Jac Trautman: The Specter of the Young and Indigenous

Jac Trautman is a photographer and artist from Seattle and a member of the Duwamish tribe. With this series of seven photographs, Trautman takes a single exposure with multiple projected images contained within and draws attention to the concepts of splitting and projection and their role in the history of interactions with the colonizer and the colonized. The photographs are installed as window vinyls in the Lightcatcher Courtyard.

The subjects of his photographs are tribal youth of the Lummi Nation who collaborate with Children of the Setting Sun Productions to create the Young and Indigenous podcast. The podcast is a forum for the Lummi community to express their opinions, voice ideas and concerns, and share untold stories important to Native people.

The podcast is also for people outside of Indigenous communities who would like to learn more about the issues important to Native people. Trautman folds the ideals of the podcast into visual form in his layered images. While critiquing the systems and conventions of settler-colonialism, he also presents intimate portrait studies of empowered Indigenous youth who, through contemporary technologies, share stories, languages, and landscapes that resist colonial definitions.

The Whatcom Museum is offering free admission to the Lightcatcher building* to Indigenous Peoples upon request at the attendant desk inside the Lightcatcher building, 250 Flora St. *excluding the Family Interactive Gallery (FIG).

Main image: Photo by Jac Trautman. Eliza Julius at the Wex’liem (Frog House), Lummi Nation, Bellingham, Washington. Courtesy of the artist.