Photos: BakerTwins Army Photoshoot

Twin Actor Headshot: Shauna Baker & Shannon Baker

Bashing Kinnie Starr

Please click here to read the link about what I am responding to in this blog. I hate to perpetuate such a negative blog about Kinnie Starr by posting a link to this forum, however, I feel it is my duty to defend her. Read my response below the image.

MY RESPONSE: 

Quite a few people private messaged me and emailed me about this forum. One person wrote me saying: “Academics are bashing Kinnie Starr”. As a personal friend of hers I decided to check out what this online discussion was all about. I can say that I was shocked at what I read.

I know that by my commenting and defending Alida that I am ultimately putting myself in the line of fire. Especially considering that I am a young woman who is a model & actress and is of First Nations decent. I seem to be the perfect candidate of the person you are all describing.

Many people in this forum seem to be upset with Kinnie based on her being too “fair skinned” and “thin”. Kinnie has always been proud of her roots…ALL of her roots. She has always described herself as mixed blood: Mohawk and white. It makes me sick to my stomach reading these comments about race.

I have a 14-year-old sister who is of mixed blood: First Nations (Dakelh) and white (Swedish). My twin sister and I were very worried that she would get teased by the other kids on the reserve because she had blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. However, when she got older and started playing with the kids we realized that none of the kids saw her as anything else but another “rez kid”. The kids did not see colour. It horrifies me that she may meet people with the viewpoints in this discussion after she graduates high school that may make her feel bad about something she couldn’t control like the colour of her skin or her weight.

My twin sister and I know exactly what it is like to be made fun of for being thin. Many people may think that it isn’t hurtful to tell someone they are too thin. From personal experience I can guarantee you that this is not true. My sister and I were accused of being “anorexic” our whole lives. Strangers would literally come up to us and poke our ribs and make sure to tell us exactly how skinny they thought that we were.

People judge themselves enough. Many people think they are too fat, thin, skinny, tall, short, etc. The last thing women need is to be is judged by another woman. During my career I can tell you that being judged by another First Nations woman is especially painful. We should be lifting each other up…not putting each other down. Especially a woman like Kinnie Starr. This discussion should be about how proud we are of Kinnie. She is a woman who chose a very competitive profession and who also happens to come from First Nations decent.

My twin sister and I grew up with racism being very prevalent in our town. When we graduated early and moved to Vancouver we eventually got into modeling. Vancouver was a city made up of different races and so we were constantly referred to as “ethnically ambiguous” at casting calls. It wasn’t until we met a First Nations hip hop artist Derek (aka. Manik 1derful) who thought it was amazing that we were models that were of First Nations decent. He told us that First Nations people would embrace us and introduced us to a lot of First Nations artists. He was right: Native people completely embraced us. Various native television shows, radio shows and publications contacted us for interviews and were surprised that there were native models competing in the mainstream world. We had tons of support from Native people all across North America. However, with the positive support came the negative.

Shauna and I use to get a lot of fan mail sent to our agent’s office. She eventually told us to get an official fan mailbox, which we did. We had tons of letters from people all around the world, most of which were positive. However, I remember our first “hate mail” letter that came from a 76-year-old Native American elder in South Dakota. He told us that we shouldn’t be competing on the “white man ladder” and that we should know our place. Shortly after, another hate letter came from another Native American from Nevada that said that our images were too provocative and that we gave Native people a bad name.

The only pressure I had before being known as a “Native Model” was competing against other people in the room at a casting call. Now being known as “First Nations” we had a new pressure: The pressure to conform to the ideals of what Native people thought we should be known as. It seemed that everyone had an idea of what “The Baker Twins” should be about.

Shauna and I always had one goal: To have First Nations people be shown in the mainstream media. Not to compete against other First Nations people for the little acting roles that existed. We wanted to compete for the leading roles regardless of race. Shauna and I constantly fight to audition for the leading roles that are described as “Caucasian”. We want to see a First Nations person in a commercial where the casting didn’t say “First Nations” or “Native American” on the breakdown. We want there to be a leading role in television or in the movies where the leading actor just happens to be First Nations/ Native American.

“We are doctors, we are lawyers, and we are musicians…” We said this in our interview with Tyra Banks. We come from various walks of life. That is why we made The “BT Girls Calendar”. To portray native woman the way that we knew how: Through fashion. We cast girls of different sizes, shapes, careers, and colours that all shared one thing: Native blood. We had a nurse, welder, fisheries technician, waitress, musician, actor, and secretary all in the calendar. We didn’t want to put them in a box. We wanted to show the world that we did exist in the modern world.

A lot of people in this forum are trying to place Kinnie Starr in a box. And you are using her album cover as this box. She didn’t put anything “Native” or “Indian” on her album cover. She was expressing herself in a way that she felt she needed to be expressed. If you truly knew Kinnie you would know that she, just like any woman, could be insecure about her body. My sister and I did a photoshoot with her for our “BT Girls calendar” and during the shoot I discovered that this beautiful woman had insecurities about her body. When I saw this album cover I was so proud of Kinnie for being able to conquer her demons. I saw this as therapeutic: Someone who was willing to put herself in an uncomfortable situation for the sake of her art. Many of you are bashing her body by calling her too thin. I can’t speak for her personally but I can guarantee that she probably put a lot of thought into this image and probably contemplated actually using the image out of fear that she may be judged. (Which I guess she was right about being judged because there is a whole forum on this image).

A lot of people put my sister and I in a box as well. We were placed in the “role model” box: A box that we never asked to be placed in. The problem with being placed into this box is the pressure to be perfect. My sister and I are far from perfect. We grew up with the same problems that a lot of First Nations youth grow up with. We have dealt with various types of abuse including: sexual, emotional and physical. We also had very low-self esteem. All of these pressures to be the perfect role model can be taxing. In the end we are human and we make mistakes. All we can do is try to be good people. I have had to battle my own personal demons by being called a “role model”. And, I can tell you it’s one of the only stresses that I have in my life: To be good enough for my people. I have been told time after time by close friends that I should not try to to live up to an unrealistic ideal. I should just be me.

Many First Nations people come from mixed blood. In fact it is hard to find a First Nations person that has pure Native blood. Especially in Canada where in history books you read about how settlers came in and married First Nations women. A lot of my Native friends have mixed blood in them somewhere including myself. My mother’s father is Choctaw & African American. To make someone feel bad about being mixed blood is preposterous.

I feel as though I must point out the obvious. The person that started this forum, is being hypocritical by talking about Kinnie’s album cover when she herself used a naked native woman in a Native mask on her book cover which is described as an “archive of literary erotica and offers a hot glimpse into poetry that will excite, inform, inspire and perhaps deliver you from traditional ideals of the romantic Indian…” I understand the purpose of the book. But, I can’t help but think that she is using Kinnie’s body by drawing attention to her own page and book in the same way that she used the naked woman on the cover of her book.

We need a Native American “Tyler Perry”, “Jessica Alba”, “Tyra Banks”, “Lucy Liu”, and “Michael Bay” in the mainstream media. How can we achieve this when there is no support and we are pulling each other down? Native women in our own field have tried to pull Shauna and I down but the only thing you can do is lead by example by exerting positive energy. When you put forth positive energy you get positive energy back. Shauna and I do not believe in being crabs in a bucket. If everyone helped each other out we could all get out of the bucket. But instead, as soon as someone almost gets out of the bucket a crab from the bottom pulls the crab down. I fully support Kinnie Starr who competes on a mainstream level. She is proud of her heritage. And, she should be able to express herself without being judged by her own people.

Lets stop thinking of each other as a threat. Let’s work together to move forward in helping one another succeed. In the end, one person’s success is everyone’s success.

Shannon Baker

Kinnie Starr and The Baker Twins

Baker Twins Animation

Are you ready for it?

Story Board by: Stephen Gladue.
Logo By: Matthew M. West