Brit Reed
Art Mediums: Digital Illustration, Procreate
Brit, an unenrolled Choctaw descendant and adoptee, traces her creativity to her love of music and dance at an early age. She became a freelance photographer shooting for Adore Vintage and local bands around North Texas during high school. Brit studied film and photography at Columbia College Chicago. In 2010, she moved to Olympia, WA to attend Evergreen State College, earning her BA and MPA with a concentration in Tribal Governance. She focused her studies on tribal food (in)security, food sovereignty, tribal food policy, and the effects of food on the health of our tribal communities, later continuing these explorations at the Seattle Culinary Academy. Brit is the founder of Food Sovereignty is Tribal Sovereignty, an I-Collective member, Yehaw Community Curator, the Food Service Provider at the Tulalip Health Clinic’s Diabetes Program, and a Sovereign Bodies Institute Community Research Leader. She is also a beadwork artist and illustrator. Currently, she is the image curator for the I-Collective’s A Gathering Basket publication. She is a member of the Inchunwa team, a project and podcast working to aid in the revitalization of Southeastern traditional tattoos.
Ishko Lusa: “With so much of my work lately, I am exploring southeastern Native concepts of beauty, strength, gender representation, interrelationships with the human and more than human, and traditional southeastern tattoos. I created this piece when a satibapishi was going through a hard time. I wanted to create something that honored them, lifted them, and represented the change in their life. They are involved with the Inchunwa project—a project and podcast that seeks to aid in the revitalization of southeastern Native American traditional tattooing. I felt it important to depict them with traditional tattoos to honor them and help my broader southeastern community visualize themselves with traditional tattoos as a means to bolster the movement. (Note: these tattoos are only for southeastern Native people.)”
Pokni Lakni: “Among those involved in the southeastern Native American traditional tattoo revitalization, we discuss how wonderful it will be when our elders bear traditional tattoos. When that happens, we will know we are in full swing. Artistic depictions of southeastern Native American people can drive the desire for folks within those communities to restore their traditional tattoos. However, many depictions of folks with traditional tattoos are young people. Inspired by Hotvlkuce Harjo’s piece, where an elder of theirs pours Sofki into a mason jar while displaying traditional tattoos, I wanted to portray an elder of mine whom I grew to respect and appreciate while traveling along the Trail of Tears together. On that journey and a recent trip to New Orleans, I was reminded of the importance of connection to the land—particularly our homelands. This piece was a continuation of portraying the homelands and waters we belong to while also honoring my elder by showcasing her with traditional tattoos.”
Oka Nahullo: Sinti Tohbi: “I’ve wondered how people would consider and act in the landscapes they now occupy if they were aware of the more-than-human beings who call those places home. In her lectures, Dr. Karina Walters (Choctaw) talks about the myth that Native people believed that the Europeans were gods. She retells the story from the Choctaw perspective: when asked what we thought of the Europeans, we replied they reminded us of spirits. They took that to mean we thought they were gods. To us, they reminded us of Oka Nahullo—a creature or spirit that resides around whirlpools in rivers of the Choctaw homelands. Some tellings report that the Oka Nahullo appear like white-skinned snakes. Other tellings say they look like people who have white or silver skin, like trout, and blue eyes. Karina says these creatures call out and beckon you to the shores. Once there, you look into the water and become enamored with yourself. Then they snatch you, drag you under, devour you, and you become like them. That is Oka Nahullo, the spirits whom the ancestors were reminded of by white Europeans.”
Oka Nahullo: Nvni Okla: “Continuing my exploration of monsters indigenous to southeastern homelands and Oka Nahullo, I wanted to depict how they might look in their tellings as people with white or silver skin and blue eyes. It was important for me to continue working the land and waterscapes into the piece. Using the location of a specific river named in a story told by an elder, I used that land/waterscape as a reference for the background to keep the visual telling correct. There are other traditional stories regarding blue floating lights in the swamps and wetlands in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and other areas where the Choctaw homelands reside. Although I’ve not explored their tellings yet—let’s say it’s best not to follow them.”