September/October 2010
Around the Quads
Dustin Martin ’11 Showcases Indigenous Culture Through Fashion
By Nathalie Alonso ’08
Upon returning home to Albuquerque, N.M., after his first year at the College, Dustin Martin ’11 began printing Native American imagery on used clothing. Though it hardly seems like an ambitious undertaking at first, his creations take on a deeper meaning when Martin explains the message he intends to convey to those who purchase the clothes.
Dustin Martin ’11, shown here wearing a T-shirt he designed, sells clothing that he adorns with silkscreen prints of Native American imagery. He plans to donate a portion of his profits to indigenous communities. PHOTO: Brandon BrittonMartin, who is half Navajo, hopes his designs will kindle an interest in Native American cultures that will, in turn, combat stereotypes he has encountered, including in New York City, where he has been asked if he lived in a teepee while growing up in the reservation town of Gallup, N.M.
“At first it angered me, but then I realized many people don’t get exposed to the contemporary Native,” explains Martin. “We’re modern citizens.”
Martin sees fashion, an unconventional medium for Native art, as a means to overturning preconceived notions about indigenous culture.
“It’s not just painted on a pot or woven in Navajo rug. It’s something someone would be proud to wear,” he says. “I hope [my customers] take interest in what they are wearing and take the initiative to learn more about Native art and indigenous people in general.”
During the school year, Martin scours thrift shops across the city for clothing — mostly T-shirts — and accessories that he adorns and resells, with T-shirts going for $15 apiece. He has sold approximately 65 shirts to date through word-of-mouth advertising. Most of his customers are acquaintances in New Mexico and fellow Columbia students such as Bayode Adafin ’11.
“I liked the designs, but it’s really about how excited Dustin was about his brand,” says Adafin, who has purchased a couple of T-shirts from Martin. “People have asked, ‘What kind of shirt is that?’ ”
Martin’s clothes feature Southwestern geometric patterns and Native motifs such as arrowheads. His method has evolved since he made his first prints using cardboard stencils and spray paint. After a friend introduced him to silkscreen printing during his sophomore year, Martin began printing shirts in his dorm room. He subsequently took two courses offered by the Department of Visual Arts — “Introduction to Printmaking” with Martin Basher ’03 GS, ’08 Arts and “Printmaking I: Silkscreen” with Seth Scantlen ’08 Arts — in order to have access to a studio.
Martin has lofty goals for his line of clothing, which he calls S.O.L.O. (Sovereign Original Land Owners). He plans to reinvest the money he has made so far to grow the business and is working with a lawyer to create a formal business entity that would eventually allocate a portion of its profits toward improving quality of life for Native American communities.
A member of Columbia’s cross country team, Martin was first inspired to launch a clothing line while running, which the Navajo tradition views as a means to achieving hozho (pronounced hoh-yoh), a term that, in the absence of direct translation, is often interpreted as a state of beauty and harmony toward which Navajos should strive.
“[Running] is a time to reflect on everything that’s going on around me, which is huge in a place as hectic as New York City,” says Martin, who runs daily. “It keeps me motivated and humble, because there’s only so far I can push it before my body breaks down.”
Martin began running competitively as a sophomore in high school when he became involved with Wings of America, a New Mexico-based nonprofit that promotes the sport as a way to empower young Native Americans. Among other initiatives, the organization sponsors Native runners ages 14–19 for the USA Winter National Junior Cross Country Championships, which are held annually in a different city.
Martin remains involved with the organization and spent the summer between his sophomore and junior years in the College as a facilitator for the Wings Running and Fitness Camps. In that role, he and his colleagues traveled throughout reservation towns in the Southwest conducting two-day camps for Native children. During those two days, Martin helped organize runs and outdoor games for the participants while discussing and encouraging healthy lifestyle choices such as staying drug- and alcohol-free.
“I stay close to my community and my Navajo roots with the help of running,” says Martin, who spent last summer creating an inter-organizational report that chronicled the evolution of Wings of America and its current trajectory.
It was his involvement with Wings of America that led Martin to the College. Sponsored by the organization, Martin visited New York City in 2006 to participate in the National Junior Cross Country Championships, which were held in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. It was after that competition that former Columbia associate head coach Chris Miltenberg first recruited him.
Martin enrolled in the College planning to major in political science but chose anthropology after taking a course with Professor Severin Fowles at Barnard that covered the pre-Columbian history of Native North American cultures. For his senior thesis, Martin is researching the relationship between running and hozho in Navajo culture.
“This term has always been explored in the anthropological community as something discreetly associated with Navajo religion. But it’s not something that should be pushed to the religious realm. Hozho should be used to guide your life in every respect,” explains Martin. “I’m looking at how running helps contemporary Navajos actualize their quest for hozho in everyday life.”
Martin nonetheless believes that art and fashion are more useful than academics when it comes to his goal of discrediting misconceptions about Native Americans.
“I could write anthropological articles my whole life, but I would still be heard and read by a small community of academics,” he says. “The same ideas can be articulated in a way that is not necessarily scholarly. I see Native art and clothes as a perfect medium for the message I want to convey.”
Nathalie Alonso ’08, from Queens, is a freelance journalist and an editorial producer of LasMayores.com, Major League Baseball’s official Spanish language website.