Exhibit | Red Runners

Moccasins or sneakers? Sneakers or moccasins? How about both?

Red Runners: The New Objectification of Native Art and Identity is an exhibit that features the work of over a dozen contemporary First Nations artists who were challenged by the curators to deconstruct, decorate, and reinterpret a pair of white Vans sneakers.

The artists come from diverse backgrounds, and work in a variety of media. Some of the artists were chosen for their traditional-based work and others for their contemporary outlook, though no limits were placed on what they could submit. All the works in the show are new but with reverence to the old ways. Curators of the show were Jason Jenkins and Luke Parnell.

Gong Mukluks

Activist artist Louie Gong teams up with Manitobah Mukluks to produce a special line of Northwest Coast-themed mukluks and moccasins.

Gong has been creating shoe art for the past couple years, making his mark on Vans sneakers in the form of Custom Coast Salish and Northwest Coast style shoes since 2009. You can check out his Eighth Generation website for more information on all his latest accomplishments and creative projects.

The two footwear options offered as part of the collab will feature a hand-etched Thunderbird design created by Gong and placed onto the Manitobah Mukluks' traditional Gatherer style shoe.

Manitobah Mukluks

Manitobah Mukluks have been hitting the (Canadian) news lately, and so I want to spread some love down here in the States -

Manitobah Mukluks is headed up by Metis entrepreneur Sean McCormick, who has turned traditional moccasins and mukluks into some pretty cool contemporary footgear.

Founded in 1997, the company started off small - at a trading post in Winnipeg. McCormick traded raw materials (leathers and furs) to First Nations women who brought in their handmade mukluks. Customers, he says, couldn't get enough of them, so he hired some folks and started producing them in-house. Since then, the four-person shop has grown to an operation that employs 50, with a factory and warehouse in Winnipeg and a global sales and marketing office near Ottawa.

Louie Gong's Killer Whale vs. Seals Custom Shoes

(Custom Coast Salish / Northwest Coast style shoes by Louie Gong)

About this pair, Gong says, "I started these Killer Whale vs. Seals customs about a year ago. I didn't like what I had done so I set them aside...until tonight, when I did some work to salvage them. I really like em! (all my shoes are hand drawn so there is only one of each design available."

For more information, click here, here or here.

Shoes | Powwow Love Drama

"Powwow Love Drama"
Experimental Ledger art custom shoes by Orlando Obie Begay

Jamie Okuma Beaded Shoes

(Beaded Shoes by Jamie Okuma, Shoshone/Luiseno, at the 2011 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. Photo by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe)

My friend Amber-Dawn Bear Robe spotted these awesome shoes at the Santa Fe Indian Market last weekend. They are made by Jamie Okuma, who is of Shosone-Banock and Luiseno heritage.

Video | Louie Gong

Below is a fantastic video featuring Custom Shoe artist Louie Gong, who discusses the importance of putting Northwest Coast designs on shoes - his business goes beyond aesthetics and is an extension of his activism around racial identity. This 'artist profile' was filmed during the American Indian Film Festival by Northwest Indian News. It begins with wonderful comments by Tracy Rector of Longhouse Media.

GON 2011 Vans x Pendleton

Check out this special collaboration that Vans did with Nibwaakaawin for the Gathering of Nations Powwow and All Nations Skate Jam.

These shoes premiered last year at ANSJ 2010 and sold out within hours.

For the 2011 event, Vans created several limited edition SK8-HIs, Classic Slip-Ons and Chukka Lows using Pendleton fabrics. Proceeds from the sale of the sneakers will go towards Nibwaakaawin’s fundraising efforts – a Native non-profit organization whose goal is to empower Native youth through skateboarding.

Art and Identity Custom Shoe Workshop

Louie Gong, a nationally-recognized artist and mixed-heritage advocate, not only heads up the Eighth Generation custom shoe business, but also spends his time working with youth in tribal communities doing various speaking engagements and workshops.

Gong recently held a Custom Shoe Workshop called Art and Identity, which was hosted at the Salt Lake City Indian Walk-In Center held at the end of March.

The Fashion of Moccasins

I've embarked on yet another project!:

Working with the School for Advanced Research (Indian Arts and Research Center) and filmmaker Melissa Henry, I’m consulting on a video documentary that investigates the fashion of moccasins (such a cool concept!).

Though it is relatively easy to determine whether or not hipsters, hippies, or non-Native fashionistas wear moccasins, it is much harder to determine the level at which Native American youth (14-24) are rockin’ mocs as a fashion statement.

I’ve been digging through my photos from Native fashion shows to see if mocs are being worn on the runway, and indeed they are:

However, although they are on the runway (in limited doses: about one for every dozen pairs of black high heels), do Native youth see them as fashionable?

In the past, Native people wore moccasins everyday, now it appears we wear them only on special occasions (such as at powwows, feast days, or graduations). How can we return their daily use? How can we make Native-made moccasins attractive for a new generation?

We need to start a Rock the Mocs campaign!

Event | Footwork: Art and the Shoe

(by Shawn Nelson)

(by Crystal Worl)

(by Sun Rose Iron Shell)

In October I traveled to Oklahoma to participate in the 16th Biennial Native American Art Studies Association Conference, and met two students from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) who were planning to curate a show at IAIA's Primitive Edge Gallery in December and January. Their idea was to have an event focused on shoes, and the exhibit recently opened in Santa Fe:

Footwork: Art and the Shoe Primitive Edge Gallery
IAIA Campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Dec 10, 2009 through Jan 24, 2010

Indigenous people have always made a concentrated effort to adorn themselves in a beautiful way. Footwork is a showcase of footwear and art, and how the two have forever been a part of the Native way of life--the paths we walk and the steps we take into the future.


Now that I'm in Santa Fe, I plan to check out the show before it shuts down!