Kristy Martinez has loved punk music since she was in high school 20 years ago. Then, the fashion and the rebellious ideology felt like "armour," she says.
But when Martinez — an Azusa, Calif., resident who is of Chicana and Yaqui descent — realized that Indigenous people have been making punk music since around when the scene emerged in the mid 1970s, it opened a world she didn't know existed.
"It just was like … 'Where are these shows? Why doesn't [mainstream] punk talk about these?'" said Martinez. She remembers feeling a mix of joy at discovering the cultural connection, and anger that this part of the music's history was so hidden.
That discovery inspired Martinez to focus her ongoing PhD research at UCLA on the lost history of Indigenous involvement in punk rock.
She shares her research on Instagram, as well, so that the history she worked so hard to uncover doesn't get forgotten again: The Indigenous Punks Archive account features headbanging aunties, backyard rez shows and lots of mohawks. Martinez says she hopes to uplift Indigenous artists in the genre and remind hard rock listeners that Indigenous people and ideas have always been part of punk.
Really cool
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