-(Lianna): When people come in and they want a tattoo that represents somebody that has passed on, it feels like... the energy of that person is in the room.

I feel like tattooing is something that's reaching the younger generation.

And I feel like that part of me is taking old images and bringing it to the new generation.

(theme music) ♪♪♪ (soft music) -(narrator): Prince Rupert is a port city on British Columbia's North West Coast with a population of a little over 12 000 and a very rich cultural heritage.

The region is also home to many Indigenous tribes including the Niisga, Gitxsan, Haida and Tsishiam people.

Today we're meeting Lianna Spence, a 38-year-old Tsishiam carver, painter, jewelry-maker and tattoo artist.

-(Lianna): My prayer that I've... I've really connected with this place is asking, grandmothers walk with me, talk with me, hear me.

Grandfathers hold me, help me lead me, show me the way.

Ancestors, work through me.

Creator, please help me focus on the gifts that I was born with to do the things that I'm sent here to do.

Because when I fall off the path and I'm not doing Native art, my life is just so hard, you know, it's hard to get by.

But when I'm connected and I come back to places like this and I do Native art and create, I feel like my life is, you know, like, it's like a wheel and it's in constant motion.

But when I start getting distracted and yeah, I'll do this, I'll help you out.

Yeah, I'll do this.

I'll do this.

I'll do this.

You forget your own path.

-(narrator): Lianna was raised by her great-grandparents in the nearby community of Port Simpson, now known as Lax kw'alaams.

Indigenous art wasn't very present in the household.

-Growing up in Lax kw'alaams in my mom and dad's house.

There was no Native art.

We had pictures of Jesus and, or The Last Supper or... my mom crocheted, you know?

So, there's like doilies and blankets everywhere.

My dad had books everywhere.

There was no... There was pictures of people, but there was never pictures of Native art.

There was no totem poles or bentwood boxes, no drums, no cedar hats, no masks, no paddles, nothing.

-(narrator): Lianna discovered a talent for drawing in her teens, but there would be many steps and detours before she would make a career out of that talent.

She recently opened her first tattoo studio and called it Art from Ashes.

-(Lianna): When I was in high school, we had to get shipped out to Prince Rupert to graduate because they didn't have grade 11 and 12 in the community.

So, when I moved to Prince Rupert, I took this art class just to get the credits because it was such an easy course.

"Yeah, I'll take it."

But the lady, she didn't know how to teach Native art.

She was non-Native.

She gave us this book, called Looking at Northwest Coast Indigenous Art and she said, pick a picture, draw it, paint it, and I'll grade you on it.

Judging by how closely it looks.

I picked Freda Diesing's Wolf Dancer and Robert Davidson's Bear Mother.

And when I went home that Christmas, back to the reserve on Christmas break, I was painting the Wolf Dancer and my mom, she just, she was like, "Slow down you're going to ruin it!"

But I just, I would paint something overnight.

So my idea is... We could do black and red to match that side?

-(narrator): Today, Lianna's client is Graylon, She's tattooed him a few times over the last year, but today's tattoo will be the biggest one yet.

-So, every time I come up here to see Lianna, I have no idea what I'm getting.

So, I just tell her to draw on me and I just tell her stories along and it just appears on my leg.

-So from what I could see, I think the dorsal fin we'll put up here.

And then the tail... will go... maybe... When somebody comes in for a tattoo, I'd like to know what their mother's crest is because in our culture, it's a very matrilineal society.

So, I like to know, you know, what your mom's crest is.

Every crest has sub crests, like the more sub crests I can work with, the more animals I could work with, the more will go into the tattoo.

(buzzing) ♪♪♪ And I like to ask them all these questions about their history, about who they are, a lot of elements about who they are and what they do, where they come from, how many kids they have, siblings, whatever this all adds into it.

And sometimes their hobbies or the translation of their Indian name into English.

♪♪♪ You're all done.

-Thank you -How do you feel?

-Not as tired as the last time, surprisingly.

-So, you have... you have a ghost face here, then you have one of the old spirits.

That's a very traditional, bentwood box face.

This beaver I put with the human hand, and it's looking right at you.

Um, I used a human hand because beavers are, like, hard workers and I just, I liked to play with it that way.

I think it looks better.

And then over here, you have a salmon in the eye and it just ties it all together.

-I love it.

-(narrator): To celebrate this new tattoo, Lianna has invited Graylon to her home to have some traditional food with her and her daughter.

-I'm gonna make some fried seaweed and I think I'm gonna, if you want some steamed, smoked oolichans I can do that too.

And I have fresh frozen... Well, I have frozen oolichans, so I'm going to fry that up.

And then I got herring eggs on kelp.

So I'm going to cook that up.

(laugther) Herring roe on kelp, I like to just cut it up and give it a good rinse and soak.

Personally, I think that what you eat plays a huge role in what you create.

If I'm ordering takeout all the time or eating junk food, I just, my spirit feels a bit slow, and when I go back to our cultural food all the time, I feel so much more alert and aware and stronger and clearer, you know, just faster, better at everything.

This is smoked sea lion.

-I've never tried it before.

-Ever?

Oh, my God!

-(narrator): Lianna's daughter Kiera is a singer, drummer and dancer and she offers the group a traditional song before the meal.

-This is the Haida dinner song.

(drumming) (traditional singing) ♪♪♪ I will eat it.

-Oh no... Oh... Ow!

(laughing) -Hot?

-Hum-hum.

♪♪♪ -This morning, Lianna will be visiting Finlayson Island, a small island right across from Port Simpson, where she grew up.

-Good morning!

-Good morning!

(laughter) -Growing up in Lax kw'alaams, it's a reserve 50 km from the Alaskan border in the middle of nowhere, a very small community, but everybody is so close together that... Um, everybody's there for each other.

It takes a community to raise a child and everything that I am and everything that I have created, every memory that I've ever had from that reserve goes into every piece that I've carved or painted.

-(narrator): Finlayson island is a burial ground for the Tsishiam community.

Lianna goes there every now and then to pay respect to her parents.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ -This is my mom and dad's final resting place.

And, my mom and dad would hang in men nets.

From 7 AM to 7 PM, when they worked during fishing season.

They're my great grandparents, and they raised me, I'm the last child they raised.

They really loved me so much, and when I was in my mid-twenties, I found out that... they never had any financial help whatsoever.

And how do you thank somebody that spent hours working for some, you know, spoiled teenager like me, that wanted basketball runners.

I wanted to thank my mom for everything she's done for me and everything I put her through.

So I... How do you thank somebody?

My heart was so heavy.

I just, I couldn't sleep for a while thinking about it when I found out and then... (sniffing) I was kind of carving at the time, so I decided I wanted to carve a totem pole for her to honour her.

And this honours my mom.

This is my mom's crest is Raven.

So, the Raven is the bringer of light into the world.

The Raven is the beginning of time for our people.

To me, every time I see a Raven up, you know, I think of my mom.

There's so much more to Native art than just ovoids and U shapes.

There's so much stories to it.

People may look at this pole and, "Oh, that's a nice Raven", but when you really look at it, there's so much more meaning into everything.

-(narrator): Master Carver Beau Dick started this totem pole project with Lianna in Alert Bay.

She raised it here on Mother's Day in 2015.

This was the first memorial pole raised on the grave site in over 100 years.

Lianna is planning the one she will make for her father.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ When Lianna was learning to carve, with reknown Tsimshian master carver Henry Green he was also painting paddles with traditional designs.

She tried it and liked it immediately.

To this day, she often has a paddle on the go.

The intricate designs are a great way to focus on technique.

-I'm painting a halibut, and... there's all of these human spirit faces in it.

Like kind of like the rib cage of the halibut, how the meat goes.

Then there's a little bit of a ghost face in the cheek there.

Apparently, the meat in the cheek is like the best meat.

And then I have one eye looking down this way and then the other eye, when I paint it, it'll be looking up that way.

I feel like I get so lost in contemporary art.

Sometimes when I'm doing tattoos, I feel like I pull away from traditional form line too much.

And when I create something that... one of my ancestors painted, I have this feeling that's... I can't really describe it, but I feel a presence while I'm creating it.

-(narrator): Another artistic skill that Lianna has is jewelry carving.

It's a craft she picked up in 2007 under the mentorship of Master Carver Henry Green and, until she started tattooing in 2018, had been her main occupation.

-(Lianna): Carving jewelry was never really an interest.

It just kind of happened being in the right place at the right time.

-(narrator): When she started carving jewelry, Indigenous artist Roy Vickers saw her work and liked it so much, he asked her to make some pieces for his gallery.

-So I started carving a bunch of jewelry and... everything just happened so quickly.

He was ordering as fast as anything was carved.

I would just... They said: "Just carve it, put it in a box, send an invoice.

We'll send you a cheque."

And it was like... pendant after pendant and rings and earrings... When I find a new craft, I get so hungry and time just slips by.

And there's like large volumes of work.

(soft music) ♪♪♪ -(narrator): This morning, Lianna and her daughter will be dancing and showcasing some of the traditional dance masks she's carved over the years.

(drumming) -(Lianna): One day, I walked into the carving shed in Prince Rupert with my Raven painting and I was going there to show one of the carvers, and there was a young man standing there carving a plaque.

And, he looked at my painting and he said: "If you could paint that you can carve, have you carved before?"

And I said, no.

So I sat down and I carved a Raven plaque with him and I finished it and he was like, "You've never carved before?"

And I said: "No, I've never."

Henry Green walked by.

And he looked at the plaque and he said: "Oh, that's cool.

What are you gonna carve next?"

And I said: "I'm gonna carve a mask."

I was being all like sarcastic, right?

And he, he pulls out this stump and he takes a chainsaw.

And he carves half of it.

And then he gives me the chainsaw and he's like, "Okay, do what I do.

I'm gonna do this half.

You do this half."

So, this is my very first mask So, I would carve half and he would carve half.

(drumming) And then I would go there morning, noon, and night.

And then sometimes Henry would be sleeping up in his room, in his carving room.

He had a little couch in there and I was like knocking on the door and I was like, "Sir, what do I do next?"

And one time, he's like, "Don't you ever go home?"

(laughing) ♪♪♪ -Hello!

-Good to see you.

(laughing) -You guys ready to go to the homeland?

-Yes.

-Absolutely.

-Let's go!

-(narrator): Lianna's good friend Kenny is a helicopter pilot.

As a gift for the recent opening of her tattoo studio, he offered her and her boyfriend Ross a helicopter ride to Port Simpson and back.

♪♪♪ -Are you excited?

-Yeah!

-Then you have the church there, big red roof and then the swimming pool in the ground building up above it.

Can we go over the front of the village on this side next?

-So you could see it?

-Yeah!

-I can do that.

(indistinctive) -Oh yeah, that's so cool!

♪♪♪ -(narrator): Lianna's client, Halle, has decided on getting a sleeve for her right arm.

-Your mom's a Wolf, right?

-Yeah!

-If you do a large bracelet design of a Wolf and it's one big Wolf, from far away, you'll be able to see it.

And it just, it's a pretty powerful piece.

-Okay.

-Like one solid.

-I got interested in getting tattoos 'cause both my parents have them.

And then, I just liked the way they looked and especially the First Nations ones.

I first met Lianna through my dad and art... And then I started getting tattoos from her because my mom did.

And then I looked, I was watching my mom's and I really liked them.

Yeah.

-I know she's a basketball player.

I wanted to put a very traditional Wolf, but I wanted more contemporary.

I kind of moved it so that when she's shooting, you'll be able to see the teeth here.

'Cause like, if I'm a girl and I'm going up to her and I'm going to like check her and she's about to shoot, I'm going to get distracted and be like, you know, "Woah, that's a cool tattoo!"

-We could start with the teeth first if you want.

But I think we should get this out of the way then I'll move here.

(buzzing) ♪♪♪ -(Lianna): When I started tattooing, the first three days of my shop being open... I mean the third day I tattooed four people.

I always, I just missed my craft.

It's just natural.

It's what I'm good at.

Why do I even try everything else?

I'm always kind of getting distracted and trying other things, but I always come back to who I am.

(buzzing) Like, before I did Native art, I was lost.

I was just this young crazy kid, like, just in life, like, just kind of aimless.

-I really love it.

I like how she did the salmon and the mouse woman in there.

There's the tail up here.

And then there's the mouse woman.

She put the salmon in here and then we got the hands.

-Well, I'm glad you like your tattoo.

-Yeah, I really love it.

Thank you.

See you tomorrow.

-See you tomorrow.

If people like me, don't practice Native art, you know, I'm not going to say we're going to lose it, but there's something that I might figure out that somebody else can't figure out, and I think we have to keep the culture alive because you've got to know where you're coming from to know where you're going.

-If you enjoyed Skindigenous and would like to see more clips about these artists or more about the locations featured in the show, head over to skindigenous.tv.

You can get everything you're looking for and more: biographies, videos and even Skindigenous swag.

Come check it out!

skindigenous.tv.

Closed Captioning: Épilogue Technical Services Inc.