Mask project centres Asian and Indigenous pandemic experience

A mask project is bringing Indigenous and Asian creators together to make art that expresses how their respective communities are navigating a public health crisis — and the negative side effects it has on their communities.

"It was about finding our commonalities so that we could support each other and raise our voice louder together, instead of just being silenced by the world," said Tania Larsson, the NDNxAZN project creator.

Larsson, a Gwich'in artist, saw her friend from Texas post on her Instagram page that the number of anti-Asian hate crimes outnumbered deaths from COVID-19. 

"We're seeing these attacks — violent attacks — happening against Asian people because of the xenophobic sentiment and commentary [of] political figures," said Larsson.

Larsson reached out in solidarity — she understood that for Asian and Indigenous communities, the dangers of the pandemic stretched beyond respiratory illness. 

This is corroborated in a report from Oct. 21 from the Stop AAPI Hate coalition based in the U.S. studying anti-Asian sentiment in the lead-up to the 2020 election. It looked specifically at Twitter where the researchers analyzed 1,227 tweets about Asian Americans over an eight month period, and found that over 1 in 10 included racist or stigmatizing language. 

As well, in a report from the United Nations earlier this year, it says racially motivated violence and other incidents against Asian-Americans have reached an "alarming level" across the U.S. since the outbreak of COVID-19, incluiding physical assaults, vandalism, verbal harassment and denial of access to services and public spaces.  

"It was a very unsettling time because even though we're in a pandemic there was so much violence occurring against us," Larson said. 

"It was really about coming together because so often we're silenced. We're only statistics. We don't have a voice. It was so nice to bring people together because we're not the only ones feeling this."

Larson says it was "shocking" that while most people worry about their health, their wellbeing, their families and potential financial issues, other communities were burdened with more worries on top of that.

"Our friends were also having to worry about going to the grocery store or even leaving their house or being in their place of work, just fearing for hate crimes," said Larsson.

Simultaneously, there was a rise on attacks on Indigenous sovereignty, as environmental agencies were disbanded, pipelines were given a green light  and drilling of protected lands escalated, the NDNxAZN website states.

Indigenous people continue to be murdered and go missing. Society continues to hypersexualize Asian and Indigenous women, subjecting them to increased levels of violence, Larson added.

The masks, through their designs, touch on decolonization, liberation, healing, displacement from ancestral lands and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

Project partnered up makers from around North America

Art was a natural way to discuss racism and the pandemic and they partnered a handful of makers to launch the project, said Larsson.

"From there, these masks came to life. Oftentimes we have shared histories when it comes to painful parts of our histories," said Larsson.

Melaw Nakehk'o, a Dene/Dënesųłiné artist based out of Yellowknife, partnered up with Stephanie Ung, of Khmer, Filipino, and Chinese descent.

In Ung's mask, green hands are cut from Khmer cloth and embroidered in the shape of a robam, a traditional Khmer dance gesture. 

Ung's father is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide, which took two million lives between 1975 and 1979 and is directly linked to U.S. imperialism, the artist statement reads. 

Ung, performs outreach for Khmer communities in Seattle and says critical information about staying safe during COVID-19 or even how it spreads, was not translated for elderly people in the community. Many multi-generational households saw stress from COVID-19 go "through the roof" as schools and businesses closed, and access to food became harder, Ung said.

"This information was really lost on our elders, especially our elders who are survivors of the genocide and came to this country carrying that trauma already," she said. Even during the pandemic, systemic racism, poverty and deportation from the U.S. are a reality for Khmer people, says Ung. 

Ung's hand placement also nods to the disproportionate number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, as well as two-spirit people. 

Melaw Nakehk'o made her own mask out of smoked and tanned moosehide, with glass beads, caribou antler and caribou hide.

Her artist statement on the project website centres around her decision to return to the land and live there for five weeks with her family. 

Nakehk'o's mask represents the healing power that came with that move. She said the connections she formed with Ung reinforced the different relationships to the land along with heartbreak for ancestral homes, and the resilience and beauty of their communities.

Viewing the masks together and the artist statements are powerful, she said.

Tiffany Wong, who is Chinese American partnered with Jolene Chee, who is Diné from the Tł'ízí Łání clan from Diné Bikéyah (Navajo Reservation).

The two lined their masks with a map, signifying the Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S., which exploited Chinese people and the Santa Fe Railroad, which runs from Chicago to Southern California and exploited Navajo labourers.  

"Talking to Jolene made it so clear that colonization ALWAYS exploits labour, separates families, kills culture and bodies, and hides/twists true history," Wong's artist statement reads. 

Wong emphasizes that the racism of the 1800s is reflected in modern exploitation of BIPOC labour — through family separation, the prison system and poverty. 

The NDNxAZN project is still open to submissions.