Indigenous Comic Con Day 1

Good evening! It’s pretty late here so I’m sure most people are asleep back in Montreal right now.

Today was my first day exploring the ‘first ever’ Indigenous Comic Con here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As is the case with most conventions the first day started fairly late at 4pm for regular ticket holders (3:30 for VIP). I wanted to laugh, out of fondness, when I showed up at 4 and a lot of the preparations were not complete. Typical that a convention like this would start on Indian time.

With a first year convention things are bound to be a bit bumpy. The wifi didn’t work, and so my tweets didn’t happen, until around an hour after the start. Many vendors and artists set up late or simply didn’t show. But with day 1 I can forgive these things.

My habit is to pace the artist alley and vendor halls on day 1 of any convention, to scope out the merch and start adding up how much I’ll have to spend. I wasn’t prepared for the feelings I would have scouring the tables of a convention where the sellers are all Indigenous. I had a smile on my face as I saw characters that looked like me and my family, stories I had heard from a friend and so on. I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing my own people represented in the culture I adore until I actually saw them in that space. It was very, very cool.

I lost my shyness fairly fast as I realized how friendly and relaxed everyone was. I had a fun conversation with an artist who lamented her flimsy sticker badge and shared her experience going to standing rock. Although it wasn’t a complete and polished con, the warm and inviting people made up for it.

With day 1 set up complete I’m looking forward to what busy Saturday has in store for me!