How do we reckon with the racist history of branding?
The short answer is, we will always be reckoning with the origins of this word. The word ‘brand’ is defined by an identifiable mark to display ownership. What we are reckoning with the indisputable racist history of human branding. In the context of the United States, the history of slavery had a traumatic past of embedding marks on enslaved people as punishment and to show ownership.
As someone who designs brand marks and visual identity for non-traditional wellness brands, this past is something that I often think about in the modern world. And like any acts of colonization, branding is a practice that was stolen and turned what once was an honorary practice of artwork on skin into an unthinkable patriarchal experience for people who deemed than others were less then.
By no means does this intend to erase the inhumane history, this writing is meant to shine light on the art of branding back to it’s indigenous roots through sharing few of the cultures from across the world who practiced this craft. So let’s start shall we:
1) Mambabatok tradition in the Phillipines.
Whang-Od, the oldest tattoo elder inks with a thorn from a pomelo tree, a foot-long bamboo stick, coal, and water. The handmade ink is tapped deep into the skin using the thorn and bamboo to push it in. The results are permanent motifs that range from lines to simple shapes to tribal prints to animals that carries meanings such as strength, beauty, and fertility.
This hand-tapped body art began with the indigenous Butbut warriors where the addition of tattoos had a very specific meaning; they could only be inked after killing someone. These warrior group was formed to protect their own community during the war, from both the Japanese occupation and the Phillipines’ soldiers who kept abusing them, taking food and not giving anything back in exchange.
Now that the warriors have died out, this practice of hand-tapped tattoos continues to be practiced in the same way.
*Summarized from these sources: My Modern Met, You Tube
2) Scarification tradition of the Mursi tribe.
This tradition of cutting deeply, sometimes referred to as cicatrizations, also sometimes use ash and soot as a way to pigment the scars after wounding, and they double as agitators to cause inflammation for more exaggerated markings as well. Using a razor blade to create patterns on their skin, the healing process can often take about 4 days to heal.
The scarifications of kitchoga or kitchoa and riru are two different typologies characterized by different designs and techniques and have different purposes and meanings. Each scarification, aside from being aesthetics for this tribe, also show clan identity, status within a community, passage into adulthood, or spiritual significance.
*Summarized by these sources: Mursi Online, Arts and Culture Google
3) Yidįįłtoo of Gwich'in Nation
Traditionally, the tattoo was inked using a bird bone. But nowadays, a tattoo needle is taped onto a carved birch stick with adhesive tape and dipped into a pot of gray ink. Using a traditional stick and poke technique, the designs and meanings vary from one group to another and are specific to the traditions of each group, and the practice is often tied to a rite of passage or significant event.
One of the significances is the reclamation of this cultural practice that was almost lost. In this article, Potts-Joseph shares “We’re being proud of who we are, and not being ashamed, because shame was really used on our people to control and assimilate us. During colonization and amid the establishment of harmful boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries Indigenous people were once banned from practicing their cultural traditions, tattooing being one of them.”
Potts-Joseph summarized it best “Taking ink beneath the skin helps erase the historical damage of betrayal and pain inflicted by others, because it is a form of permanent medicine.”
In a way, branding as an act itself was used to colonize and traumatize. What once was a cultural and ancestral tradition was taken away by colonizers and fear. What I am working to practice is branding as a tool to help us share our story and we cannot allow for the tool to control us away from our purpose. As a website and brand designer, I have to do my homework. I have to understand my tools and if I don't I can cause harm.
