NMM: Introduce yourself and Native Love Notes to our audience!
AJ: Tansi! My name is Amy Jackson. (She/her) I am Cree/Métis and I grew up on my home reservation of Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Opaskwayak Cree Nation is a Swampy Cree community located in Northern Manitoba. I was based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba but I am currently a guest in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal, QC).
NMM: Tansi! How did the idea for Native Love Notes come about?
AJ: During the pandemic, like many people, I was spending a lot of time alone and I had a deep need for connection with others. I was witnessing the rise of fun meme accounts like The Rez Life and The Band Office on Facebook, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to see funny rezzy slang contrasting with colourful graphic design?” So I began to teach myself how to use graphic design software (you can tell I was a raw beginner lmao) and started to create fun and colourful designs centered on the slang I heard and used throughout my life. I began to share these designs on my personal social media accounts and I started to make so many that I felt like I was spamming my friends. So I decided to brainstorm a new account name and Nativelovenotes just made sense. I felt like these designs with encouragements, cultural nuanced jokes, and slang made people feel seen – like the way love letters or love notes would. So I thought, ‘Nativelovenotes would be a good name’ and it stuck. In our first week, Nativelovenotes was just a funny IG account, but then we grew to over 1500 followers overnight who were heavily requesting the designs to be placed on shirts and other items. I felt like stickers were the most accessible form of art and could be a point of connection between people, so I settled on stickers. The product line grew over time.
NMM: I love that story! You have so many different designs, what’s your process for the designs and quotes you come up with?
AJ: Inspiration can really come from anywhere: conversations with friends, memories, memes, TikTok comedians; I am so inspired by how truly funny Indigenous people are. My ideas are born out of community and connecting with others through sharing auntie laughs found in visiting and storytelling. Whenever I hear something funny, I add it to my notes app and try to visualize the design and how to frame the concept.
NMM: It seems that we have a similar work process, amazing! What is your goal for Native Love Notes?
AJ: To keep people laughing and connecting with each other. To keep building community around our collective experiences, slang, humour and values. My favourite thing is when people come to me and tell me my work has made their day, or brightened a dark time in their lives. I hope to continue to bring that to the community.
NMM: That is the perfect goal; with what we’ve seen from you so far – you’re already doing it! Does Native Love Notes have a mission? If so, how and why is that mission needed in today’s world?
AJ: A mandate of NLN is to help build community up, to inspire and to facilitate those healing laughs. I find that the world is increasingly divided on polarizing ideas- I want to do my part in bringing people together. It is imperative to our collective and individual healing to find reasons to be unified.
NMM: Amazing; that is so true! Is there anything else you’d like us to know about yourself or Native Love Notes?
AJ: Whenever I do interviews I always say, “Rez kids can do anything” because I believe it with my whole heart. I was a rez kid who never thought about my future. No matter how old you are, or where you are in life, it is not too late to think about your future and what you are capable of – which is anything. Start that business, apply to that school, teach yourself guitar, make art, book that flight – for real – you can do it! Just start and the right people will show up and will help you get where you want to go.
Thank you so much to Amy Jackson for sitting down with us and letting us pick her creative brain! You can see more from Amy Jackson and Native Love Notes on Instagram and order your own rezzy stickers, pins, and more on her website.
