Revitalization and reclamation at heart of Kwanlin traditional tattoo gathering

Ashley Cummings is smiling as her chin gets poked over and over with a needle. 

"Hurts a little bit, but not too bad," she says after the work is done. "It's worth it."

Cummings is being tattooed at the Kwanlin Traditional Tattoo Gathering in Whitehorse. The first of its kind, the gathering brought four Indigenous tattoo artists, plus apprentices, to the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre over three days, from May 9 to 12.

Cummings is from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, and now lives in Whitehorse. She calls the tattooing an act of reclamation. 

"Inuit almost lost our tattoos entirely," she said. 

"Now, there's some really stellar women that are being matriarchs and bringing it back to us."

For Cummings and other participants, that's what this event is all about — taking back traditional tattoo practices. It's a way to reclaim identity, and find others with a shared past.

That's how Holly Nordlum sees it. Nordlum, on the other end of the needle, is a tattoo artist and has been for over a decade.  

Nordlum, an Inuk from Kotzebue, Alaska, who now lives in Anchorage, says there's something powerful about poking the skin and talking about "hard stuff." 

The key, she said, is "finding joy in hard stuff." 

"It really does make you who you are." 

Lost history

To Nordlum, hard stuff means shared trauma — substance abuse, sexual abuse, "all those big issues that have affected us for generations," she says. 

That's what comes up most often between her and her clients, she says.

She's travelled to other places with their own tattooing traditions, like New Zealand and Hawaii. In both places, traditional practices were also harmed by colonization and missionaries.

"We're all people of colour who have been colonized and are struggling," she said.

Anne Spice, a Kwanlin Dün citizen and tattoo artist, says that each nation has its own tattoo tradition and style, but that there are gaps in that knowledge because of the generations where tattooing was outlawed. 

To fill that gap, Spice looks to other forms of art to take inspiration for tattooing. 

But now, she says, there's a push to revive Indigenous tattoo practices. 

"[In the Yukon] we're at the very beginning stages of this resurgence," she said. 

Learning together 

Bobby Rose Koe has a fresh caribou antler tattoo on her shoulder, hand-poked. 

"I come from caribou," she said. 

Koe is Teetl'it Gwich'in from Fort McPherson, N.W.T. The new caribou antler is one of many tattoos on her body, each one a reminder of what she's been through and who she is. 

Koe says the biggest conversation at last week's gathering was on the responsibility around tattoos. People learned the history of tattoos, and what is or isn't appropriate.

"I think that it's so beautiful that we're all learning here together," she said. 

Koe's participated in plenty of gatherings and meetings in the cultural centre's multi-purpose room. Often, those are centred on important conversations but she says the tattoo gathering is something special.

"It's a different vibe in here today…seeing people walk in, and then walk out as a different person, with their tattoos or markings, is super beautiful."