Dion Kaszas: Revitalizing Native Tattooing
This is Ecko Aleck, a woman who was born into the Nlaka'pamux Nation and raised with the Shishalh Nation. She is the one of the first two people to wear a full Nlaka'pamux bodysuit. This body suit is meant to represent the visual language that her ancestors would have used. The tattoos themselves were done by Indigenous Artist, Dion Kaszas, who is Nlaka'pamux, Metis and Hungarian. Kaszas specializes in a style he developed called Nlaka'pamux blackwork, which has ties fashioned after his ancestors' designs, symbols and motifs. Ecko is also involved in revitalizing Native tattoo culture which was made illegal by the colonizers who inhabited her ancestors' land hundreds of years ago. I chose to include this in the portfolio because Native Tattoos do not hold a singular meaning, and Ecko’s body suit displays that. Not only do her tattoos represent her ancestors, and their visual language and traditions, but they also represent the perseverance Native people have, they represent how even when pieces of her ancestors culture were taken from them, and erased from many peoples memories, people are still fighting for those connections and working to bring back these traditions.
This image is a man who is not named on the table in the process of getting tattooed by Kaszas. He is also getting a Nlaka'pamux bodysuit, but his has a different meaning than Ecko’s, this is easy to tell because his tattoo is visually different from hers. I chose to include this image because while the process of laying on the table, sitting through hours of pain, and tattoo guns buzzing, just to get tattooed, is the same process for almost everyone who gets a tattoo, the image, the story, the meaning, everything about the art itself is unique to that person getting it. The art is not only to represent past cultures and traditions, but new ones as well, it is meant as a way to express the beauty and individuality of the wearer of the art. Kaszas also believes that tattoos can be healing, even though the process of getting them can be extremely long and painful, he believes that they can be a form of medicine. The art is meant to remind the wearer that they are the healer of themselves. To help remind them that they are able to draw on the connection with their ancestors through their tattoos and heal not only themselves but their community as well.
This is the Nlaka’pamux Visual Dictionary. A resource for the Nlaka'pamux community to use their ancestral visual language that was curated by Kaszas. This book isn’t like an ordinary dictionary, this is a book that shows people in the tribe today, what their ancestors meant with their visuals hundreds of years ago. This book bridges the gaps for those who may have lost their connection to their ancestors, who may have fallen away from their roots, or lost their identity. This book goes beyond the significance of people’s tattoos as The Nlaka’pamux nation used these images on everything from baskets to regalia, moccasins, to tools, these images hold quite a bit of meaning for these people of the nation Kaszas states that his work “breathes new life into the old ways” and this really resonated with me, because his whole reason for his work is to help people heal, transform, and reclaim the identities their ancestors had stripped away from the many years ago.