“A lot of my work is about bringing the Indigenous culture into modern urban environments and saying we're still here,” says Apolla Echino. She is Métis and while she has lived in many provinces with her mom growing up, she now lives in New York. Her grandmother’s last name is Dumont, she was a great, great grand niece of Gabriel Dumont. Echino’s work is as a film, documentary and commercial director.

Her advice for students who may be leaving their community is, “the most important thing is to have one person who believes in you.” For her it was a teacher, a coach, or an uncle who lived far away. “It only takes one person to love you, to really empower you for your life,” she reinforces.

In her work, Echino has completed two campaigns for Nike, she works with CIBC, she just finished a project with Air Canada and had a meeting with Sephora. “ I am having a really incredible commercial directing career right now,” she beams. She didn’t come from a family of professional artists or career women, though she came from powerful women. It wasn’t until high school that she met her first gay person and she didn’t know what a life in the creative arts could look like.

In grade eleven, Echino was invited to be Lady Capulet in the school production of Romeo and Juliet. It was a pivotal moment for her, leading her on the path to moving to Vancouver to study acting, diving into dancing, and moving to New York City in her late twenties. A teacher told her, “As an Indigenous woman in this business, you'd better be writing, creating, producing, directing your own work, otherwise there's no place for you whatsoever.”  He also said, “I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is no one is coming to save you. The good news is no one is coming to save you.” From that she learned to turn challenges into choice and action.

At certain points, Echino has resented people who have been handed their careers, but in not having been handed her career, she learned to “fish” and to feed herself for life because she didn’t have a network and she had to figure things out for herself. She has let go of the narrative of struggle, of exhaustion, burnout and hard work and moved into flow instead of forcing things.

In bringing her Indigeneity forward in her work she says, “We show up in so many different ways now, but our connection is still the most important information we can offer our society right now, how to live more in connection to nature and in connection to each other and in connection to source and Creator.” She aspires to be a voice for the planet, the ocean, the turtles and the soil.

Looking back, Echino wishes she had been taught to manage her emotions at a younger age. “It's my greatest creative career asset is that extreme sensitivity, like all those spidey senses, the way I interview people, the way I find story. But I was at war with that part of myself for decades,” she reflects, thinking of how she had to learn how to use that sensitivity and how she heard someone say “every gift has a curse and every curse has a gift, our job is to understand what is on each side of it.” She was also taught “We have to become the best parents to ourselves” and she was encouraged to go to therapy to avoid sabotaging herself and to learn to reraise herself.

When it comes to inspiration, Echino’s friends inspire her. She also took herself on a creative date to the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs for inspiration. She was also inspired by the head of production for Sephora, by the sites of the houses that were burned by the major Altadena fires, and by Willie Chavarria, a Chicano fashion activist. Her work with Indigenous cinematographer Robert Hunter also brought inspiration and her conversation with Chris Eyre about the Jim Thorpe documentary also got her excited to see the film. She loves how accessible Indigenous culture is in Canada.

In closing, Echino shares the message she shares with students, that she stopped drinking in her mid thirties and that it is a superpower. “My sobriety is the biggest gift that has ever been bestowed on me,” she shares. Looking back, she recalls how her grandmother used to drink and was unable to deal with her anxiety any other way.

What Echino tells people is that she wouldn’t be directing commercials for Nike if she was still drinking.  “Even though it wasn't terrible drinking, it's enough that it's like putting brakes on your life and on who you really are,” she affirms. She also encourages abstaining from nicotine, and surrounding oneself with people who are not using drugs and alcohol.

“There is a lot of communities that are victims, that have been victimized, that are still dealing with systemic racism and oppression, and so it is easy and understandable to feel powerless, but there is no way to be able to get through that if you're using drugs or alcohol,” Echino asserts.

Bringing Indigenous culture into modern urban environments and saying “we're still here,” Apolla Echino is making an impression through the documentaries, commercials and films that she makes. Making impactful pieces for CIBC, Air Canada, Nike and more, her career wasn’t handed to her, she had to figure it all out for herself. With her sobriety as her superpower, the encouragement of those who love her, and lots of inspiration, she’s found her path to a creative life behind the lens.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.

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