Presenting the diversities in Native America
Taiylr Irvine is a Salish and Kootenai journalist born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. She graduated from the University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with an emphasis in Native American Studies. Her work focuses on providing in-depth representations of the lives and complex issues within the diverse communities that make up Native American. Tailyr worked in newsrooms across the country before beginning her career as an independent journalist and documentary photographer. Tailyr is a co-founder of Indigenous Photograph, a global database dedicated to support the media industry in hiring more Indigenous photographers to tell the stories of their communities and to reflect on how we tell these stories. Tailyr is National Geographic Explorer and We, Women Artist which is a travelling exhibition which moves around the country showcasing issues faced by the communities. Currently she is working on a project that explores the complexities of blood quantum and Native identity. Her work takes a critical look on how the legacy of colonialism has damaged relationships between marginalised communities and the media industry. With each project and assignment, she emphasises the importance of the relationship between the media and the communities they work in. Other commissioned work includes the New York Times, Washington Post, the Smithsonian and the Wall Street Journal.
Tailyr is especially interested in representing the diversity within Native America and complex issues facing tribal communities. Her project ‘Reservation Mathematics: navigating love in Native America’. In this project she poses questions leading to Blood Quantum: “What fraction of Indian are you?” This list was designed to be inaccurate and flawed as it is unsustainable. An individual cannot be a member of two tribes. The Blood Quantum restrictions complicate dating for Native Americans and creates a pressure on the natives to date within their tribe or be responsible for the complete genocide. The faults in the blood quantum system prevents them from choosing their future partners freely if they want their children to be in the same tribe as them.
Irvine’s work portrays people how they want to be portrayed. The American indigenous communities have been presented in stereotypical sameness in the media. Often the past version is portrayed rather than the present one which is problematic. For a long time, Indigenous people have been made to pose in their regalia and often instructed to not smile for the pictures, creating a rigid picture of the entire community. Irvin tries to present these communities in their natural ways. She is alarmed at the condition of Native Americans who are practically invisible in the eyes of the mainstream. Thousands of Native American women are either missing or murdered. They do not get the help and justice which they should receive. Irvin’s efforts to document the Natives in contemporary times emanates from the need to garner support from a larger population for the justice for the wronged indigenous people.