I am beyond disgusted at knowing someone who I thought was simply a "creepy awkward dude" ended up being a predator targeting the underage students at his workplace as a teacher. He's an Indigenous man working at an Indigenous school which makes it even more worse.
If we don't listen to our youth and call out this shit before it continues, its going to get worse and worse. I hope those girls are safe and sound, and I'm thankful they were brave to speak out about what happened. Kudos to the school for firing him and making a statement quick.
I keep seeing Indigenous-led organizations not do the work of researching and calling out these predators simply because the person in question is a "creator" and "talented". Its disgusting. If we keep supporting these predators we're just going to keep endangering our ppl.
On a side note if I ever see this guy I'm going to punch him.
His name is Kyle R. Joe (he deleted all of his social media, used to be "deadzilla", "spankzilla".) More info at the link, TW for sexual harassment of minors: twitlonger.com/show/n_1sritrc
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I wasn't public with this bc I was afraid of the backlash, but I was chosen to be in last year's Indigenous Fellows Animation Labs (the 2nd one) and I was originally so happy about it. I ended up rescinding my participation for the program days before however. 1/
A week and a half before the program got started, I got this article on my newsfeed: daily-times.com/story/news/loc…. "Navajo filmmaker Kody Dayish adds another reward". My heart dropped when I saw who gave him the award. LA Skins Fest, the one behind the Animation Labs program. 2/
Kody Dayish was arrested for battery (domestic violence) back in 2013 in Shiprock, NM. Years later, in Durango, CO at 2018, he would be at the Durango Films Festival where I would be a volunteer. I had attended his film screening the night before my shift. 3/
Hey--If you're non-Indigenous and follow this artist, don't. Reconsider. So many Indigenous artists struggle with their art and trying to support themselves, then we have to see artists like this (who are non-Indigenous) using our culture as a "cool aesthetic" become well-known.
I just think about my thread about how Indigenous people are represented/drawn within Japanese media and the answer is that, with a combination of lack of knowledge and respect, easy access to our visual culture, and disregard to our struggles, artists like this can easily garner
a large following by other non-Indigenous people who find it OKAY for art like this to be made. Its really not. This art evokes old stereotypes about us within western media. Making your Indigenous characters' skin distinctly red is reminiscent of racist depictions.