Nooksack artist returns to Whatcom County to share his story
When Nooksack artist Louie Gong took to the podium at the Whatcom Museum on Thursday night to tell his story, he said it was like a circle closing.
Gong has spent most of his adult life in Seattle, where he founded Eighth Generation, a company that sells Native art and wool blankets, and created art that’s been displayed at museums across the country.
But when asked about his life’s journey, Gong started with the home in British Columbia where he was raised by his grandmother, a member of the Nooksack tribal community, and his grandfather, who was Chinese, until he was age 9. The house had no running water, and Gong recounted having to go outside to use an outhouse regardless of the weather.
Gong later moved to Nooksack, where he lived all the way through graduate school at Western Washington University. He then moved to Seattle to pursue a job in higher education, though he said he never forgot his roots.
“I’ve come a long way since leaving Whatcom County, but I know that the experiences that I had in my formative years, within my tribe, within my family, within the Nooksack Valley School District, are the foundation that I built everything on,” Gong said.
His connection to his tribal community and identity was what led to the creation of the art that would launch his career as both an artist and entrepreneur: custom Vans shoes.
Gong said he had always wanted a pair but hadn’t been able to afford them growing up. Now that he had a steady job in his 30s, he was finally able to make that want a reality. But when he got to the store and looked up at the shelf, he said none of the designs felt right to him.
He wanted shoes that reflected him as an Indigenous and Chinese person — so he picked up a Sharpie and made them himself.
“It was just organic self-expression,” Gong said.
The next day at work at Muckleshoot Tribal College, Gong said his coworkers immediately wanted pairs of their own. It “sparked this flood of creative energy around visual art” for him, and he was able to establish a business selling the custom shoes in his local community and beyond.
Some of the shoes are on display at the Whatcom Museum as part of their exhibit on Coast Salish art. Gong said he was honored to have them shown somewhere so close to his homeland, and enjoyed seeing how people — especially kids — connect with his art.
“Whatcom Museum represents a sort of esteemed connection to the places and the people that helped shape me,” Gong explained.
He said the museum reached out to him about six months ago about displaying even more of his art, since it resonated with many of the children who visit on field trips. From that conversation came a talk about Gong speaking at the museum and telling his story. Gong said he immediately agreed.
“A big part of this is expanding our partnerships and relationships with Native artists and our Indigenous community,” said Whatcom Museum Marketing Director Adrienne Dawson. “I think there might be this idea that when we talk about Indigenous culture and art, that these are things of the past, but they’re absolutely contemporaneous and current and living.”
Gong said he hoped people draw inspiration from his story, especially as he begins to shift away from the public eye to focus on fatherhood.
“This is like a capstone thing for me, that sort of symbolizes me wrapping up a phase of my life and then transitioning to a new phase where my focus is going to be much more on family,” Gong said.