we navigate the intimate labyrinth of Indigenous identity and the revival of our Nlaka'pamux tattoo traditions. This episode is a canvas of cultural awakening, where ink and identity converge to celebrate the resilience and beauty of our heritage.
Embarking on this voyage, we unravel the threads of personal and collective healing that are woven through the art of tattooing. It's not just about the markings; it's a spiritual journey that calls for meticulous learning, a commitment to safety, and an understanding of the cultural significance behind each symbol. We illuminate the importance of mentorship and the guidance of organizations like the First Peoples Cultural Council, underscoring the thoughtfulness that must accompany the revival of these sacred practices. Robin, once a skeptic, shares his transformative encounter with ancestral markings and how it redefined his connection to our shared legacy.
As we close this chapter, the spirit of giving and community takes center stage. Tattoo artistry is more than a trade; it's a sacred offering that enriches both the giver and the receiver. We explore how tattoos serve as a bridge between generations, teaching and empowering, while also integrating indigenous culture into modern expressions like graffiti and fashion. This episode, rich in stories and insights, serves as a vibrant tribute to the ways in which we honor and elevate our traditions, ensuring they flourish for generations to come. Join us in this celebration of identity, art, and the unbreakable bond to our roots.
I hope you have enjoyed this episode, and I am excited to travel the world of Indigenous tattooing with you as we visit with friends and colleagues from across the globe doing the work.
You can find Robin at:
Instagram @robbness22
Check out my tattoo work at:
https://www.consumedbyink.com
Instagram @dionkaszas
Buy me a Coffee at:
https://ko-fi.com/transformativemarks
I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
I can't wait till that day where you know our folks are never gonna like ask who they are. Yeah right, because it's gonna be on our skin, yeah, and that's gonna be part of it. It's gonna be our granny, it's gonna be our mom, it's gonna be our sister, yeah, other uncles, yeah, grandpa's, like that is like I got some.
Speaker 3:It's a really good feelings and the transformative marks podcast explores how indigenous tattoo artists, cultural tattoo practitioners and ancestral skin markers Transform this world for the better, dot by dot, line by line and stitch by stitch. My name is Dion Casas. I'm a Hungarian matey and intercop look professional tattoo artists and ancestral skin marker. I started the work of reviving my ancestral intercop look skin marking practice over a decade ago. I have helped support it and train practitioners and tattoo artists here on Turtle Island. In this podcast, I sit down with indigenous tattoo artists, cultural tattoo practitioners and ancestral skin markers from across the globe, bringing you behind the scenes of this powerful, transformative and spiritual work.
Speaker 1:My name is Robin Humphrey and squash high drinking. Born and raised in the Nicola Valley, I've been for the last couple of years practicing hand poke, practicing indigenous markings and, within the Nicola Valley and surrounding areas, been really involved with the revival and connecting with folks for research and getting our identity really put out there through the work of indigenous markings awesome, so Kind of tell me the story of how you got into ancestral skin marking.
Speaker 1:Oh, so this is a pretty good story. I like to tell this one. You know, indigenous skin markings is actually found me. I had a really different perspective around indigenous markings or tattoos in general. I had a really Catholic or Christian background or ideation around it. And my brother here, deion, came out to Merritt and shared some tattoo medicine through an information session and I was supposed to only be a into, you know, take part as a facilitator for the space and host to save space for the conversation. And then it advanced a little bit farther than that. In that conversation my ideation of tattoo changed like tenfold almost like overnight, and in 15 minutes of conversating I was at feel the beat.
Speaker 1:Deion showed up.
Speaker 1:He started to share some information, shared the imagery of James Tate, he started to share what it is to be and look at him, tattoo and like have it on your skin and the revival and when we are at with tattoo and indigenous markings.
Speaker 1:And I was blown away and intrigued and from there I really got involved in the conversation time. It went between the first initial meeting and Some conversation about learning and then about two years later, deion found me again, pulled me in on a project to Really get involved. At this point he really pulled me aside and pulled me in and got me involved through Earth's line and the work there. So the research and the teaching of folks around Turtle Island with skin markings and Skin stitching and the knowledge and the safety number one, safety right that's something that I really got involved with to foster those core values of Safety into practice and into our communities and sharing in that knowledge as well. So they just blossom from that very moment. I think it was like four or five years ago. I'm starting to lose track of when that was.
Speaker 1:It was just like it was just meant to be yeah right. So it just came about. And you know, honestly, I don't think I would have gotten any tattoos If I didn't know that indigenous markings was part of our culture. And here we are now wearing them on our face.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool to think back to that time, right when, when we first met, I came over and did a little session I Wouldn't say little, because I always say little, not little in terms of Diminishing it, but just a smaller session with a smaller group of youth talking about the work and talking about our ancestors, skin markings. And you know, when I was working or when I was tattooing your face, he actually brought up Something that happened during that session, when we were, you know, I think we were face painting those marks on. So do you kind of know what I'm thinking about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kind of have an idea. Yeah, I think it's when the elder was telling me that I would be one day wearing the markings that I put on my face that night. And here we are, a part way there. I would. They were painted on my chin exactly like you see, from my lip to my chin, bottom of my chin, and then also One from the, you know, the middle of my nose out towards my ear, just like my brother Dion here. So it's just like in that moment our elders are telling us, you know, they're giving us the messages to wear our, our identity and not to be shy of it. At that point I was really, really shocked that an elder would say that.
Speaker 3:And here we are, I'm here, you know, three, four years later, and it's becoming Something that is very significant and the awakening, yeah, yeah, it's so cool to Think about that, especially with the, the way that, as you expressed that, you had felt about tattoos, like you were just rolling up just to facilitate because you know the individual that was supposed to be hosting couldn't make it, so you were just filling in by happenstance, and then the elder was like yo, you're gonna get these marks. Of course not like that, that's my paraphrase of that experience. And then, and then you know, like we are here, like you said, now we're here, what? Four or five years later, you're wearing those, starting to wear the marks that were, I guess, prophesied almost at that time, and then also You're doing the work. You know, like you were like nah, tattoos aren't for me.
Speaker 3:You know, now your face is tattooed and you're actually the one giving those face tattoos. So it's kind of a cool story and I just thought it was important to bring that up and just share. You know, the way I see that is it's just the power of the marks, right, people, not only people receiving them, but just being in a space, in a place where the work is being done, or even we're talking about it. You know, it's like our souls or our spirits sense that that's for us, hell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I feel that that's 110%. You know, I never thought about it. I never really. When you put it down like that and you, you share it and it's really like in that way, meant to be meant to be, like that's like Ancestrals are Shiki, our folks are ancestors, letting us know like we're traveling up the right road or the right trail, or you're meeting the right people in the right moments in the right places. You know you're you're following the wellness path or you're following what's in your heart, you're following the path of our ancestors.
Speaker 1:So the way that it was presented and the way that my mind shifted Around tattoo, like when we identify that space, I just think about it. I I don't know what I was thinking, you know, like I would, I didn't have the knowledge as well like the more that we share the knowledge, the more that folks could feel more connected and and involved in their identity, or involved in themselves, or involved. You know that healing work starts to happen and for me, in that moment, there was a lot of healing and ah ha's and like whoa, this is something else. This is our identity, this is who we are like. I have to Figure this out, I have to look at it.
Speaker 3:I have to look through this lens that we're looking at and it awakens so many things in, and, and they're so interconnected tattoos and almost everything that we, you know, have previously done and are doing yeah, yeah, it's pretty powerful and you know that phrase awakening you know, keeps coming forward and so Just want to bring up you know when that terminology came from was I think that you brought it forward when we started the first LNI be awakening our DNA to gathering out out out on the res there and you brought that, that phrasing, forward. So it's pretty cool to hear you know the, the way that you're experiencing it. That is the phrase, the key phrase, that comes forward when you think about the work that you're doing and that you're experiencing Alongside all these other practitioners.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know, in that time, when we start to think about where we're at and what time of Our lives and where we're with the time frame of of Canada and where we are with, you know, the province of BC and like all of our individual nations, and Throwing that stone you know of identity or of culture and you know being able to really establish that awakening, there's like some really key emotions that had happened.
Speaker 1:You know, it's kind of like that you were there, when you're there and you've seen it, if you've seen it and it's, it's that awakening part and it's kind of like the articles of a time or where we're at and and to look back and to. You know, that kind of came to be about like being raw and real and being able to identify and to being able to be within ourselves and sit very comfortably. And that uproar, that inner warrior, that identity that we have, the matriarch that's in our, you know, communities and that awakening of the responsibility or the awakening of Our tasks as men and our Responsibility is community members, and you know like once you have identity, you have, you know, those real Uprising of that awakening is just like this feeling that comes about and it just feels amazing To identify with Right and to have some of that that our shkiki, as you know, designs on us or the people before us there, the art forms.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's cool, yeah. The next thing I just wanted to bring forward and maybe discuss a little bit is you know we did a training with Sheldon Louie, seal artist, and then also Jacqueline Merritt, a Stucco teen artist, and you know we did that most of that, you know well that most of it through virtual, and then you know, once we had completed it, we were able to touch base in person. So I just want to ask you, what was that experience of learning how to do this work?
Speaker 1:Oh Well, I was a little impatient through the middle part. You know like I was pretty eager and and once I really got connected to you know the word, even the word practitioner, yeah, like that word is very holistic and it's very Non-government I guess I could say, right like it's. It's just like totally in its own realm and being your own. Like you know, identifying between being an artist and a practitioner. Even you know that was starting to really sit really well with me. I got really excited.
Speaker 1:So, going through the training and the sessions, and you know like it flew by. You know, like the sessions weren't long enough. It almost seemed like if we were to be in the same location together for it to be a bit longer. Like you know, I absolutely loved the virtual setting and when we were able to come through with one another it was awesome. Like it is something you can't really describe. You know you feel that you're being passed the knowledge of our ancestors along with some added safety. That was key number one I can remember in my head. You know, if you tattoo outright I heard it come from your mouth If you tattoo and you don't get certified, well, you're not ever tattooing under me, ever Right and I'm not going to endorse that. So I took that very seriously in that motion. In that moment I was like, you know, you got to be really serious. There's pieces of tattoo that are serious, that could really, you know, affect the next step of someone's life if you're not careful Right.
Speaker 1:So that's something that I very much take into consideration and ever since that moment, when I was very eager and chomping at the bit to deliver tattoo, because there's folks you know, you hear that you're going to school for it or taking sessions for it, like hey, man, the list gets started right then and there yeah, I was very young I didn't even press into myself and have a tattoo yet, you know from myself and to go through with that process of delivering a tattoo to myself, even you know there's a lot of process there and when I think about it I always get excited because, like that was in the moment where I was just learning and really being able to heal and be connected with identity. Yeah, you know, I received the one on my wrist and I got the one that's on my legs and I believe I got my chin quite soon after that. Or you know, like there's so much healing work, so much healing work, so like, going through that process of learning, there was a lot of healing work there too. Like there was connection and you know there was moments where I would isolate to kind of like pull in all the information that I could, right, and you know, after the session, just deep, brief, and you know you feel all that inner awakening or that inner identity, or you know that connection to TAMU and being able to be one with your peers, I was end to be learning the same thing. Yeah, it was eye-opening. There was a lot of eye-opening to our culture, to our design, to our traditions, to a lot of things.
Speaker 1:Tattoo is connected to everything, it's own entity, and I feel so happy to be a part of it because it's a journey, it's not really the end product. No, I've been in sessions where you know you get part of it done and then you work on it. You know, three or four or five months later, maybe even a year later. So that journey, you know like I think that's like the Interiors Salish articles, you know where, you know there's some folks out there but there's also, like you know, right next to one another nations who had the opportunity to learn it, and I think that's one of your, you know your legacy pieces where you got to be able to teach through the interior nations, kind of simultaneously and at a pace that was productive. Yeah Right, and I think that's very productive. And like the safe space for question, I had like a hundred questions.
Speaker 1:I could probably think of a hundred more questions and try to go back in time or, you know, think about it in my mind of you know about what was going on and one of the really key statements that I've learned. You know, tattoo the world yeah, get that out there, make sure that people are wearing it yeah, and that's really what I really grasped in. You know those direct steps after learning and getting educated and being supported and set forward. You know, airing the sales where I was doing a lot of facials, a lot of facial identity tattoos, indigenous markings, and that's just something I really had to do is just.
Speaker 1:I think I got a few, quite a few actually. Yeah. I'm very proud of, and I think the people who wear them are very proud of it as well, and that just really sparked a thing of identity in the interior. Yeah. You know there's folks around, but you know, once you really set a couple of people up, you know the work is getting done and we're around and it feels really amazing. Yeah, it's can't be described with words. All the time.
Speaker 3:No, no, not at all. Yeah, I totally get it. Yeah, we were. You know I've expressed that myself. You know just the work and you know sometimes we just can't describe it, like I don't think there's any words in any language that can describe the work that happens in the heart. You know, you just feel it, you just know it, you just experience it. Right, Just before we move on, I just want to give a shout out to First Peoples Cultural Council, which was the folks that provided the funding for us to do that training, the interior, tattoo training.
Speaker 3:So just a shout out to First Peoples for, you know, believing in the revival of ancestral skin marking in the interior and providing those funds. And I also thank Sheldon Louie for putting forth and working on the budget and putting up that grant. So I just had to give that shout out because you know that credits do where it's due, so we just have to give that to them and I appreciate the work that Sheldon put in in writing, the grant and First Peoples for funding us and I also appreciate, you know you jokingly said, you know I had a hundred questions and I probably have a hundred more, and that was one of the things that I really appreciated about you know, being your mentor and continuing in that process. You know, as you go off and do the amazing things that you're doing in your own practice is just the questions and your inquisitiveness. So I just hold you up in, you know, that way that you are, and also the way that you have the ability to express yourself from the heart. You know, I know that you speak from the heart, so I just lift you up in those things and thank you for having the courage to speak those things into existence.
Speaker 3:So you know, I just wanted to lift you up there as we continue on and I just wanted to ask what has that experience been for you moving from the training into you know the timeframe that we're at now. So it's been what? A couple of years, two years or three years maybe. So yeah, just kind of share with me a little bit of what that experience has been. I love this part.
Speaker 1:I really do I love to share where it's been, where I'm at and where I'm going. I really love to reflect out where I've been. You know like I really like to and like how the process of tattoo is advancing, even even for myself. You know like being able to connect with my identity and then also with safety you know, that's really key to me.
Speaker 1:I've been, you know, connected with a bunch of our practitioner folks and you know being able to stay maintained and connection so that's where it all starts for me is being connection, being able to still ask questions and you know working with yourself and reaching out with you or reaching out with Keith, you know my brothers, you know folks that I really really connected with you know with some of the technique and identity and save spaces. So I also want to show those you know shout outs to you.
Speaker 1:You know, thank you for creating that and that connection with me and many of our you know folks as practitioners. You know so directly. Right after the learning, I shared that I started to do a bunch of like identity tattoos to me identity tattoos, so facials and you know, really going forward with that and it really started with yours on your face. That's when I felt that real, true belief. You know, in my one of my last interviews I shared that I was probably one of my most challenging but my most favorite one. You know I have a lot of favorites I put a lot of work out there. There's a lot of.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of energy, but to being able to, you know, identify that your tattoo is one of my favorites and most challenging, because like to tattoo my mentor like that was the end on the face you know like.
Speaker 1:So that was a marking time for me and you know it's almost like, you know, working with Michael Jordan in that moment. So you know you really brought, you know you're the goat, I think you know so, being able to work in that space. So really going very swiftly with the identity tattoos, my doing temples, chins, you know. Also being really careful with identify, like identifying who I can be able to work with with those types of tattoos. Yeah, those are very spiritual tattoos and those are very identified and those are very, you know, very forward in our community as indigenous folks too. So as learning to where I was with being able to achieve identity tattoos or to mute medicine on our face, right, so just really being swift but also very cautious, you know. So really working in the Nicola Valley on a lot of the facial tattoos and research, a lot of research going into facial tattoos and basket tree design. I was really trying to find a style and find my identity as a designer and artist, a tattoo practitioner. I wasn't leaning too heavy towards a, you know, tattoo artist but, you know, just really really trying to develop the style and process and connection with culture and safety. Those are, you know, I really focus on safety. I really keep my bundle, my tools, my instruments very tight and clean. I'm continuing on with the legacy of safety. You know, that's what I've kind of been leaning towards is there's a lot of folks out there but you know you have to really identify your safety procedures. That you're, you know you're going to be using Soizing to let's go do this again, fred when staying very knowledgeable around blood-borne pathogens?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and identifying where I can or may not be able to yeah, deliver tattoos and creating those boundaries, creating safe space around my home, in communities yeah, so just really taking a really you know. A next step there as well is being able to create events. My launch, an event awakening our DNA. We would like to potentially bring that on the road and support communities to have events, save space, have good conversation, dialogue for awakening in their communities yeah, so really getting in tune with some of our practitioners, folks and connecting with them and also have a continuing the conversation of safety and talking the same speak yeah, you're right. So just like being able to be on the same page as well of what that looks like and what is the legacy of the awakening, or you know, that time of articles or that time of you know where we're at now, even yeah. So what does that look like? Because we're right now recording the new, old, yeah, that's a space that is totally right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's not enough time. Yeah, big time.
Speaker 1:There's not enough folks. So very quickly into this space, looking in, you know, creating safe space and being able to create some steps forward with my learning, my basket, research, visiting locations, you know, doing some hikes on the land, being on the land, to really incorporating a kind of semi shop style of safety for myself. Yeah, I might look like a shop or a dude that looks like he's working in a shop, but my process is way different. Yeah, right, so it's. I really like that image of safety and clean cut, minimalist. Yeah, right now my my equipment's in a luggage. Right now I could turn around and run home grab it. We'll be tattooing tomorrow night. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:So I kind of live that kind of roadster lifestyle. I really like to travel, to deliver. I really like to be local and deliver. Yeah, Be very versatile, yeah, Be prepared. That's really one thing that I really love to be is being prepared. I can't control the elements, but I can only can control what I can control, yeah. So if that's having a bed or having a tent or having an environment, you know, having some little bit of research before going into a situation, so understanding that part too.
Speaker 1:I've been into some spaces where I'm going to tattoo and you know it was just I had to shut down. You know I had to shut down. I'm just like, you know I I might not be able to tattoo here out of respect, just to be safe for everybody. Yeah, so you know, identifying that too. So that's where I'm at. I'll be mature about safety, connection, respect, the Timu connection, like through everything that I do. So I just really like to create that flow. Yeah, I work really tediously. I have a brain injury, so I have to set things up that are in almost a format that is like repetition. Yeah, so when?
Speaker 1:you introduced that to me, it was just it clicked for me, it was just like one and one. You know, for me, I just you can show me, show me a once or twice, and I got it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was just a natural thing that I can do once I see the process. Yeah, so being able to identify that, I just amplify that to another level so that I can create safety and maintain the safety in multitude of different environments. Yeah, incorporating, you know, lights, incorporating tents. Also shortening up some of my projects, my process with you know, getting stencil printers, you know I still love, I still really love to do handmade stencils because it really helps my ability to stay humble.
Speaker 1:You know there's things in the world that could, you know, you push things out in a moment, and it'll be, but being able to keep grasp with some of those grasp root pieces of tattoo, it starts at the stencil, it always starts at the stencil. I mean to track a little bit backwards too is like it's also starts at an imagination. So right, so everybody has an imagination and an image in their mind and what is there? So you know, incorporating different practices as well into tattoos, or getting connected with culture, um, indigenous focused therapies, you know so, in her body work and kind of, you know, reading the skin. Yeah, that's something that I've been also tuning into is, how does our body receive ink? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, when you look at a basket, there's so many similarities between skin and a basket, like they're so tightly woven and you look at, like, the design and you look how the weave is, and you look at your skin, you look how tight your skin is and it's just. I really like to make the connections between things that our ancestors have done and left for us to look at to who we are right now, today. Yeah, because that's who we are. Shiki has given us the blessings of different things to be able to tap into and our creative energy and, you know, getting into design work, you know, so really segue into design.
Speaker 1:I was just intrigued with how much is out there, how much like, really is connected to design. So, being able to research basketry, uh, geometric form, you know the structure of basket, I really love to look into a basket, you know I my first experience was actually with you to, you know, reading baskets and, yeah, you know taking that to in my own practice as well and reading the weave and how it was like you know it could probably almost tell time yeah, the time capsules, right.
Speaker 1:So it's just like trying to connect in a different way with our baskets and our um and our medicines right, getting into that inter um international vibrations conversation of you know the awakening of the, the needle right and the noise that that makes and you know connecting with like musical folks who are like man. I need to record that so that we can have that like audio and you know my my young bro is like Roy Pelsch, you know he's.
Speaker 1:He's a young guy who's doing some music stuff and recording, and so I connected with him on some tattoo, got him some medicine and you know he's now wearing it on his face and to seeing where that is brought in him and how it awakens people, yeah, it really brings them forward, Like it's. You know they're not asking to be indigenous anymore.
Speaker 1:We just we just are yeah Right. And so we're just trying to get into that mentality. And, uh, where we're at with tattoo now, like just so many jokes around with facial marks and like what you want one right now let's go and just kind of put some pause and they're just like whoa, yeah Right, so just putting like some folks in that space because we have to hold that respect for it, and you know.
Speaker 1:So I just really have been finding my grounds as a practitioner and, uh, just last year, uh, supporting that, I just really took a step back for the last three or four months and just finding that inner spirit of what is this? What is this? You know, I don't want to neglect my, the gift or the talent that I have. You know, including you, and that could be well, you know, start taking things away from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if we don't listen. So you know, I still do tattoo, but on a little bit less scale. You know where I was doing, like three or four a week and yeah traveling in and yeah, um, it's got that real tattoo. Rush, you know indigenous markings. Rush where's this hits you and he's like, okay, let's go. Yeah, I'm ready, I'm ready. But I'm also very open to you know, learning from other folks and just like how they do things and if they ask me to, yeah. Right, so that's been some something that's been happening.
Speaker 1:These folks are asking me and how and what's up? And I'm like, whoa, okay, even in the short period, time is shifting. Yeah Right, so there's going to be another crew of young folk coming in for tattoo and it's just going to be. It's going to be amazing yeah, because I feel, I felt it, I feel it and to being able to see some younger folks, even than me. You know, I can't wait till that day where you know our folks are never going to like ask who they are. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, because it's going to be on our skin, yeah, and that's going to be part of it. It's going to be our granny, it's going to be our mom, it's going to be our sister, your other uncles, yeah, grandpas, like that is like whoa. I got some some really good feelings and yeah, it's powerful stuff. Yeah, that journey from from being that really young in the practice to right now and I, you know, just full confidence, yeah, I just move forward with a good step. Yeah, you know, like being able to read in an environment, being able to know if I'm supposed to be there or if I shouldn't be there yeah, big time. Yeah, and reading the environment is, is an energy in its own too, right, so it's just, yeah, being able to. Where do you need to be at a certain point in your life? Yeah, big time. And surrounding with your family, good times, good medicine. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's just like the vibe that has been coming out more and more lately. And, yeah, a lot of my cousins are getting medicine and they're getting their facial markings or their body markings. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I keep it really wide open for a lot of my family and folks and a lot of their community too. Yeah, you know, right, so I'm really connecting back home at Lornecla. Yeah, so we're continuing the awakening our DNA. Yeah, we're doing two tattoo giveaway every month. Every month, wow, right, so that's an extension to giving back. Yeah, and so you know, at Lornecla they have the opportunity to, you know, two folks every month. Yeah. Getting a donated tattoo for myself. Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's been so much you know giving to me. I feel the need to give back. So there was deprecation. Yeah. So learning that in the whole process too, right so giving and receiving. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Big time, like sometimes you don't think of those things yeah, because we're in such a contemporary world where we get lost and some of that. And I believe when we slow down with tattoo, you know those hours right, yeah, like those are the most powerful. You know moments, right, yeah, in some situations, and I just really feel like taking that time is amazing. Yeah, big time. And it really teaches you a lot about yourself and your community. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you learn stories or you know. Sometimes you go on a wild goose chase to go and get that tattoo done and that's like the drive and the rush of it yeah, big time. I think my farthest out that I went was like eight hours to go tattoo and like I loved it, but also, at the same time, like knowing your boundaries of when to go and tattoo, because that's like a mentality on its own. We could just run crazy and tattoo everybody Absolutely. Hell. Yeah, that would be freaking deadly.
Speaker 1:But there's a certain point where you can only do so much as one person, and so that's something that I've been defining in the last year too. So the journey is myself becoming a mature practitioner and figuring out what is that gray matter and what is that black and white feeling and what can I do and what can I do, and if I can't do it, referring it to another practitioner or inviting a bunch of people together so we can all get it done. That's one of the vibes, too that I love to do is identifying safe space and bringing our family together to deliver a lot of medicine and a weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's my part of giving back and working really hard through practicing and delivery and saving my money and to being able to self fund some things. I take pride in that and in a hundred years from now some people are going to be like remember those times it was like tattoo gatherings, almost like every three or four months in there. And that's just the vibe. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, like it's just being able to be in this time and being able to see it, feel it, breathe it. Yeah, you know the environment, safe spaces and the awakening of identity, the support of one another, the matriarch empowerment, the warrior, frontline empowerment A lot of empowerment coming from tattoo is really into everything and that's the most beautiful piece of it. This tattoo could be really scary and very warrior like and stand up angry and have you know it will support that, but then it would also support the softer things in life too. Yeah, big time, you know, like our grandmother or auntie getting a flower tattoo on them or Indian paintbrush or you know, some of those softer colors too.
Speaker 1:So it's just there's so much to be connected there and so much that tattoos intertwined with and braided with and weaved with. So just finding that connection and the balance, yeah, I really like to do research, I really like to dig deep, I really like to, you know, find my direction there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, big time Looking into our past and know where we are, so we can know where we're going to go. Another thing I really like to do is, you know, develop my own books. Yeah, yeah, I heard it from you, yeah, you know, if you just do it, just put it together and see where it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, and just this last little while I had an opportunity to, you know, put some things down and start working on some of that image as well, of the book work. Yeah, you know, we're writing it on skin when I read it in the book. Yeah, you know, just taking that leap, taking that step and being able to just, like you know, take that step like just being serious about it too, like not worrying about it too much, not thinking about it, how identified you need to be, education wise, you know. Yeah, even if it's a book that just floats around for a bit in Nicola Valley. Yeah.
Speaker 1:For a hundred years and you know someone's going to pick it up and read it. It's doing its work Right and that's really what I got encouraged about is you don't need to have letters in the back of your name. Dude Tamiu knows who we are, yep, so we're the ones who could be translating that, we could be the ones who are sharing the knowledge, educating, sharing, you know that's the number. One thing that I start to feel is like how do I get this from a space of my imagination and what I feel and what I'm experiencing to our community? How do I get it to our nations? How do I just give it? Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, like that's one of the things, like I got this very cheap and I was you know what I mean. Like I know there's time and effort and everything that had been put into it is given to me very cheap. So I want to give things very cheap back, right? Yeah, because that's one of the things is giving things the way that you received it Right. So I got it for a very low cost, so I'm giving it for a very low cost. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And, of course, you know, being able to be in that realm of understanding, of exchange, right yeah, and what that looks like and how that feels, and sometimes there's you get a big trade. Yeah. For a tattoo. Sometimes you get a little trade and sometimes you get currency. Sometimes you get a lot of currency, sometimes you get very little. But it's also in that you know spiritual exchange. That's there.
Speaker 1:Yeah big time Like that. And that's the space that we're having conversation right now in the world with practitioners, because the world in inflation and things, and how do we still remain in a good way, yeah, right, how do we remain in the best way that we can be moving forward Totally? You know, I don't want to be a total cash grab, but I still need to, you know, pay a bill here and there, yeah. And so that's the conversation, like how do we create that healthy, safe space for that as well, because the currency rate has changed? Yeah yeah, big time, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's a big thing, but also being able to sit really well with it, yeah, and there's some folks who are very respectful about it, yeah, and there's some folks who are turned around and have different conversations about it as well. I just feel as though that creating a safe space for a lot of the conversation right now is really important Big time, because the future of it of practitioners tattoo, indigenous markings and, to me, medicine there's still a lot of things to figure out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, big time.
Speaker 1:There's still a lot of things to create safety around, yeah, and if in this moment we get reckless with it, it could go a different way. But if we keep real tight about it and keep real our safeties in place and the conversation of safety and implementation of safety, who knows where we'll go that way too. Yeah so just a left and a right and being able to gauge where you're at within that left and the right. Yeah, big time, I feel really supported from folks around me even too. Good.
Speaker 1:Even folks who are clients and relations, like they just say go on forward, keep going, keep at it, keep doing research. Yeah, that's one of the things they just keep sharing is you're going to be a good elder. Yeah, you're going to be a good elder. You're going to be sharing, you're going to be letting them know where we're at in 23. Yeah, you know that's huge, yeah, big time For our people to be at 23 is. You know we're going to be here for time immemorial. But the way that things are going in the world is just feels shaky in moments. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So being shoulder to shoulder is so important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's foundational, you know.
Speaker 3:I just want to come back to and maybe share a little bit and I don't know if I've articulated this to you, but you know, back when I was starting the work, I had this vision of doing these gatherings in the valley.
Speaker 3:You know, because this is where mom comes from, my family comes from. You know the times I've spent here hunting and trapping with my uncle, all of those things. You know I had this dream of doing these gatherings right, and I've shared and articulated it with other people is, sometimes we don't realize that the dreams we have aren't for us, right, and so I'm really thankful that you've really picked up on that dream that I had and you are running with it, you know. So I just have to share in sharing that experience, or that reality that coming to understand is that I'm real proud of you for taking that dream on, you know, and I think that dream was placed within me for you, you know, because, of course, my life has taken me other places and other parts of the world and I'm just so honored that the three of you here in the interior are taking that dream and tattooing the valley, you know, taking it on and taking it forward. So I just wanted to share that with you and hold you up and lift you up in that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thanks bro. That means so much. I think that's such a, you know, such a blessing to hear, and such a blessing because we've had the conversation a couple of times and we keep bringing it up and I love it. It just reminds me and keeps me very encouraged to keep stepping forward and keeps arising to the occasion and to creating safe space and helping the identity within ourselves and then within other folks. Yeah, you know, that's number one thing. You know like to feel a part of something or to identify with a group and that feeling is priceless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's no price that you can actually put on that feeling. You know or shikikias, really wanting us to feel that feeling right there in our heart and our spirit and our soul, right so and in our mind, yeah so, like I'm really lost for words.
Speaker 1:I got a lot to say, but yeah when you think about it and hosting you know hosting is something that I have some talent with and with connection with our brother Keith, and like getting pointers from, you know, echo and Jacqueline Merritt yeah, you know. So just being able to like you know they're also a crew that I really have really tight with and get a lot of pointers. But so shout outs to them as well and letting them know you know, big loves, big loves, because you know they really help me to stay very grounded and think about how to host. Yeah, they really give me pointers and they really give me the energy as well. Yeah, right, so bringing our folks together and Merritt to doing the indigenous markings and sharing the medicine, the knowledge, I'm very grateful.
Speaker 1:You can't just run an event you probably could but being thoughtful around the process, being respectful around even the nation of folks, of who you're going to be supporting with the identity, and having some really key conversations, I think we're really into the article space. That's really a pinnacle in time where there's a schedule that's going to be coming out for awakening our DNA in the next couple of months. I have to keep October open a little bit, bro, maybe.
Speaker 3:February.
Speaker 1:We're going to have three or four year and it's going to be accordance to the seasons and travel for all of our families, just being really in tune, connected. I really love hosting. We don't have enough space, we really don't.
Speaker 3:Just growing right, just growing and growing. I just wanted to explore a phrase that I think I understand. I think I understand what you're articulating when you say it, but you talk about TAMUH medicine. Can you maybe even define the word TAMUH and then what it means to you when you put that together with medicine? Absolutely.
Speaker 1:TAMUH is the land, it's the world, it's right outside, it's the lumber that's in the house. Here, Brown, is a lot of things mother nature, mother earth. When you pair that TAMUH with medicine, it's kind of like you really drawn the TAMUH medicine and you really are identifying with the land. That's a real connection that I start to you know, utilizing in that phrase TAMUH medicine is really like taking us back, taking our medicine to that next step right and identifying it with the land so that when we're starting to utilize that phrase you know TAMUH medicine, it's really bringing us right back to the land.
Speaker 1:And it's really drawing identity as indigenous folks, that there's medicines also that aren't contemporary in this world, and through identity there's medicine, yeah, big time. And through the land there's medicine and being able to connect it to, you know, through tattoo or language and international vibrations of the world. And we're all relations, yeah, big time. And Kushevkin is our relations, right? So I just really, when we pair those two words together, I don't know how it happened either. Yeah, it sometimes are just being words that are just being developed. Yeah, and we're not new language.
Speaker 1:That are coming together. So recording that new, old, recording that medicine piece and you know we're to meet people, yeah, so that's that next step of bringing our language to meet some of the actions that we're doing today Practices yeah, big time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really articulates and I found it quite beautiful when I heard you say it, because I do know, you know to me, but I wanted you to explain it from your perspective and it really does highlight so many of the important parts of the medicine, of this work. You know, when I think about our identities, you know our identities are our land, you know that's, that's where we come from, that's who we are, and then understanding that the erasure or the attempted erasure of our identities, you know, was intentional for the land, right. And then also thinking about it as you articulated even more. It's not just the skin marking medicine, but it's also the language learning. All of those are the Tim Euk medicine, which I just find so beautiful, such a powerful way of expressing it, and also like enlivening our language in a new way, using it in a way that articulates the things that we need to talk about as contemporary practitioners of this work.
Speaker 3:And I would say that it's another way of you know making this work into Kappam for us, or interior salish, because I know that word is used. You know, through the interior, maybe little different ideations here and there, but it's still, you know, that same root, that same understanding, and so it's really a powerful way of in making this work for us as interior salish and in Tlacotten people. So I just wanted to highlight it, bring it forward and just ask you to, you know, articulate it a little bit. So thank you for doing that. It's a powerful phrase and I'll have to put it into my lexicon of understanding and use. So, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, getting connected, getting really connected. I think that piece of the conversation. We have different word patterns now that are defining where we're at in this time. We have different experiences in this world, so it's just, you know, like there's different words that we can put together to be able to describe where we're at. Yeah, so I feel that Hell yeah.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. So that's it. I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you enjoyed this video, you know, just before we started recording.
Speaker 3:You know, of course, all the time when we get together, you know, one of the reasons I wanted to do this podcast is so that we can have some of these conversations, because we have them amongst ourselves, but that isn't allowing those out in the world, into these kind of private conversations that we have, and so I was like, hey, we have these all the time, so let's share them a little bit, right? So we have these check-ins, we're always doing check-ins, and so and you know I've shared it before is I think it's important for us to visit like this, you know, together, seeing each other. And, yes, it's powerful to communicate via Zoom or Skype or whatever virtual platform or, you know, on the phone, you know whatever, facetime, all of that type of stuff, but I think it's important for us to be able to see each other and, you know, experience each other together. So I'm just thankful that you took the time to come and visit with me. But you know, in saying all of that, you were sharing with me some of the new things that are beginning to develop in your own practice and in your own life.
Speaker 3:You're taking steps. You shared a little bit about the book that you're starting to produce of some of your designs and some of the work that you've been doing, but you've also been starting to use those ancestral visual language pieces, you know from the basketry, from the pictographs, from the tattoo designs, from all of those that lexicon of the ancestral visual language with creating prints and creating artwork beyond the skin markings that you're doing. And you're also starting clothing, making clothing, you know, which is something that you've actually inspired me to start to think about that for myself. Right For the longest time, I've been thinking, oh, I got to start doing that, I got to start doing that and you start slinging it and I'm like that I watched Nahan. He starts slinging it and I'm like, okay, I got to get on this. But yeah, I just wanted to provide an opportunity for you to speak about some of that new stuff that you're starting to explore as you're walking on this journey. Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1:That piece is such an identity awakening too. It started at Tattoo and Design and then the design just took me to another space of awakening. It really awakened some of my street culture. I love graffiti. I love that kind of like grungera the 90s, even earlier than that 80s and 70s. The photography even came into it as well.
Speaker 1:So I have a really keen eye for things and I bring up Craig Stessick a lot in some of my work and he identified the Dogtown articles and that's kind of where we're at in our time. There's a lot of raw and real, so there's a lot of talent out here and there's a lot of things that need to be recorded. And so I just like running with my camera in photography and then that taking on into some of the design work that I'm transferring to print, taking that design work to that next level of putting it on the wall for our people to even see, getting into graffiti myself and designing around that. And I got a piece that I just designed as a big piece of graffiti and it's on my wall. I didn't think that I'd be having a print of graffiti on my wall that looks so nice and sharp and just kind of identifying with who I am and taking that next step, farther even, and designing some logos. You know, interior-sail-ish is something that I collaborated or mashed up with. You know some imagery that's out in the world.
Speaker 1:So being able to indigenize some things and take space back, that's really what I really really is.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite things to do is take our space back. So in that motion of taking space back, wearing our identity on our hoodies, wearing our you know nation's names on our hoodies, wearing our language on our shirts you know, if you don't want to tattoo, what's the next best thing is the stuff that you're wearing. So tying in with that and the youth and our community's identity. You know I don't mass produce a lot of things just as of yet to you know, online and sales, but keeping it very local and grassroots and for the folks who get their hands on it, they're there at the right time in the right moment and they just love that piece about it too, that there's a bit of an exclusivity to it. And you know I take on some influence around the world. You know a big person would be Drake and OVO. You know, like into that realm of design too, just like seeing where he's taking his pieces and what we can do with some of our stuff and what imagery can be for us. And you know I'm not trying to get a million bucks or nothing, but you know it's just like being just half yeah but,
Speaker 1:it's in that space of being able to wear identity and our cultures and where we're at. So I just recently designed a Coast Salish one image that I would love to put out there for the Coast Salish folks. I did a Stelco team one for the Chocotans. So just like really getting in tune with the places that I visit, you know that invite me in and I get a really solid connection with and at Grass, with the culture and supporting them to get their identity put on to a hoodie.
Speaker 1:It's one day in my vision to have my own print ability, you know, so that I can, you know, support you to getting your work out there, to getting it on hoodies, to getting it on prints, to be getting it in a shop like Sadding or whatever that looks like. Yeah, I really like the empowering of one another and really creating access. Yeah, that's one of the biggest things that I feel that is a blocker in indigenous communities. Access yeah, give a give a young kid access to a bike and he'll, you know, run a lip off of a jumping and and impress a lot of folks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you give somebody the access to a backpack and a nice pair of hiking shoes yeah, you know pack you up the mountain, you know, give a young indigenous person the access to you know some art supplies, a couple of iPads, you know. You know laptops, some video videography equipment. You blow the world up and like there's some folks out there that just need that opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's one of the things that I really grasped when you just do, just do things, man, just go out there, you know, figure something out. Yeah, I really took that and wanted to explore that. Yeah, I really have a good feeling about recording. I have, you know, videography. Yeah, you know I self taught. Yeah, I just really take a lot of reading in. Yeah, youtube's one of those good teachers. Yeah, she knows everything. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So just really being curious, yeah, staying curious. And what, what maximums? There's no maximums yet. No, no, there's no maximums like it's been. You know, we're so young into it. It's. The roof is not even there. You know, young folks, they just need that access piece and, yeah, I think the way that you've provided it for some folks and to be giving that in the future is going to go far. Yeah, there's gonna be. I have my hands in on a lot of things, and supporting young kids on mountain bikes is one of them. Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, I was previously supported snowboarding young kids and taking this on to. You know, multitude of different levels. So, you know, once they started to learn design, you know folks are just wanting me to design their logo or they want me to get involved with sharing information in the world and, you know, youth settings at the secondary school or, yeah, yeah, media. Yeah, there's no limit?
Speaker 1:No, not at all With the world of technology and internet, and there's no limit. Yeah, I've really come to to the point where if you wanted to be running like a shop, you could run like a shop, but if you wanted to really tone it down and find your craft, you can also create that space too. So just being able to, you know, self-navigate, yeah, and don't bite off too much, but you know, bite what you can just a little bit right, a little bit too much.
Speaker 1:I think there's a lot of, like, hidden talent that hasn't been able to have an opportunity. So thanks for, you know, sharing the opportunity. You know where it started, right there, and I started with an imagination and it transferred around the, you know the room and now it's in the nation is huge imaginations out there. Yeah, you know, like we're on the rise and we always have been. Yeah, we ain't been too far. Yeah, we've been right here. We ain't going anywhere. We're gonna be here for 10,000 more. So, yeah, you know, we got identity to share and we got a lot of things to share. So you know there's unlimited amount of possibilities. So, yeah, there's no maximum there's.
Speaker 1:You know, I think we're all gonna be like 150 years old yeah but I really believe, and once you believe something, it comes around the way, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, we're recording the new, old, so yeah, that's dope, we'll be there for a long time yeah, you know, one thing that I, one thing that I love about the work that you're doing, you know, specifically with the prints and the clothing and those type of things, is something that I've been really dreaming about myself, you know, for the nation, for our communities is, you know, taking those designs that are contained on the baskets. Yes, we have family baskets, but we have there's so many more that are held hostage in, you know, museum collections across the world, not only here in the nation state of Canada, but all across the globe. There's intercontinental interior salish baskets, clothing, you know, ancestral kin that are all across the world and they're just sitting there and I just imagine you, our ancestors sitting in the shishkin, sitting in their pit houses, and all those baskets that are carrying, you know that have all the preserved roots and all of the, you know dried salmon and all of that stuff. But each of those baskets had a design, a pattern, a motif, part of our visual language, on it, you know. So for me, what you're doing really is, you know, a form of visual repatriation. You know you're taking those designs and putting them on a shirt so that when you walk around you know who you are, because you can see that design you recognize. Oh, maybe that was my grandma's pattern or maybe that you know.
Speaker 3:I remember that from visiting the museum and you know, for some people that may be the first time they realized who they were is when they seen that basket and they realize how badass their ancestors were right. A lot of times they think, especially for interior salish people. You know it was taught that we didn't have beautiful art forms, but you know that they were lying and you know that they were putting us down. When you actually look at that basket and you realize, dang, you know that's like hella dope, right. You see that beautiful, powerful, intricate design and it just gives you pride, right. And so for me, that's what I see the work that you're doing in bringing that stuff to be able to be put on someone's you know bedroom wall.
Speaker 3:You know a young person, ah, like this is. You know these are our patterns, these, this is us, right, and like you said, you don't always have to wear it on your face or on your body, you know, in terms of skin markings, but you can wear it on a t-shirt right and just represent and bring it out there. So you know, that's kind of the, the vision that I've had for a long time, and it's so awesome to see you running with that again. You know, it's just awesome. You know this is how we, like you said, you know this is how we build up the world is lifting each other up. You know, building each other up.
Speaker 3:You know it's high time for us to forget all of that crabs in the bucket bullshit, right, like you know, if you're going forward, how can I help? You know, how can I provide some opportunities and how can I, you know, encourage, how can I lift up, how can I provide some water to your bucket so you can get out right. And I know that that will be reciprocated and has been reciprocated by my own mentors and my the own people who have supported me. So you know this is how we move forward and this is how we transform and change our worlds.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah man, hell, yeah, when Rob wins, everybody wins. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's spreading the winds out. Yeah, you know, like that's what it's all about. It's really about that is like spreading out the wind, you know like it's it's not even to identify as a win either. Too right, it's a nation. When it's a community, when it's Terl Island wins, yeah, that's a really like I really love that piece, you know. Yeah, I really love it when we win yeah, big time.
Speaker 1:Hell, yeah, nobody likes to lose. So we got to spread it out. Yeah, right, we got to spread it out. You get to, you know, when we have that identity growing and and and everybody being supportive of one another, that kind safe space to get that space going, that empowerment, that belief, yeah, man, that feeling of belief, so like such a thing. Yeah, you know they they try to shut us down. Yeah, you know you know any boarding residential schools you know they had a, they had a mission. Yeah, you know they wanted to shut us down. So well, let's, let's, let's rebound that. This tenfold it like, how do I do it?
Speaker 1:yeah and that's always like my constant thought patterns how do I, how do I reverse this and how do I do it real quick and how do I? You know, it's always in the back of all of our minds. So it's like how do I really help people get comfortable with who they are?
Speaker 1:yeah right and do the identity and media. And you know I just take influence from the folks around me, surrounding myself with amazing people and yeah, you know, and supporting those folks to, you know also see what their medicines are, yeah, and empowering them, yeah, you know, like putting the belief in young people, yeah, big time, you know, like that's the number one, like I know I received it as a young person, so being able to reciprocate that safe space for that, I, you know that growth in the identity, yeah, is is really important.
Speaker 1:I feel like we've been in a space, but now we're in another one, so we can. We can definitely make some movement, yeah big time awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, you know we're kind of coming to the end, rolling around to the end of this time that we've been able to spend together and also to share with everyone else out there. You know, is there anything that you can think about that you feel that you need to share? As we start to circle around to the end of this time, we're spending together something that I would really encourage within the nations, and you know it's the love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my grandmother shared a statement with me or with many of her grandchildren is Holst Jean, I love you. Nobody gets more, nobody gets less. That's something that I like to share with my family, my family. If you made it this far in the podcast, you know you's family right so you know.
Speaker 1:So, holst Jean, to you too, right, like for you know, listening and sharing with me and having the same, you know, safe space. You know I love you, brother. You know that's a big thing to me and yeah, I really received that from my grandmother and to be able to learn that, yeah, and then to you know, later in life, more understand that, yeah, you know, because you, you, you be here one day and gone the next. Yeah, hell, yeah, right, so that's a that's a big thing for me. Yeah, you know, when I see you, it's like time has never, you know, turned. Yeah, right, so just want to say those thank yous and let the world know, like that's one of the things is living in the now yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I'm sharing those I love, you's where you need to, and appreciating the space and time that we're living in, and you know that's one of the number one things that has brought me to where I'm at right now and to being able to express so openly and freely, and yeah you know, loving myself and so that I could love those around me and host Jean is one of those words that I I don't think I'll ever forget.
Speaker 1:It's been ingrained with me for a long time and there's a lot of folks who may not get that feeling yeah right. So it's just like being aware of our surroundings and and aware of what's going on in the world. Yeah, so that's like the number one thing, maybe, and buy a lot of shoes yeah, that thing yeah, you earned it.
Speaker 1:You're worthy yeah, everybody's worthy of things, and if you need it, buy it. Yeah, if you want it, even buy it too, if you got the money for it. But just don't run your, your, your, your, your needs. So, second place, that you know it so those things too. So take care of yourself. Wellness is 100%, yeah, from spirit to physical, right. So it's just being able to be level and, yeah, have a lot of fun doing it and let's let's have a really good next step yeah, hell, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you sharing that, that word, and you know I reciprocate that back to you. You know that's one of the things that I really hold high in terms of the work that I try to do is, you know, just sharing that love. So, thank you, and I love you too and I'm so stoked that you're my brother, I'm so stoked that you're doing this work and I'm proud of the way that you hold it, the way that you walk with it and the way that you, you know, have such a care and compassion for the people that you do the work with right. You know, you really hold up the integrity of each individual to. You know, know the right time for them to gain those marks, but you also challenge them a little bit, and I think that's also important for you too, and I love how you're like oh, you're joking around about getting those chin marks.
Speaker 3:Let's do them up right. So I love that too, but I also honor the fact that you, you know, hold the integrity for each individual to hold that safe space within the work. So, yeah, thanks a lot, thanks a lot, and I'm so stoked that you spent this time with me and that we were able to share it out to the world when it comes out. Hello y'all, bro.
Speaker 1:Cheers Feels really good. Yeah. It's one of the best feelings.
Speaker 3:Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by and taking this journey with me through this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll just ask that you would go and subscribe, if you haven't already done so and if you have subscribed, thank you very much. I appreciate you. Following this journey, I just want you to remember that, no matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done or what you've been through, that you were amazing, that you were loved, and that we need you here today and going into the future so that we can transform this world for the better through our collective thoughts, actions, feelings and our compassion for each other as human beings.
Speaker 3:Head on over to next week's episode, where I'll be talking with Sydney Francis, a little what tattoo practitioner based at a Vancouver, british Columbia. In this episode, we talk about Sydney's journey moving between the fine art world and the processes of indigenous tattooing. Remember, every coffee helps me to bring you the content that you love, so head over to my Ko-Fi page and let's make something great together. And the last thing that I will ask you is to do me a solid and share this episode with somebody that you think will enjoy it. Thanks a lot and see you next week.