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Louie Gong

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Louie Gong

Native American designer, activist, educator, and public speaker



Louie Gong (M.Ed) is a Canadian American designer, artist, educator, activist, and public speaker raised in the Nooksack tribal community; north of Bellingham, Washington. Gong is Nooksack, Chinese, French, and Scottish. In 2000, he graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in Education and Counseling and later became the President of MAVIN, a non-profit organization that advocates for and empowers mixed race people. Between 2002 and 2005, he worked as the Office of Minority Affairs Counseling Service Coordinator at the University of Washington. Gong began his career as an Indigenous designer by painting traditional Pacific Northwest Native design on sneakers and skateboards. In 2008, Gong founded Eighth Generation, an “inspired Natives” art gallery and shop in Pike Place, downtown Seattle. Since, he has developed his career as a mixed race designer and activist who promotes traditional Indigenous design.
Gong, holding a wool blanket, his piece Guardians behind
Gong is a self-taught Native designer who developed his brand by painting his Native art on sneakers and skateboards.
As his sneaker designs grew in popularity, Gong founded Eighth Generation. As the founder and owner Gong shares and
distributes the work of many Native American artists. The business employs the motto: “inspired Natives, not
Native-inspired”, which seeks to prop-up Native artists and actively campaign against culturally appropriative art. Gong is known for his combination of traditional Native American design with contemporary pop culture icons, or combination of traditional Native American design with traditional Chinese artwork; both make strong statements about identity.


Guardians, 2015
His artwork Guardians applies design themes from both Nooksack and Chinese culture that reflect protection and respect. The dominant figures in the design are two Chinese Guardian Lions, designed using Pacific Northwest Indigenous form lines. Additionally, there are three eagles along the center of the piece, each representing progression of personal development. This piece is his most developed example combining both traditional design styles.



Slapoo Takes Back the City
His artwork Slapoo Takes Back the City uses the image of Slapoo (a Native story character known for kidnapping children who do not follow traditional practices or listen to their elders) in urban context, picking up a business person in downtown Seattle. The design asks the question, “In the rush to capitalize on this [urban] growth, what values are the business and political forces driving this development forgetting?”. In the background, we see the Space Needle depicted with Native form lines and the faces of wolves - another combination of urban architecture and Pacific Northwest Native design. Slapoo Takes Back the City is a powerful example of Gong's ability to connect traditional Native design elements, stories, and the current state of our rapidly developing city.

 Gong is important to the history of designers because of how his mixed heritage perspective translates into design. As an activist, Gong responds to stereotypes about mixed heritage culture. He strives to address socio-economic issues in the Pacific Northwest and greater North America. Native American designers have never received proper recognition for the beauty and elegance of their design, and Gongs application of traditional stories with pop culture and contemporary social, political, environmental, and economic issues create powerful statements. Through Eighth Generation, Gong responds to the popularization of “Native-inspired” design by promoting design from “inspired Natives”, showcasing the importance of traditional Native American design. Gong is important as a Native American leader and designer because of his passion to promote traditional Native design (and designers) and disrupt mass-consumer art that benefits non-Native designers guilty of appropriation.

Sneakers painted by Gong

 References:
https://eighthgeneration.com/pages/bio
https://eighthgeneration.com/pages/about-us
https://www.mic.com/articles/126765/louie-gong-s-native-owned-company-fights-back-against-cultural-appropriation
https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiegong/

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