19 Jun Supernaturals Modelling
Supernaturals Modelling is co-founded by two internationally renowned Indigenous changemakers, Joleen Mitton and Patrick Shannon. Through creating the space for healthy and high-end cultural representation in the commercial and fashion world, Supernaturals’ mission is to celebrate and make visible Indigenous peoples at a high level in media arts, culture, community, land-based wisdom, and the global market.
Our goal as an organization is to uplift communities and emerging Indigenous talent through skills development, employment, and healing – while facilitating Indigenous-Ally relationships via collaboration, education, and healthy representation at the highest level. Indigenous people are in high demand right now, and we want to be at the forefront of this new wave of cultural awareness.
Our work is rooted in our community and relations. Culture and spiritual grounding are essential to our approach. We want to uplift indigenous worldviews and create safe spaces for indigenous people to thrive through ethical reciprocity with the community.
Supernaturals Modeling works to create lasting change for incoming generations. Fashion is becoming an access point for Indigenous visibility. Indigenous fashion is so vibrant and fun. It’s almost like a trojan horse of sorts. Fashion is easy and fun to engage with while creating an opportunity to amplify conversations around it that might seem intimidating. We hope that, through our work, others learn the value of creating opportunities to celebrate indigenous culture with mindful attention. lots of our history is sad considering the genocide, but people can learn through joy about respecting the culture. We can create more opportunities to increase positive representation.
Success for us looks like a healthy community. We have worked hard to facilitate this through 10 years of fashion week alongside the 17 years of All my Relations basketball team. We want to help Indigenous people be strong and create the leaders we will need.
The leadership style we use is based on learning before making a move. It involves being self-actualized, knowing your limits, and understanding others’ limits. Good leaders must educate themselves through their surroundings and learn where and how to help. Good leaders let other leaders lead. Leadership shouldn’t be top-heavy. Wrap-around leadership with low ego is our route to success in business.
Looking to the future, sustainability is the next tool for growing and establishing the legacy of Indigenous Fashion Week and All my Relations Basketball but constant fundraising or lack of access to funding has been a huge challenge. It’s been a slow build. Working with the community has been fulfilling, but it can be tiring. Trailblazing is exhausting. It relies on being able to break barriers while maintaining the energy to keep going.
As the Indigenous economy grows we are working to grow our visibility and create more opportunities and support for Indigenous people to join in this important work. This kind of heart-based work could be supported by making the funding more accessible and reliable. Indigenomics means building the space and Supernaturals Modelling is trailblazing this.