Passage I

Beat Nation

[1]

A cymbal skitters over a powwow chant. The intonations of the Cree language create a staccato soundscape. Artist Jordan Bennett adorns skateboard decks with traditional beadwork. Dylan Miner is adding painted hides to bikes which are lowriders. Beat Nation, an art exhibition and website, showcases works from Vancouver’s Indigenous art scene. (2) The works fusing graffifiti, b-boying, MCing, and other hip-hop art forms with traditional Native culture. [A] The artists strive not only to challenge stereotypes but also to provide a new lens for young people to explore their Indigenous roots.

[2]

Tania Willard, Beat Nation’s cofounder, traces the show’s origins back to a powwow she attended in the 1990s. Standing amongst drummers from Canada's Secwepemc nation, an Indigenous break-dancing crew six-stepped and moonwalked to the rhythms of traditional hand drums. For Willard, the powwow represented the culmination of a generational trend. Throughout the 1990s, many Indigenous young people left Canada‘s rural territories for Vancouver's city streets. There, in Vancouver, they discovered hip-hop and used it as a means of self-expression. [B] In 2006. Willard began highlighting their talents by promoting their work.

[3]

The website took off, becoming a hub of Indigenous culture while also broadcasting political messages. However, on the site, MC Geronimo Inutiq raps about pollution that has affected Indigenous territories. [C] Corey Bulpitt, a graffiti artist, to spraypaint traditional Haida imagery in his mural Raven, located in downtown Vancouver. On the Beat Nation website, Bulpitt explains, that the mural expresses how Haida natives have reclaimed space within the cityscape.

[4]

Selected artworks from the Beat Nation site has been shown in Vancouver's Grunt Gallery, in Musee d'Art Contemporain in Montreal, and Toronto's Power Plant. [D] The artists in Beat Nation continue to spread their message by collaborating with Idle No More, a political group promoting Indigenous rights. "We're not idle anymore," Inutig muses. "We're agents of change."