"alaska federation natives" Discussed on Native America Calling
"Same elder that I mentioned earlier. We're still have a connection out here. And if you should do it yourself, just check it out, do it yourself, and go that way. So, you know, I went on YouTube again, learned how to screen prints. I literally sold then I had my taxes, I got some tax return money, so I was able to buy a little cheap screen printing press from Amazon, but I didn't have money to buy the screens. So I needed to make the screens myself, so I had to chop some wood and figure that out. So I really went like the nitty Gritty way. And it all started in my basement too. So I just kept going with it. And I ended up going to college when I went to college. I brought all my clothes there and I just started flagged down every single person in the hallway that this is it. You have to make it happen, right? So I did that. And I sold out. I think I brought my shirts there. I even had one of the instructors say, hey, you really this is you're starting this business, coming to my classroom. I'll buy a shirt for everybody and take a picture. That's what he did. So there you go, 20 shirts right on. So that built the confidence, right? And so as I was building red armor at home, I was still in college at the studying this indigenous social entrepreneurship diploma. And I just merged the two when I, yeah, when I completed school, I decided to solve all in on rebel armor and yeah, it's like it's always been learning. I'm always learning something new. Every single day because I'm the leader of the business. It's only going to go as far as I take it. So that's one thing that I put on myself. And with finding money for capital, finding is barriers everywhere. There's a lot of indigenous money in Canada by having been able to Intuit strange four years implying and all that. So I go back to what I know is making a good product and selling it. So that's what funds our employment service for the social enterprise. And yeah, so right now, like I said, I started in the basement. I ended up moving to the social enterprise center. We're in a 300 square officer for about 18 months and we just upgraded to 2300 ft² warehouse. Which still now we could do our commerce fulfillment. But that happened too because Apollo picture are you familiar with the politics? Oh yeah, yeah. Yes. So last year, we won second place in the pilot pit. And they actually had a local power pitch that we want third place. So that money we saved, this can place money from power saved. Is it to get this warehouse? So now that we're here, we're looking at just expanding, expanding everything. So it's increased revenue because we can increase our production and all those pieces. Yeah. Got it. Got it, all right. I'd like to bring in, we have on the line a color, actually. Nicole in Gallup, New Mexico, listening on cagey LP. Hey Nicole, you're on. Oh my goodness, good morning, all the very, very inspired. Kind of bring tears to my eyes, try not to cry. But oh, that's just congratulations for your success. Well, I'm a political activist and I'm very proactive here in the full corners area. Next year, 2024. I lost my daughter. I think with the Maya day and it's coming up to opioids and she spoke her back in an accident. And so I'm going to start walking from window rock shiprock onto Apache country, Pueblo country and onto Santa Fe the state capital, where I will meet the governor of New Mexico to create new legislation regarding opioid and fentanyl addiction and also might as well include the border what can we do since I live in New Mexico about our border and the drug down south and I'm calling because I would love to have my own insignia I have with awesome Navajo top black top hat with contra belt on it and my whole garb. Moccasins and but I was wondering is there any way we can get together to help promote your I love that armor and I can wear it as I am walking day by day up to Santa Fe is there any way that we can get together and I can pay you for what needs to be done but if you can create my own armor all right, Sean, you need any words for Nicole? Yes, I first of all on the call. For sharing that, having the courage to come out and say that, yes, we'd love to collaborate with you if is it okay if I drop what my email? Yeah, it's S rayland, Ari, LA and D at red revel, armor with the U do C 8. Please contact me. Of course we could collaborate and all right, cool. Yeah, a lot of this is all about collaboration and getting together with graphic designers and artists who are putting out some really awesome products that we would love to see on a shirt or on a sweatshirt, a jacket. What streetwear is pretty much all about. I'd like to go over to our next guest here. Joining us from Fairbanks, Alaska, is RICO de Wilde. He is a hunter fisherman and owner of hydes. He is athabaskan. Welcome back to native America calling RICO. Hi, thank you for having me on. Yeah, thank you for coming on the show. So hides HY dz tell us about what that means. Hi, basically like the abbreviation or dictionary, pronunciation of hides like animal hides, the clothing of our ancestors. So that's why I chose that man. All right. And we were talking with Sean a while ago. He was giving descriptions of some of the designs. Give us a description of some of the designs you have there on hides. I'm also looking at the website too. It'd be easier if you asked me maybe a certain design because I have a lot of different designs. Okay, let's see. So there's one that is like a polar bear. It's like a two polar bears kind of like looking at each other or it's like a mirrored image. What's that all about? That's just more of the new P tack. Design for the my native friends up north I made it because I have a lot of friends way up in northern regions of Alaska and it's just basically the polar bear design. I didn't have really any deep meaning behind it. It's kind of like a couple of polar bears facing each other. You got the skulls and also live heads or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, yeah, okay. And then it looks like there's one whaling hoodie. That looks cool. Oh, yeah. I was hanging with my friends from barrow also known as utqiagvik Alaska now. And yeah, whaling is a big part of their community. So if I was doing some for nuclear design, those what I chose to do a whaling design and that's from they still do today. A lot of pride behind whaling up there. Yeah, yeah. I don't think well, do you see a lot of this kind of apparel that celebrates the hunting culture and subsistence lifeways up there in Alaska or are you kind of like the only one up there? No, I think I'm the only one that would that kind of really intricate detail and stuff with my native design clothing, especially like you look at the wolf Raven design or did that one because one we're hunting, we always like if we're hunting walls, we always look for the ravens because the ravens follow the herbal, which is kind of like ravens are kind of like air support, but they're also the same with the wolves because they follow the wolves and they help that wolf hunt for its animals so wolf gets lucky then the Raven eats too. So that's why I combine those two together on that design the wolf Raven designers like ground and air support basically. Oh wow, okay cool so was it you coming up drawing these and transferring them over to different clothing here? Well it starts with me coming up with an idea then I go to an artist like Clinton Williams from fort Yukon if you want to do a lot of the work and also yeah, he did most of the work and also had a guy named jolly roger Watkins he owns a screen printing company called jolly roger and he would do the computer graphics and if I felt like we needed something else I'd go back to the artist and talk about it, come up with some ideas and sketches and we'll bring it back to the graphic designer and it was like a three man team. I can't take all the credit at all for just like I'm kind of like producer. Yeah, all right then and so what was the business process like for you? And what do you think we can see from you in the future? It started in O 7 it was a memorial potlatch where we do a giveaway at the end and a lot of times we give away clothing and memory of people and it was my late mom dad and my late grandma and my sister Liza had passed and we're doing a memorial potlatch for them. So I came up with some real good idea as I brought it to the artist. I brought to your screen printer and put it together and I think I gave out like 30 of them and then people just really loved them. Was the bear spear design with the beer charging into the native with the spear because that's how traditionally how we did our predator control and how we were able to overcome the grid because the grizzly is very power. So most powerful animal and human being have to be stronger than every animal to survival here. So that was like stepping stone to becoming a man like the last step to the journey to being a man and our culture. So it's like a real strong symbolist strength that one. And gave it away, people really liked it. So people started asking me some more, they want to buy them. So there's a big native and end up here called Alaska federation natives in 2008. I got like three grand worth of stuff put together and sold out within a couple of hours with your homeland. This is awesome. So like the one that guy before me saying, it's like a rabbit hole, you just start going further and further and further into it. And that's how I ended up making more and more and more designs and a lot of them have real deep meanings, but some of them I just feel some type of way when we did it
