The Black River Cultural Arts Center in downtown Renton is “a confluence of communities”, home to an art studio, working store, and a place for workshops and events. The space is owned and operated by artist Tommy Segundo.
Segundo is enrolled Haida and is of the Raven Double Fin Killer Whale clan from Hydaburg, Alaska on his mother’s side. He is also Katzie First Nation (Coast Salish) and Filipino on his father’s side. Born and raised in Seattle and Renton, he considers himself an “Urban Native” using art to stay connected to his culture.
The space hosts Segundo’s business, CreNative Designz, which sells his art and hosts workshops teaching formline art (the style of art that Segundo uses) and Native history of the area that is now Renton.
“Many of these designs show what clan we come from,” Segundo said in a workshop teaching formline art. “To us it’s not art, it’s our culture, a way of identifying people.”
Segundo grew up in Renton and graduated from Renton High School in 2001. For 106 years, until 2021 when Segundo redesigned it, Renton High School’s mascot was the “Indians”. There used to be a mural in the school of a Native American in a headdress, or war bonnet, despite headdresses never having been a part of this Coast Salish people’s cultures, Segundo said.
Segundo shared that he was bullied and made fun of in high school for being Native, but that the mascot of his school wasn’t at the forefront of his mind. “I didn’t really think about it, but it affected me,” Segundo said. “I’m part Filipino as well, and so I would only tell people I was Filipino, even though I identify as being Native.”
Segundo went on to attend the University of Washington. Though he’d never particularly explored art, he took a Native art class from Marvin Oliver, a renowned formline artist who took inspiration from his Native American Quinault and Isleta-Pueblo heritage and Haida and Coast Salish inspiration as well, Segundo said. Oliver created the original Seahawks logo.
“I learned from Haida art styles,” said Segundo. Living in Seattle and seeing all the different Coast Salish arts, he absorbed that influence as well. “It’s just me and my art,” Segundo said about Coast Salish and Haida influences. “I didn’t realize I was mixing the two styles until my niece pointed it out…now I do try to intentionally do that, it’s kind of my signature.”
Though he began doing more art then, Segundo continued to pursue a career in education. He came back to Renton and took over the Native American Education Program Manager position for the Renton School District from Earline Bala, who had been in the job for 38 years and who mentored Segundo through his time at Renton High School.
“Coming back here to Renton was meaningful to me,” Segundo said. He worked with Native students and with Renton schools, making presentations and exploring topics like harmful mascots.
He eventually left the job in 2018 to help raise his kids, and that’s when he started getting more into creating art.
“I started to do art because I wanted my kids to be proud of themselves,” Segundo said. “Anytime I have something, they want it, they wear it, they have a different outlook on their identity than I do, and that’s my main reason for doing this, and not just for my kids, but for Native people in general.”
The original Renton High School mascot appropriated and stereotyped Native Americans in harmful ways, Segundo said. Twenty years after he had graduated, he was asked to redesign it. “That’s why I came up with the RedHawks, because it’s something that honors the artwork, honors people.” He also designed Sartori Elementary’s mascot, the Ravens.
Today, the Black River Cultural Arts Center is Segundo’s workspace for making, selling, and teaching Native art.
“Renton doesn’t have anything for Native people, and historically, this was one hundred percent Native land,” Segundo said. “I wanted a space that teaches about Native American art and culture to non-Native people, but also a place for Native people to come and have a place of comfort, a safe space to learn about their culture, because not every Native person knows about their culture.”
Segundo chose to make his art wearable, selling t-shirts, hats and other clothing, in addition to making designs for tattoos, canvases and school mascot logos.
“I didn’t ever feel comfortable being Native because there was nobody like me,” Segundo said. “And so one thing I wanted to do was create clothing and designs so that people could wear it, and it’s easily identifiable. For me growing up, anytime I would see this type of art style anywhere, I would get excited and it would bring a sense of pride to me.”
“A lot of people feel that Native people are a thing of the past, we’re often looked at and talked about in historical context,” Segundo said. “Having contemporary clothing, contemporary art, contemporary galleries, that’s bringing more people in who aren’t being exposed to a lot of Native people existing today.”
Formline was originally meant for carving, Segundo said, but not everyone can carve. Drawing on paper is Segundo’s preferred method. He often uses tracing paper to achieve the symmetry used in many formline shapes. He then scans the work on a computer, and utilizing digital art technology, adds colors and reworks the art for printing on shirts and prints.
“My art is evolving into more contemporary ways, but we want to keep that tradition, because it’s like language, once you lose it, you lose it,” Segundo said. “I don’t speak my Native language because it was so ingrained in my grandparents not to speak it that they didn’t teach it to my mom, and so my mom didn’t teach it to me. And so the language was lost.”
Black River Cultural Arts Center is located at 204 Logan Avenue South in Renton. Information on weekly events, including formline workshops, can be found at blackriverarts.org.
