This ensemble is one out of six in my runway collection entitled “Shadows Edge”. I made this collection to honor that space between the pure indigeneity of the millennias and the colonial world order, that my friend first introduced to me as “ancestral liminalism”. Prior to exploring the idea of honoring this place that I reside as a total mutt (German Filipino Scandinavian Tlingit Jew), I felt shame when I tried to fit into the White world, and shame for not fitting into the Native world. I still find myself suspended between a sense of belonging and rejection, when I allow myself to actually feel it all. My parents talked about race on a daily basis during my upbringing; when my mom labeled my father’s shortcomings, she’s blame it on his privilege [whiteness]. When she’d do that, my dad labeled her a bitter racist. It became my truth that all my ugly parts, internal and external, were due to my ancestry. Because of this, I did not want to be anything. I did not want to make the art of my indigenous ancestors, and I did not want to make art of my colonizing ancestors… let alone look like, act like, relate like, smile like, sing like, talk like, dance like, dress like, eat like, think like, love like, etc etc etc. That is a lonely place to be. But the REAL truth is that I was created in LOVE (and belonging) and I am the manifestation of LOVE (and belonging), and therefore everything I do is really out of LOVE (and belonging), and so my work is made with LOVE (and belonging) to adorn and celebrate women that too feel suspended in sweet ancestral liminalism, and honor this place, because it’s purely divine. And exactly where we are supposed to be.

Photography by Kahlil Hudson, modeled by Julene Hunt