Nelly Furtado’s new song “Big Hoops” featuring Native American hoop dancers and fancy shawl dancers.

Opinions? Song is interesting but I feel there should’ve been more indigenous airtime. Fancy shawl dancers have amazing footwork and hoop dancers are just such unique dancers to observe. 

And although Nelly has changed quite significantly from her “I’m like a bird” days, i still admire seeing accurate native portrayal in the media.

And another talking point I’d like to open folks up to is this: I’ve read some comments saying Nelly Furtado is using the native folks as “accessories” in her video but for me it also kinda shows folks we’re still around which, for some folks, is necessary to vocalize.

Powwow Photo Set 2 from Wunk Sheek’s 35th Annual Spring Powwow @ UW Madison

Please do not steal my work!! If you want to use the photos, just ask and credit me!

I busted my ass working on this event so these documented pictures mean a LOT to me! Respect the artist!!

(c) Ryan Young

Powwow Photo Set 1 from Wunk Sheek’s 35th Annual Spring Powwow @ UW Madison

Please do not steal my work!! If you want to use the photos, just ask and credit me!

I busted my ass working on this event so these documented pictures mean a LOT to me! Respect the artist!!

(c) Ryan Young

Two Million Strong

(c) Ryan Young

an art piece I created for the powwow I helped put together at UW-Madison

Here’s a little background info of the org just to emphasize how wonderful of an event this will be. Wunk Sheek has been an organization at UW-Madison for over 40 years. A couple years ago, we were defunded losing I think around $50,000 to $100,000 in annual funding. Because of this all the direct services we provided such as the Veteran’s Day Powwow, multiple events during November for Native Heritage month, the spring powwow and other events, speakers and activities became near to impossible to put on to the extent they were in past years. But, amazingly, this is the first powwow in 2 years(!) put together without our funding, but from funding provided from other student orgs, coalitions, donations from different schools at the UW and even from the Ho Chunk Nation! We went from $0 to over $25,000 in a matter of a couple months due to hard work from our organization and other multicultural orgs’ desire to see Native culture revived on this campus. We can’t wait to see the turnout! :)

Spread the word!! 

artisticaction

So this kept popping up in my life so I might as well address it.

Aaniin and Boozhoo in Lac du Flambeau are used interchangeably to say hello in Ojibwe.

Which one is the more correct term to use?

It’s aaniin. Boozhoo is a “whitened” form of hello, learned from the French when they came to Lac du Flambeau (Lac du Flambeau is french for “Lake of the Torches” due to the torches at the end of our canoes when we went spearing for fish) 

You can tell because of how similar it sounds to Bonjour. Aaniin is the actual ojibwe word for hello.

xoshayebaybay:

deeannabrown:

justanotherskinnyguy:

nyankohimex3:

osakabrownsuga:

cosmicolor32807:

alpacas-are-not-llamas:

A few racists on Facebook felt the need to share their opinion, reblog so future employers can find this post when searching their names in google.
Transcript | Link

TRAVIS HALL

Works at United States Marine Corp
Studied at Wake Forest University
Lives in Norwood, North Carolina

OLIVIA NICOLE THOMAS

Went to West Stanley High School
Studied at Stanly Community College
Lives in Midland, North Carolina

Lynda Scott

Lives in North Carolina

Snezhanna Granados Black (what is her real name?

Went to West Stanly High
Lives in Midland, North Carolina

A bunch of idiots…..

wtf…….i……..i can’t

lol i hope one day the world can change.

oh my goodness smh

Can’t wait till their sons start fiendin for exotic ass. It’s bound to happen.

“N*****s were there, but hanging from a tree.” 
Oh my God… I literally gasped and had to cover my mouth. 
What sad, close-minded fucks. 

Also- all you “100% white people” can get the fuck up out of here since my people were here before yours. Then you destroyed them by taking their land and killing them off in the most gruesome ways. So fuck you. 

Where are the people who say we live in a post racial society? They need to read this. and the whole time reading this I was like…Why do racist white people (Not all of them but there are quite a few, i’m stating this because I’m not trying to make a generalization of white people (and I’m not stating all white people are racist or all racists are white people)) tell people to go back to where they came from as if they had this land? Do they not take the time to learn their own history? You are living on the land of massacred indigenous people! We only make up 1% of this US population now because of what happened in history. You should have no reason to hate people who immigrate here to live here, they aren’t trying to massacre 90-99% of the population currently living here and trying to take over the US like your ancestors.

Painting I did today!! On a big piece of canvas :) Painted it outside even on such a beautiful day!! :) Feel free to give feedback but do understand that it’s on phase 1 of a few before it’s completed, this is just what I did in a few hours. :)

Men’s Traditional Bustle, Acrylic on Canvas (I’ll track down the dimensions but it’s pretty big)