-(Isaac): Being part of the Sixties Scoop wouldn't set you up for success per se.

Even though reconnecting was great, but it was also painful.

The tattoos that I have on my face also signify a story that I felt that I needed to... to remind myself of.

I came to the conclusion that the land is really where I can ground myself, where I find peace.

(theme music) -(narrator): The Greater Sudbury area is situated on the traditional territory of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek.

It's the largest city in Northern Ontario and was once known for mining in nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals, gold and silver.

Isaac Weber, Anishinabeg from Henvey Inlet First Nation has made a temporary home here, about an hour from his home community, which he has only just started to reconnect with.

-My name is "Turning Wind".

My government name is Isaac... Isaac Weber.

I was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

I'm an Ojibwe Cape Verdean Creole.

My mom was Anishinabeg Kwé from Henvey Inlet first nations.

She was apprehended at a young age, adopted out to a Dutch family.

Growing up without, like, your roots, you kind of... you grow all over the place, right?

There was a lot of work to be done for me as an individual.

Art was always something that could lead me back into my path.

My main focus was always like, I want to just want to make art.

Sudbury must have been booming at one point.

I wasn't there to see that.

First when I came here and walk around and see a lot of despair, a lot of loss of directions, drug abuse.

Things have changed over the years.

And in the meantime, that tower sits there, just rotting away.

It's like, you see that... that's Sudbury, you know, that's, like, gone glory.

It's like, a dystopian, like, emblem, you know, of like: "This is Sudbury and we're mining!"

Take a closer look at capitalism and its effects and it's like, all the problems that we have in town right now have to do with that.

I just came up with the... you know, the idea of saying: "Wow, I could actually change up those... the letters on the ugly water tower!

", you know.

Just like the random joke.

That's how it started.

And then my friends: "Well, Skoden, just do it!"

I'd written "skoden" on the tower, you know, just like, as in indigenizing the space, right?

It's like, as they have colonized the space.

What it did is just, like, put minds together, because a lot of people is like, yeah, this makes sense.

We need more defiance.

(car engine whirring) (car door shutting) -(narrator): Isaac works hard to find balance and peace with his past.

It's not easy to find your place when you've been disconnected for so long.

-What's up, amigo?

-Hey!

-You good?

-Yeah... -Throughout my life growing up, I had a foster parent who was really strict with me and hard-handed.

And I think there's some of that stuck into my personality, where I'm like really clean-cut, like, this is how it is.

And I'm very much my own individual, and now I see that my responsibility as a grownup, as a parent, is to be kind and be approachable to the people that I love and the people that love me and my community, right?

-Stay low, stay low.

-(narrator): Through the practice of Muay Thai and MMA, Isaac found a sense of self, a discipline to help him connect and focus.

And it means for him to get away from life stresses.

No matter where he ended up, he could always find grounding within the MMA community.

-When I'm grounded and I'm focused in that martial art spirit, I'd find myself the most effective.

There, you're measured by your willingness to work on yourself.

♪♪♪ -In martial arts, when you work with somebody for an extensive period of time, people like to describe it as brotherhood.

The best way I like to describe is family.

And you do, you become family quickly.

(indistinct chatter) ♪♪♪ -My relationship to my professor, Richard, is one that is quite new.

-I'm gonna cut out the stencil and now we're going to... -Size it?

-Place it.

-Let's go!

-In the new art form I found a challenge, just as my... of my tattooing.

-So, I found this image probably over a decade ago.

I liked the struggle on the man's face while he is dying for his sins and I've always wanted it tattooed... -We'll work that into the background, also because it's a little bit high here.

♪♪♪ (needle buzzing) -(narrator): Isaac has much love and respect for all art forms and has always had an adoration for tattoo culture.

Becoming involved was a challenge that he welcomed.

He's fairly new in his practice in comparison to where he wants to be, but his work speaks for itself.

This skill came naturally.

-I think my first tattoo that I ever done was like around 17.

There's some... some horror stories there too.

It's that you're young and you're just like trying, so they're not representation of my abilities or where I'm going with it up to date.

-(narrator): Today, he finds himself comfortable and sees no limitations for his new skill.

-We want to maintain this visual culture that... that lives in the skin, basically like many people around the world.

-(Richard): Perfect!

-Good.

Boom!

-Beautiful!

♪♪♪ -I used to be a little more into, like, abstract art, but there's, like, abstract art that... seemingly doesn't tell anything, but it will still radiate an emotion or a certain warmth or coolness to it.

Even in that, in those small gestures, you know, it's like, you tell a large story.

Maybe some opposing thoughts or a different way of being.

A comment on politicians or something scratched in a wall where it creates a polarization, basically, by the dominant thought or norm, and something that could oppose it or illustrates a duality, right?

I can tell more of a story when I start, attacking specific issues, you know?

Why would I write my own name when I can support a movement almost subliminally?

-(narrator): Isaac had to overcome a lot of insecurities about his Indigenous roots.

One of the ways he overcomes them is by making Henvey Inlet an important part of his life and the life of his family.

-In our territory, there's... really not a lot of other tattoo artists.

There's, of course, people that have done it.

It's interesting because now that I started meeting more and more Anishnabeg people, I see lots of tattoos that people like: "Yeah, we just did this ourselves!

", you know.

Those are like the classical stick and poke, and... Yeah, they might not keep well, but I mean, the drive to... to mark your body, you know, telling stories is there.

With the loss of traditions and techniques and stories, like, a whole variety of things that we're losing out because of like, colonization and, you know, everything around us trying to conform us into, like, the Western perspectives.

We also have a responsibility to pick up the pieces that we have and create our new way of being in contemporary time.

-(narrator): Isaac visits home as much as possible.

It gets him away from the fast-paced and hectic scene of Sudbury streets.

He has plans to one day build a house and move his family back home.

-The land is like, literally, the only place where I want to be.

Why?

Because, you know, looking at myself and how I interact with people, what I expect, what I project, also because of, like, colonial distress.

Yeah, I would rather be there with my own family.

That will create much more peace for me.

-(narrator): He has been making connections and learning more about ceremonial practices.

Something he knows is a necessary step in his healing journey.

-This is our land, I'm on it and it's my responsibility, so this is my way of expressing that.

It's like: "Hey, this is a commitment, you know, for life".

-(narrator): Community is something Isaac has always longed to be part of.

Engaging in his spirituality and reconnecting to his mother's territory has been a gift he cherishes.

He regularly takes time to do what he can to help out back home.

That can mean something as small as gathering grandfather stones to be used in a sweat lodge for the elders in exchange for their knowledge.

-As a community member, I've helped out wherever I can.

That's what you do when you have a crew or a clique, you stick together and you kind of... where you can, you help, you help each other out.

An hour of my time and some elbow grease, that... that's a good trade right there, you know, it's like, my hands are yours, and the other way around.

-(narrator): Being able to help is his way of giving back and being grateful for their teachings.

♪♪♪ Sherrie Dunstand and Russell Noganosh, also a famous artist, are the little bit of family Isaac has been able to reconnect with.

Russell, Isaac's uncle, who he has only recently reconnected with, is also from Henvey Inlet First Nation and is related to him through his mother's family.

-There's times when I was growing up that I would need somebody, and I never really had anybody 'cause it was just my grandparents and myself.

And so I used to take off to the field and our neighbour there had horses.

So, when I was feeling lonesome, when I needed someone to console me, those horses, they always used to come to me when I'd be sitting in a field and crying, or sometimes I'd be just sitting there looking at the clouds, and they used to come over to me and they'd be sniffing me and they come and eat the grass around me and just stuck around me.

And that's how my love for horses came upon me was because of that safety I felt with them.

Russell and I are... we're so connected.

He was like those horses.

He knew when I needed someone to cry to.

He knew when I needed, just someone to be with.

And he always seemed to show up when those moods were inside me and I didn't even have to phone him, it's like, he felt what I was feeling, it's like we were so connected in that way.

And Russell gave me that opportunity to spread my wings and do what I'm doing.

'Cause I quit beading, I quit doing my artwork a long time ago and I got back into it when I came over here.

-(narrator): Isaac is on the way over this morning.

Sherrie has asked him for the gift of a tattoo, her very first marking.

Russell Noganosh is well known for his contribution to the Indigenous arts community.

Isaac takes the opportunity to gain knowledge and engage in talks with his uncle about their shared passions.

-When I left Toronto in 79, I didn't know where I was going to go, but I was going to tobacco fields to make my money and go West.

-Hum-hum.

Yeah.

-And art will take you anywhere.

-Oh, for sure.

-Either you're a carver, you're a painter, it'll take you... Like, this is what the... It's the gift that we've been given a long time ago.

It's our Grandfathers' wishes just to leave... leave what's here.

Leave that with people to make them understand that, you know, we're a people of the earth.

-Me and Russell, we made that connection when I was 14, and we're still connected today, 30 some years later, right?

I'm looking to get a horse tattoo of two horses facing one another in a heart shape.

I'd like to have that on my arm.

I met Isaac through his uncle.

I'd say about five years ago.

From there on, you know, we've always kept in touch with him, and he shows his uncle his artwork, and I love his style.

It's different.

It's different than what everybody else does in the area or anywhere.

-My idea was to just, like, to have, like, two horse heads, and they are facing each other.

-I want that horse so I can show that that's me and Russell, that we've been connected, and those horses, that healing.

And that's what me and Russell had been doing all these years.

I wanted the male to have just a plain eagle feather, and then the female with the plume, because usually females wear the plumes when they wear it on their head for dancing.

-Yeah.

Something like that.

-Yeah.

-Nice, centred.

There's detail, but that is not meticulous detail.

-To have this opportunity to have Isaac do my tattoo is awesome.

The art that he does, I just love it, it's one of a kind, just like his uncle's work.

It's one of a kind.

-Meegwetch for the opportunity and, I'll get on the... on the design.

-OK.

-Awesome.

-Sounds good.

-Street art is important to our society.

You know, we've been painting on rock surfaces and whatnot, scratching our name for thousands of years.

So, this is just like another form of that.

Ah!

That's mine.

Street art, muralism... is there for everybody to see, you know, it's accessible, it can be educational, inspirational, it can be political.

But in my eyes, any Canadian Indigenous individual still alive and kicking is a political statement.

You know, how can your art not be political if you're not supposed to be here?

♪♪♪ Being part of the Sixties Scoop wouldn't set you up for success per se, depending on where you landed.

-(narrator): Isaac's childhood isn't an easy one for him to come to terms with.

He was separated from his siblings at a young age and raised in the system.

His grandmother is a residential school survivor, and his mother was taken in the Sixties Scoop.

This made it hard for his mom to provide a stable home.

-As my mom was adopted out, I believe that she was never really able to create a really healthy, caring situation.

And I'm not saying that she is incapable of love and she's a great individual, but she's damaged and... and that's not her fault.

-(narrator): He finds calm while creating and reflecting on his past.

(baby cooing and laughing) Isaac works late to bring Sherrie's concept to light.

The perfectionist in him wants to make sure that every detail is thought out and holds meaning.

-Art is also a life skill where I've been able to... steer myself into more of a positive direction, you know?

And it's just like... It's probably a lifelong journey too.

(baby babbling) ♪♪♪ -(narrator): Today is the day!

Isaac is up and prepping Sherrie's stencil in various sizes, so she can find the perfect fit for her new ink.

♪♪♪ (knocking on door) -Aanii!

-Aanii.

(laughing) -I've always been interested in visual culture around the world because it informs about societal structures and aesthetics.

I was thinking about this size, just because of the size of the details.

The form of expressing yourself, you know, that later came to me because that's where my natural interest is.

Storytelling through, like, the outcome of like colonialism.

I still haven't been able to find a course in that that made sense to me.

♪♪♪ We are always surrounded by our ancestors.

We carry them with us and my helpers are around.

That gives us connection and interaction with between... no matter where you come from.

There have always been innovators.

There has always been rock carvers and storytellers, and then it turns into what now is to be perceived as tradition.

I had one person say: "Well, that's not really traditional.

I've never seen that."

But here's the thing: this is my story.

And it's like, if you tell my story, eventually it will become a tradition.

(needle buzzing) Are you ready?

-I hope so.

-OK.

We'll have to find out.

(laughing) ♪♪♪ Give it five years ago, I would not imagine that I would be focusing on tattooing.

I have so many different aspects that fuel my life.

So many experiences.

What I have been told also is like, that's, Anishinabeg woodland art man, like, you can see it in your linework.

You know, you can say this or that, but it's like, that essence is there because it's in your blood.

♪♪♪ Eventually, you know, looking seven generations ahead is like, we have to keep this thing going also, and if it's not there directly, then we need to find a way how to do this for ourselves.

To find our own stories and to mark the bodies in whatever way they seem fit.

I would be more than willing and happy to help them with that.

-(narrator): As Isaac does the final touches, Russell comforts Sherrie while also admiring her bravery and inspiration for her tattoo.

This is a special moment for both of them.

-The title of your tattoo is called "The Spiritual Connection".

-Yeah.

-It is us.

And it means a lot more.

-Oh, it looks beautiful!

I love it!

Look honey, what's that?

She got a tattoo.

Daddy did that.

-Well, it went good at first.

And then towards the end, it was, like, painful.

It's tender from all the needle poking, but I'm very happy with the outcome.

Looks very beautiful.

-You have a famous man that has put this artwork on my partner's arm.

And he'll always, you know, be number one.

-I love having someone that's related to us to have his artwork on my arm that I can carry around.

-I always wanted to be able to tell my stories and have my work out there.

And you know, there's a few artists in Canada that really set a specific aesthetic to what is Native art.

If you're Anishnabeg, it doesn't matter what you do, it's gonna be Indigenous art.

You don't have to conform to a certain artist and like, make my work look like him because I'm Anishnabeg.

It's like, just be free.

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

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Closed Captioning: Épilogue Technical Services Inc.