Chatter Marks EP 038 Living Traditional Values and Innovating Indigenous Design with Rico Worl

Crude Conversations

crudemag

Society & Culture

5 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rico Worl owns a business in Juneau that aims to distribute money spent on Alaska Native art back into Alaska Native communities. His business is called Trickster for the raven in Alaska Native culture that represents the Creator and is always playing tricks. Trickster began as a skateboard company, so there’s that association too. In fact, the idea for it started when Rico painted his clan crest onto his longboard and skated around Juneau. Before the pandemic, Juneau saw about a million tourists a year. Many of which purchase what Rico calls knockoff Alaska Native art. A small percent of that money actually goes back to the communities that developed the art form. Rico recognized this and came up with a plan: He would design and sell art that blends modern and traditional styles and make sure the proceeds go back to the Alaska Native communities from which they came. Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

Transcript

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0:00.0	I got a call from someone one time and they're like, yeah, I was just driving, she's
0:17.8	an encouragement.
0:18.8	She's like, I was just driving down the road and I saw this young native kid just like
0:23.1	with the Trickster Company basketball walking down the road.
0:26.8	And that's just, it was the simplicity of it, like, of being engaged with the culture.
0:35.8	That's the simplicity and innocence of it, like, without having to be like over-complated
0:41.0	to like, there's a lot of like stress about, there's a lot of stress because of colonialism
0:49.7	and so like, recovering from colonialism, like, what is post-colonialism and so there's
0:54.6	a lot of like, like, language revitalization, there's, you know, learning all your stories
1:01.0	and so, you know, being engaged with the call, going to, going to ceremonies and doing
1:05.3	those properly, learning how to, there's a lot and sometimes that can be like, really
1:09.9	overwhelming to be like, okay, we got to like, be engaged with the culture and save
1:14.0	it and save the language and what, and that's like a huge, like, heavy weight for, I think
1:18.4	a lot of, you know, native people, but it's like, I think it's important to have those
1:26.6	simple moments of like engaging in the culture, just, just that simple, like, just walking
1:32.4	down the road with, with something that represents that, that you're excited about being engaged
1:43.1	with native culture or art.
1:46.2	That was Rico Whirl.
1:48.0	He owns a business in Juno that aims to distribute money spent on Alaska Native art back into
1:53.0	Alaska Native communities.
1:55.6	His business is called Trickster for the Raven and Alaska Native culture that represents
2:00.0	the creator and is always playing tricks.
	...

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