The Uktena

A Letter From The Author

Hello,

I was motivated to write this because I wanted to include my heritage in my writing, and to show that while there are other mythologies that are used in today's media that has become more mainstream and impressive to the general public, there is still one source of mythology that should be looked at: mythology from the culture of the author writing a story. For me, that is Cherokee myths and legends. For someone with roots in Peru, they may choose to write using Incan mythology, and looking into their own cultural background in order to see what aspects of the traditional legends of their people they can bring into the modern day, and to bring attention to things that the average person wouldn't know about their people.

I specifically wanted to focus on the Cherokee people in my writing, as there are way too many instances in popular media where Native American and First Nations tribes have been used as plot devices by authors who have no ties to the tribe(s) in question, and no real motivation to make things accurate enough for it to be good representation for those tribes. To me, it was important to make sure that I used my own culture as a base to build off of for my writing. Growing up, there was no representation in the books I read and movies and shows I watched that portrayed the Cherokee people in a way that I would recognize, or in a capacity that would actually allow the Cherokee character(s) to show important parts of their heritage. Until a couple years ago, I was of the opinion that, "representation is representation, and people feeling represented in the media that they're interested in is important." Now, my opinion has changed to "no representation is better than bad representation, or representation that is only there to check diversity boxes."

Yes, representation is important, however, feeling represented in a way that makes the representation feel legitimate, rather than just saying, "Well, X character is part of Y demographic, so that should make for good representation." I wanted to feel like my characters grew up in the area the story takes place, they have an attachment to their Native side (even if they have some sort of disconnect from a parent not being involved in anything traditional), and the fact that my characters are dealing with an enemy from the mythology of the culture they come from.

It was important to me that I felt like I could see people I would be able to recognize in my characters. Yes, I do have a certain image of what each character looks like in my head. No, they don't necessarily look 100% (or even half) Cherokee. I don't look like I'm Cherokee, but I am still a part of the tribe. I made sure that for all of my characters, there was someone I knew that I could associate with the appearance of the character. Are they the spitting image of the person I associate them with? Definitely not, because I didn't make each character be based off of just one person. Each of my characters has characteristics of at least three people I know who are members of the Cherokee Nation. It could be the way they hold themselves, facial features that make the person unique, or even just the energy that I imagine my characters to give off. To me, that is what representation in the media is. Being able to look at a character and think "Huh, they kind of remind me of that kid in my English class/on the cheer squad/in biology with my friend." Not, "Oh hey, this character is supposed to be from my tribe but it's only mentioned once, and only because they don't like being referred to a certain way."

I hope that you, whoever is reading this, takes the time to think about how your culture is represented in the media, and if you aren't happy about it, do something to change it. Write a short story, make a webcomic, talk about how you feel represented in the media, and try and get attention on the fact that there isn't enough representation. If you are particularly ambitious, write a book, make your main character (or, hell, every single important character) be from your culture, and make sure you can identify with your main character. Your art is an extension of yourself, make sure that you get to be seen (and feel like you're truly being seen) through your art. Just remember, just because there isn't any representation for you right now, you don't just have to let that stay true for good.

Make your own representation if you aren't satisfied with what there is for you.

Wado, thank you, for choosing to read this.

♡ Vesta Rizzo-Padgett ♡