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Windspeaker.com Books Feature Writer
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Writer and multimedia artist Andrea Grant considers her newest literature offering, Modern Natives, An Illustrative Collection of Reimagined Coast Salish Myths, a “calling.”
Almost a decade ago, Grant was gifted “amazing archival information” from her Coast Salish tribe, the Pune'luxutth'. The tribe primarily lives on lands in the Southern Gulf Islands and on Vancouver Island, B.C. The main community of Spune'luxutth is located on Penelakut Island.
The communications manager on Penelakut Island gave Grant binders full of archaic stories and myths. He also put her in touch with Elder Thiyaus Florence James. Thiyaus acted as the cultural advisor for Modern Natives.
Grant was tapped for the project based on her graphic creation Minx, an Indigenous woman and superhero featured in individual comics and stories in anthologies distributed at various Comic-Cons. In 2011 she released a full-length graphic novel, the complete storyline which she shared with her tribe. Based on her work, she was given permission to be creative with the archival stories as a means to attract a new audience.
“I felt called to this adventure (of Modern Natives) and really connected to it and really protective of the materials that they gave me and wanting to do right by them,” said Grant.
While Grant grew up in the suburbs on Vancouver Island, her father, a shaman, was “always really into the stories.” Grant herself enjoyed fairytales and myths. As a family, they visited museums. Grant travelled to Penelakut Island to track down family and relatives.
Four of the five stories in the richly illustrated Modern Natives contain traditional myths. Within those short stories Grant creates new characters and brings the myths into the contemporary world.
“The Isle of Women” is one short story Grant is particularly proud of and feels connected to. The myth is about the sacred Isle of Women, a secret Gulf Island between Valdez and Vancouver Island where women go “when they need to replenish their magic.” The island is forbidden to men and children. In the story, a young girl is abducted when walking home from a ceremony. To find the girl, three women and two teenage girls travel to the island and use their shapeshifting magic. The young girl is found and the two college-aged boys who abducted her are punished.
Grant brings the tale of “The Isle of Women” into today’s context by including the stark statistics of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Modern Natives also includes “Run Me with the Wolves,” the origin story of Minx. Minx isn’t based on a myth, but she is loosely autobiographical, says Grant.
“I'm not a superhero by day or anything,” she laughs. “But…I play around with other myths within it, because, of course, she's always got challenges to face…It draws on different cultural myths too. It's not just Native myth. It's got Greek mythology, woven in Egyptian mythology. I wanted to bring different cultures into it.”
The stories within Modern Natives are highlighted by spectacular graphic work.
“It was about a seven-year project and most of that was the art,” said Grant.
Work by Qwalsius-Shaun Peterson, a Coast Salish artist of the Puyallup Tribe, was supplemented by Bowera Studio of Indonesia.
Peterson doesn’t draw characters. Grant felt it was important to the stories so she contracted a team from Bowera Studio for that aspect.
“Then the book became robust enough that I was happy with it, with that balance,” said Grant. She said she’s “absolutely elated” with the finished product. “I think it's printed very beautifully.”
Representatives of the arts and preservation of the Pune'luxutth' culture saw the stories before they were published and Grant says they were excited about the stories and didn’t request any changes.
Grant encourages Indigenous readers of Modern Natives to “look at things in a more magical way because, of course, we have a lot of magic and power in our culture. It's very beautiful. But a lot of people get caught up in their day-to-day life and sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's a little bit depressing and I think you have to have a taste for magic and aesthetics and so I hope it inspires people and I hope they're moved by it.”
Grant, who now lives in Los Angeles after many years of residing in New York, notes that she was told by an agent that Hollywood is now looking for Indigenous material.
“I think it's because our people, we keep our secrets. We don't give everything away. We give little bits away and a story away,” said Grant. “I'll be interested to see how that develops as there are more shows and more characters being featured.”
In fact, Grant sees a Modern Natives concept creating a great television series.
“You've got a few different main characters, and they’ve got their different environments and their own stories and adventures, but that they would all link together. Because geographically, they're all pretty close. There's a lot of Vancouver Island, there's a lot of Vancouver, there's a lot of Seattle, Tacoma. And I think it could just be really interesting to see what that could look like,” she said. “I think a good story is a good story.”
Modern Natives, An Illustrative Collection of Reimagined Coast Salish Myths was released by EagleSpeaker Publishing in December. It can be purchased here.