Holding a bundle of roses, Darcie Little Badger was decked out in a Poison Ivy cosplay outfit as she cruised the halls of the San Diego Convention Center on Friday.
But instead of a wearing a bodysuit or mini-dress like many Poison Ivy cosplayers wear to San Diego Comic Con, Little Badger was wearing an outfit that borrowed from her traditional Native American culture.
The bust of her red leather corset was adorned with intricate, hand-stitched beadwork — a red background with leaves and vines weaving throughout. The top she beaded was paired with a traditional Lipan Apache camp skirt sewn by her mom, who used green calico cloth with a white vine design as a nod to Poison Ivy, the DC Comics antiheroine who first appeared in the Batman series in 1966.
Growing up, Little Badger watched her mother doing beading projects, often maneuvering some of the smallest beads into her designs.
“It was watching her that made me want to do it, and I pretty much learned through trial and error, but also through asking her for help, so she taught me everything I know,” Little Badger said.
Cosplay — a Japanese portmanteau of the words costume and play — is a style of performance art where people create outfits that pay homage to their favorite characters from comic books, television shows and movies.
For Indigenous cosplayers like Little Badger, the style of costume design provides an avenue to use traditional crafts like beadwork in a new way, bringing together their heritage with their love for comic books.
It’s not uncommon to see people at Comic-Con wearing cosplay outfits designed as exact replicas the original characters wore, like Taran Hueston, who came dressed as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars saga.
Navajo cosplayer Taran Hueston poses as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars franchise during San Diego Comic Con on Friday, July 21, 2023.
(Lauren J. Mapp / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Hueston, who is of Navajo heritage and uses they/them pronouns, reflected on the decades they have spent making and wearing cosplay outfits at various events.
Inspired by friends in high school to start cosplaying, Hueston made their first outfit with their mom — the character Boma from the Japanese anime series “Heat Guy J.” The pair went to a thrift store, purchased some items that sort of resembled the Boma’s clothing, then got to work cutting and sewing them in a way to fit the character.
Over time, cosplay grew to be one of Hueston’s favorite hobbies. The Los Angeles resident sometimes dresses up as Star Wars characters with a group of other cosplayers to visit sick children during their hospital stays, and eventually Hueston inspired their spouse, Little Badger, to also start cosplaying.
In picking cosplay outfits to make, Hueston tends to choose characters they feel a personal connection to who are either goofy men or tough women. Regardless of what character they choose, Hueston said anyone can make an outfit that represents their own culture and experience.
“There’s a lot of people who are like, ‘People who cosplay should be true to the ethnic identity of their characters,’ ” Hueston said. “Personally, I think that’s kind of goofy. People should just be able to, at least respectfully, wear costumes of whatever character they want.”
Although they went with a more accurate design for the Skywalker cosplay outfit they wore to Comic-Con Friday, Hueston said they would like to borrow from Navajo culture for a new depiction of the character.
“It’s something that I thought I might want to do at some point, especially since (Jedi) shoes are kind of like like a Navajo woman’s wrap boot, and the upper portion of the outfit could definitely be could be like a Navajo rug dress,” Hueston said.
Grace Benally, a Navajo cosplayer, poses in her Princess Zelda cosplay at San Diego Comic Con on Friday, July 21, 2023.
(Lauren J. Mapp / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Some Indigenous Comic-Con attendees, like Grace Benally of Phoenix, Az., see incorporating their culture into cosplay as an extension of their Native storytelling tradition.
Donning a Princess Zelda costume on Friday, Benally was instantly recognizable to passersby who could tell she was wearing the Zonaite outfit from the newest installment of the Zelda game franchise: “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”
As with other cosplay outfits she has designed, the Navajo cosplayer incorporated aspects of her culture into the outfit. Benally’s hands were bejeweled with Navajo rings made from silver and carved turquoise stones, and snug around her neck sat a choker made from bone and silver beads tied with leather strings, which was a gift from her mom.
During her childhood, Benally said she rarely saw Indigenous representation in the media. Even today, despite the rising popularity of shows like “Reservation Dogs,” she said it’s still uncommon to see Native American characters in animated series and films.
Putting an Indigenous twist on pop culture characters allows Benally to share her personal story with nearly 10,000 Instagram followers on Instagram and the people she interacts with at Comic-Con.
“The only way our stories are told within our community is by storytelling,” Benally said. “Our myths, our legends, our folklore, we have all of that because of the people of the past. Even if we are within the age of social media, we are still telling stories within our own lives, and I think that’s amazing.