The Modernized Indigenous Mini November 2022

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

The Modernized Indigenous

The Modernized Indigenous Foreword and Photography by Jami Balicki, Staff Photographer Modeled by Mx T Clearwater, Menominee, Iley Guenther, Ojibwe, Marisol, Huetar and Sam Giguere, Haida and Hawaiian Layout design by Elise Wilson, Editorial Director

My name is Jami Balicki, and I am a descendent of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin! I work as a staff photographer here at Moda Magazine. November is Native American Heritage month, so I wanted to shoot a small series to celebrate Indigenous folks. It felt important to continue to raise visibility and inclusivity to Native cultures through the usage of visual arts.

Photography has been a way for me to recover and reclaim my Indigeneity as it feels it has been lost throughout generational and ancestral erasure. Each one of us has a unique relationship to our Indigeneity. My goal in this shoot is to widen the portrayal of the Indigenous community. I wanted my models to dress in a way that they felt expressed their Indigeneity. We decided to shoot on Ho-Chunk land. This land has been severely colonized for centuries. I felt it was important to acknowledge the Ho-Chunk nation and the additional eleven Indigenous nations that have historically and continually occupied this space that is Wisconsin. Native American Heritage month does not just last 30 days, it is a daily pursuit of discovering ourselves, our lineage, and our cultural identity. Every day is dedicated to stopping the erasure of the different Native Cultures.