"London Waka" by Robert Sullivan

I have just finished reading Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, edited by Grace Dillon, and Dr. Dillon ended the anthology with a superb poem by Robert Sullivan, a Maori poet (Ngā Puhi). In her introduction to Sullivan's piece, Dillon shares the gist of another of his poems, called "London Waka" which briefly lays out an alternate history in which Maori warriors take over England, ransack its museums returning the loot stored in them, and free the British colonies, thereby creating alliances with basically a quarter of the whole world. 

Steampunk POC: Beth Aileen Dillon (Anishinaabe)

It's the first Friday of the month! And I have another wonderful interview with a steampunk of colour to share this month after a couple of months of brain-gone-somewhere! 

This month, we head back to the Pacific Northwest to Portland, again, where resides Beth Aileen Dillon, Anishinaabe Mètis, who is currently a PhD student in the Interactive Arts and Technology program at Simon Fraser University, and a transmedia artist. She's been featured here before, when she released her short video The Path Without End, in which she uses everyday objects and materials to create an animated film that re-tells the story of a child that is the offspring between an Anishinaabe and Moon Person. Her latest work is The Nature of the Snake which premiered at the most recent imagiNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival. In it, she uses silhouettes and cosmic imagery to tell the story of a snake and a girl. Also, she has given me permission to feature her latest painting, "The River of Star Beings" (to the right!).

Beth Aileen's approach to steampunk is really unique compared to most of us out there; we talk about using everyday objects for creating beautiful things, and she takes it to the nth degree and uses them for storytelling. Steampunks can talk a good game about bringing back old stories of adventure, and she brings forward a storytelling tradition of her people. 

Now, onto questions!

Steampunk POC: Mrs. Mary Lou Sullivan (Southern Pomo)

Mary Lou Sullivan, PDX resident,
co-founder of the Rose City Steampunks

It's the first Friday of the month! And you know what that means... another steampunk POC interview! I'm happy to be interviewing a thoughtful lady I met last year at PDX GearCon. When I first met her, I didn't even know to code her as POC because you know how it is with some people where you just don't know and omg it might be offensive to ask?? and so I just didn't count her in, until she set me straight! And she's expressed to me the frustration of being a Native American, whereby people think she's Italian or something that's not Native American.

When I interviewed her, she gave me "just a few facts to round out the picture - I was born in Sebastopol, CA on May 2, 1957.  I grew up and lived the first 47 years of my life in Sonoma Co., CA, which is our historical tribal territory.  I have two children and three grandchildren, all of whom are enrolled tribal members. I am an enrolled member of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.  I currently live in Portland, Oregon, where I work as a family therapist for NARA Northwest (Native American Rehabilitation Association).  I have a BA in English Literature and an MA in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling from Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA. I am happily married to my husband of 16 years, Hal Sullivan, who is tolerant of my whimsies."

Onward to candidness and free education under the cut!

Steampunk POC: Phil Powell (Mixed race: German, African, Cherokee)

It's the first Friday of the month again! That means, time for another Steampunk POC interview! This time, we hike over to DC metro, to talk to steampunk dandy Phil Powell, a man who colours up the sepia of steampunk, with more than just his skintone.

Phil Powell. Portrait by Denis Largeron

 How do you do steampunk? Or how do you steampunk or how do you participate in steampunk? Or what steampunk media do you do (lit, fashion, events)? Ay-Leen tells me you're a local organizer, but feel free to talk about anything else: costuming, roleplaying, etc.

I turn Steampunk on its ear.  I don't go for the generic guns/goggles/gadgets that permeate Steampunk; I feel that if we are going to recreate (and perfect) the Victorian culture, all of it must be represented, including the Dandy.  I am a Dandy, a proud one.  I wear very fancy outfits, feathers, accessories, pins, brooches.  THOSE are my gadgets.  Ay-Leen knows me well; I do events, small social outings for those of us wishing to encounter each other in a non-club setting to enjoy our mutual interests and to further my goal of global domination, ridding the world of mundaneness and general boredom.

How did you come to steampunk? What were your first impressions of it?

I am originally a Goth.  Dressing up fancy and having interest in all things Victorian comes naturally to me, so when I learned about Steampunk back in 2008 I was immediately drawn to it and wanting to explore further, thus, I did.  My immediate impressions were that of a very diverse group of people, mostly from the Ren Faire circuit, that were immersed in roleplaying and general nerddom, things that weren't necessarily my strongest suits, thus, I was in some ways coming into the Steampunk genre a bit, well, green.

Steampunk POC: Monique Poirer (Seaconke Wampanoag)

Some of you already know Monique Poirier, either from her Beyond Victoriana essay, or from Tumblr, or you know her from cons and stuff. So it seemed a pretty natural thing to get in touch with her for this series of steampunk POC interviews. I first met her at Steampunk World's Fair 2010, and found her again through K Tempest Bradford's musings about wearing steampunk fashion (Tempest said she couldn't imagine wearing the usual corsets and bustle stuff, then point to Monique as wearing very wearable, everyday stuff). We occasionally chat late into the night, and when I first thought about doing a series of interviews with steampunk POC, it made sense to get in touch with her.

So without further ado, gentlefolk, I present, Monique Poirier:

I know you covered this in your BV essay, about how you come to start doing Native Steampunk, but how did you first get to know about steampunk? What were your impressions of it? Were you like me, as in the "it looks pretty but but but white people and colonialism" sort of way? Or were you a participant in your own way?

I first became aware of teampunk through costuming sometime 2008-2009, and when I came into it I wasn't really involved in the non-European aspect. I originally loved steampunk for the pretty pretty clothes; not gonna lie, I am a sucker for lace and bustles and corsets and brass bits and top hats and waistcoats. I love cello music. I love clockwork. I was a goth in high school and college (this is what a Native steamgoth looks like). It hadn't even occurred to me then to incorporate my ethnic identity into my costuming, or to even notice the colonialism aspect because I was so USED to being invisible as an NDN person, in whiteness and European identity being the only explored aspect, that the problematic white mono-culture aspects just seemed normal to me – but then I started reading about Steampunk online to dig for costuming ideas, and came across your articles at Tor, and started reading Beyond Victoriana, and generally thought more about incorporating my indigeneity into my Steampunk attire. After the Beyond Victoriana panel at the first Steampunk World's Fair, where I (as an audience member) brought up the fact that colonialism effects NDN folks in that our colonizers never left, I was totally ready to make my outfits much more recognizably indigenous.

"The Path Without End" by Elizabeth Lameman, Anishinaabe/Mètis

The Path Without End from Elizabeth Lameman on Vimeo.

Elizabeth Lameman, an Anihinaabe/Mètis creator of the graphic novel "The West Was Lost," made this video after she was "fed up with the inability of words to capture [her] interpreation of Native Steampunk." You should pop over to her blog to read about the process behind making this animation, which is a retelling of Anishinaabe stories about Moon People. The soundtrack to the video, "Prosperity," is by Cris Derksen, a Cree cellist.

The result combines multi-textured visuals, made with familiar objects such as beads, with a narrative about interplanetary travel that could take place in any time period, a story that has been handed down for generations, and a soundtrack that also does its own work of combining different kinds of sounds.

Please go check out Beth's commentary on making this video, and leave her comments on Vimeo if you have an account! When I first watched it, I... I had no idea what was going on, and she explained to me, that it's about "travel back and forth between worlds and the Wetiko chasing us wherever we go." And it was amusing for her, because her kid, who's three, knows exactly what's going on, but an adult who didn't grow up immersed in Anishinaabe culture, like yours truly, has a much harder time understanding what's being depicted.

It makes me tip my hat all the more, actually, that it is so recognizably steampunk, and yet so culturally specific. It makes me really happy to see more of this kind of work out there!

Elizabeth Lameman, Anishinaabe/Mètis, everybody!