Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to AnAkA. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
AnAkA, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Becoming a creative in itself is a risk. There is no guarantee of what is coming and how to shape your world. Every creative is different and is destined to light up the world in their own ways. I personally have found that taking risks is an integral part of my creative process and career journey. I’ve found taking risks has lead me to the people and places I need to find. However over the years my relationship to risks has shapeshifted quite a bit. My first big risk creatively came right after I graduated from undergraduate school at University of Southern California. My degree was in anthropology, film, and photography, which I combined to create an archival research centralization. I had just spent my last semester of school at the University of Cape Town and loved it. I was going through Culture-shock after returning to the US in Philadelphia, and not feeling sure of what to pursue as a job. I worked at a restaurant and a horse stable, feeling unsure of how I wanted to enter the creative world as a professional. I felt very strongly that archiving was a calling of mine, because I had already been begun my project of documenting sacred wisdom and liberation movements. So I saved up my money, just enough for a ticket and found a hotel in Johannesburg that would let me stay there for free in exchange for creating content for their social media. I took the risk of leaving the US and moving to South Africa. I even had to break up with somebody in order to do this, which was also very hard to navigate heartbreak while also leaving the country without much of a plan, besides pursuing film and photography. But I took the risk, and left America again, but this time, without the backing of a school .
Once I was in South Africa, I ended up being a nomad for a few years after. These years were full of taking risks, using my intuition, and finding ways to trust my inner gut to a whole new level. Especially as a a young black woman, a lot of people were telling me that it was risky to travel the world so openly the way I was alone. But I was able to find community from my previous experience, living in South Africa, and also was able to find other gigs in places like Madagascar, Kenya, Togo,, Benin and Ghana. After spending so much time abroad, I was ready to come back to the US and figure out how to make money. Because at this point, I had just been trading places to stay in exchange for my talents.
When I moved back to the US. I entered a herbalism program because I’m also continuing the tradition of being a medicine woman in my family. I moved to Brooklyn for this herbalism program and I also soon after got hired for my first ever campaign which was a global campaign for Levi’s pride month. I did the photographs and directed the films, and even got to hire friends of mine to work on set with me. This was the first time I was able to see the results of the many years of being a nomad on my own and creating my own unique portfolio. Although I am experienced in studio and narrative works, most of my works at this point had been showcasing my documentary style and ability to connect with peoples stories on a spiritual level. I am really grateful I took the risk to leave the US and live abroad for a few years, because it showed me how to be myself in any environment. I also am grateful that I lived on the East Coast after growing up in the West Coast, because the culture there of honesty, and , the ability to be independent really strengthened me as well.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
AnAkA applies Ancestral root work techniques to their artistic and cultural practices. AnAkA utilizes visual, herbal and sonic preservation as a tool to reclaim severed wisdoms, due to the echoing generational disturbances global colonization has caused. Since 2012, AnAkA has cultivated an original archive of performances, films, photographs, soundscapes and more with the intention to document and strengthen the heartbeat of the global Indigenous movements, practices and rituals of our current time. This movement is entitled AKTIV8: a creative research studio paving new paths for the practice of honoring and continuing Afro-Indigenous wisdom. AKTIV8 is an ethnographic preservation tool of decolonization that fights against oppression of cultural memory and tradition. So far gracing the USA; South Africa; Kenya; Benin; Madagascar; Togo; Ghana; Mexico and Saint Lucia, the intention of AKTIV8 as an archive, creative studio and research center is to cultivate space and legitimize traditional knowledge on a global scale. As the natural healer of her lineage, AnAkA seeks to continue ancient practices into the future through sound, herbs, tattooing, storytelling and visual arts.
AKTIV8 is a growing creative research movement birthed by AnAkA in 2012. By creating an original archive of globally Indigenous stories, AKTIV8 is actively on the mission to rebirth what it means for current cultural research to be lead by an Afro-Indigenous perspective. AKTIV8 creates safe spaces for sacred wisdom to exist, bridging the gap between cultural preservation and global accessibility to knowledge. Reconstructing what it means to preserve cultural wisdom with the safety of Black & Indigenous folks at the forefront of its consciousness is our goal. Achieving sovereignty of storytelling, wisdom sharing and cultural preservation, AKTIV8 creates a literal map of global key movements persevering through times of great change.
Access to fundamental resources such as land, language, music, and cultural traditions has been stripped away from Afro-Indigenous people for generations. In all Indigenous cultures, the interaction between the earth, water, air, and fire are intertwined with how we interact with Spirit. We are especially aware of our powers of regenerative living, repurposing resources, and honoring the divine energy of creation. By rebirthing and reviving traditional values such as herbal medicine, Spiritual community building, storytelling, and reconnecting with nature in sovereign living practices, we naturally are also addressing environmental issues such as pollution, food sovereignty, chronic illness, water scarcity and imbalance of natural resource distribution. By reconnecting to the knowledge that has been severed from our lineages as a movement, we naturally address issues of cultural, racial and social inequality. In order to create a better world, we must recognize that our separation from our homelands has resulted in mass mental and physical illness, communities stripped apart, and traditions taken away. AKTIV8 rebirths how we preserve our stories, healing and traditions so we can gain power in the dynamics of the colonial institutions that continue to profit off our knowledge.
In all Indigenous cultures, the interaction between the earth, water, air, and fire are intertwined with how we interact with Spirit. We are especially aware of our powers of regenerative living, repurposing resources, and honoring the divine energy of creation. By rebirthing and reviving traditional values such as herbal medicine, Spiritual community building, storytelling, and reconnecting with nature in sovereign living practices, we naturally are also addressing environmental issues such as pollution, food sovereignty, chronic illness, water scarcity and imbalance of natural resource distribution. By reconnecting to the knowledge that has been severed from our lineages as a movement, we naturally address issues of cultural, racial and social inequality. In order to create a better world, we must recognize that our separation from our homelands has resulted in mass mental and physical illness, communities stripped apart, and traditions taken away. AKTIV8 rebirths how we preserve our stories, healing and traditions so we can gain power in the dynamics of the colonial institutions that continue to profit off our knowledge. We do this by actively cultivating a global archive of sacred wisdom, producing events and media projects as well as world building for clients who want to share and preserve their own archives.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’m currently pivoting, but not out of what I have been doing. I am instead expanding the language around my “job” descriptions. As a director, archivist, photographer, curator and creative director among many other things, I have been cultivating entire worlds for myself and for my clients. So therefore I have transitioned to enveloping all these services into the title “Holistic World Doula.” I also like to say “Story Doula” or “Holistic World Builder.” This is also an action to re-Indigenize the idea of what work truly is. for me, creating is a process and a deep part of my lifestyle. I am one to always live to create, and I am figuring out ways for my life too be sustained by this passion. So, my passions come out in music, visuals, dance, health and wellness, creative direction..I choose to focus on the main intention of wisdom preservation and world building, instead of make myself small.
Last year I decided to leave NYC after five years to transition back to the west coast. However, with the writers strike my directing career was very affected. I didn’t receive many directing jobs, so I instead focused on cultivating the recordings and visuals for the Angel Music I make. Now, a year later the directing work is picking up again, and I have made strides in the Angel Music realm as well. I often find myself following the flow of what is being asked of me from the world and also what my heart is asking for. After moving and changing career perspectives, I was able to shapeshift my priorities which lead to more opportunities. I started to be the Creative Director for a specific artist for the first time and I also began curating for a virtual museum. These two opportunities lead me to creating a new avenue with all the tools I have accumulated already without leaving any passions behind.
I am currently in a space of pivoting in a way that opens up the capacity of my business. Because I have such big dreams for the future of AKTIV8 I am in need of expansion to facilitate the dreams more into reality!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a space of natural balance, of ease and flow and cleanliness. All of these elements mixed in with reverence, love and true intentional community building is what I see is desperately needed in order for creatives to thrive. Societal structures strip away artists from their ability to express fully, just by consistently politicizing and capitalizing off of art and culture itself. So, in my opinion, society would have to collapse and rebirth into a re-Indigenized structure of approaching the ecosystems of culture with an equitable approach. That means giving access back to the land, clean waters, air and resources to those who have been attacked for generations. That means not investing in artists because of fame but because of their cultural contributions. That means supporting holistically the journeys of artists who are elders and who are young. It means creating an ecosystem of expression where there is no suppression or oppression of cultural identities and communities.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://anaka.work
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4n4k4/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@4n4k4
Image Credits
image of AnAkA by Brandon Hicks other images courtesy of AnAkA and AKTIV8 LLC Creative Research Center