S2E12: Bobby Brower Itta (Inupiaq)

2023 Artist in Business Leadership fellow Bobby Brower Itta (Inupiaq) is a fashion designer whose Inupaq roots and artistic prowess have woven a tapestry of resilience and creativity. Bobbi Lynn shares her heartwarming narrative, which paints a vivid picture of the power of traditional and contemporary skin sewing, the sweeping cold of Arctic winters, and the vibrant tapestry of her culture. Her story celebrates heritage, the transformative nature of fashion, and the ripple effect of empowering indigenous youth to reach for their dreams.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

I do fashion because I want our youth. I want them to believe in themselves. I want them to know that our people are beautiful, our work is amazing. I want them to know that they can go to New York, they can be a model, they can do fashion, they can dress anyone they want, they can design clothes Like it's more than just being a kid in the village, the world. There's opportunities for us, as native people, to do anything we want.

Speaker 2: 0:46

First People's Fund presents the Collective Spirit Podcast. The Collective Spirit moves each of us to stand up and make a difference, to pass on ancestral knowledge and simply extend a hand of generosity. The Collective Spirit Podcast features native artists and culture bearers who discuss the power of indigenous art and culture.

Speaker 1: 1:12

I'm Bobbi Lynn Palutakarok. I'm a farmer and I'm a farmer. I'm a Gordon Brower senior. I'm Mary Jane Lang. Hi, I'm Bobbi Lynn Palutakarok Brower. I'm from Utkegawe, alaska, formally known as Barrow. It's top of the world. They consider it top of the world. Before this, you could go in the United States. I'm Inupak and my tribe is in the village of Barrow, and my parents are Gordon Brower and Mary Jane Lang. I have four children. My kids names are Nancy, summer, Noah and Hannah.

Speaker 1: 1:53

My artistic medium is traditional and contemporary skin sewing. I also work with textiles and I make jewelry. I make all kinds of clothing and accessories. I design clothing. I'm an indigenous fashion designer. I think that's everything.

Speaker 1: 2:22

I started skin sewing when I was maybe 12 years old, in seventh grade. I remember making a little toy owl and mittens. Living in the Arctic, it's freezing cold. In the winter it averages like negative 30 with a negative 20 wind chill, so it averages around negative 50. So you got to dress warm to be outside. When I got older, I had my first child. I didn't have enough money to buy my daughter a parka and so I decided to learn how to skin sew and we actually have a top of the world baby contest, making fur regalia for our children and my aunt Florence Brower. She was like you should enter your baby into the baby contest, I'll help you and I'll teach you how to sew regalia. And I was like, ok, sure, let's do it. And so I started sewing skins before I started using a sewing machine. So I did that for quite a few years and I kept entering this baby contest and then a couple of years later I entered my son. He got third place and then I brought him to the World Eskimo, indian Olympics and Fairbanks and he won first place for his regalia. People just really liked my sewing.

Speaker 1: 3:52

I started my small business in 2010. And then I did my first fashion show and I think it was 2016 here in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and it was like unconventional materials and I ended up making our traditional shirt that we make, but I made it into a dress and I made it out of a blue tarp and my model thought she was gonna be cold and she was just sweating. That's when I just fell in love with doing fashion shows. Then, when something would come up, I would apply for a show and make a small collection. I've done so many shows and I've taught a lot of classes and, yeah, I just I really enjoy what I do and I was blown away when I got accepted for a artist in business leadership grant and I was just so thankful and it was just awesome overall. Working with First Peoples Fund and it still is I mean, definitely feels like a family and I feel accepted for the work that I'm doing yeah, it's really great and I'm really thankful for First Peoples Fund.

Speaker 1: 5:20

I had a few different goals. I eventually just was using the funds to purchase another fur sewing machine, just so it's a little bit easier on me when I'm skin sewing. So usually I skin sew by hand and with the fur machine I have one but a part of it broke so I haven't been using it for the past like couple of years and so I was planning to purchase a new machine and then, with the rest of the funds, I was purchasing some of my printed product to sell on hand and extra furs to sell as well or to make more parkas, just using those funds to make more inventory to sell and have on hand. I'm really inspired by our plants, the ocean, our animals. Yeah, I just really love the land and the water, everything.

Speaker 1: 6:22

I've been surrounded by my whole life living a subsistence lifestyle. My dad is a whaling captain, his dad was a whaling captain and his dad was a whaling captain and so on, and that's how we survive, because up north we have no trees, you can't plant anything in the ground, so we pretty much the ocean is our garden and we still traditionally hunt bowhead whales, walruses, seals, ducks, geese. We still go fishing. That's how we survived and we're still doing it now because the cost of living is so expensive up north and we traditionally hunt so that we could offset the grocery prices. But yeah, I've definitely been inspired all my life just watching my mom's can sell. My grandmother she could make a parka in one day and she had 17 children. So just growing up in this lifestyle we call it the village. The only way in and out is by plane. My mother is a skin sewer. She taught me some things, and then my grandmother was my great-grandmother and then my great-grandfather was from New York and he actually was a Yankee whaler and went up north and was our first fur trader in Barrow or Calvic now, and then my grandpa was a fur trader as well.

Speaker 1: 8:10

Learning those skills and passing them down. To me, that's really important. I feel like being a cultural bear is sharing your knowledge and passing it down generation to generation, just like my aunt and my mom taught me then. Now I teach classes and also my children know how to work with hives, they know how to skin, so I'm definitely passing it down. I do fashion because I want our youth, I want them to believe in themselves. I want them to know that our people are beautiful, our work is amazing. I want them to know that they can go to New York, they can be a model. They can do fashion, they can dress anyone they want. They can design clothes Like it's more than just being a kid in the village, like the world. There's opportunities for us as native people to do anything we want.

Speaker 2: 9:13

The Collective Spirit podcast is produced by First Peoples Fund, whose mission is to honor and support indigenous artists and culture bearers through grant making initiatives, culturally rooted programming, and training and mentorship. Learn more at firstpeoplesfundorg.