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1. Hello, tell us about yourself.
My name is Sara Rene. I’’m an artist, a lmmaker, a punk, and a few other things. Originally from Se- attle and Tacoma, but I’’ve been in Chicago for the past four years-- oating around the art and diy punk scene and dropping in and out of school here. I’’m Nuu-chah-nulth (Tla-o-qui-aht) First Nations and Creole. So, to sum up that experience I can say that growing up, I would go from making boudin and gumbo with my dad on the weekdays and running off to pow- wows and xing frybread with my mom on the weekends. I would easily go from clamming and (accidentally) catching octopus in the Puget Sound to crabbing for Blue-Claw crabs in rivers of Louisiana. I strongly identify with both sides of my heritage.
I moved to Chicago from Tacoma in 2010 largely for change. I really had no idea what I was getting my- self into but an old roommate of mine had a spot available in her apartment and I jumped at the op- portunity to move somewhere other than Seattle or Portland. The city is really transformative if only in how extreme it is. The racial and class segrega- tion, the history and reality of police brutality, the rich cultural histories, the many many activ- ists and organizations ghting for human rights in the streets, the access to art and the thriving DIY scenes in all its forms... and don’’t forget the fucking heat of summer and the fucking tundra of winter! After four years I would say that if you’’re living in Chicago and it hasn’’t changed you in some way, you’’re not actually here. It was a really big cultural shock from my sleepy, misty life in Tacoma.
2. What was your motivation to start Native Punx Unite? What is Native Punx Unite?
Native Punx Unite is a blog and a zine that came out of a facebook group I made of the same name that was meant to connect Native punks from all over. When I started it, I was frustrated with being the only Native I knew at shows, the only Native in class, the only Native many of my friends knew. I really needed some backup. While I have my best friend Tallou back in Tacoma, an Alaskan Native punk who would swap stories with me of going to all-ages shows when we were 15, of going thru our awkward thrift-store phase, and of getting all our silly tattoos-- she is in Tacoma over 2000 miles away! And I felt, even though I had found some really strong poc communi- ties here in Chicago, in some ways I was still pretty much on my own. I wanted to connect with Natives that were like me, had some rad politics, had some frybread jokes, and listened to good music. Native Punx Unite was started to reach out and meet some of my own community.