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Louie's Bio
Louie Gong (M.Ed) is an artist, educator and public speaker who was raised by his grandparents in the Nooksack tribal community. Although he is best known for his highly sought after, hand-drawn custom shoes, Louie has received international recognition for a body of work that—like his mixed heritage (Nooksack, Chinese, French, and Scottish)—defies categorization.
A former Child and Family Therapist, Louie started addressing racial and cultural identity professionally in 2001. He became President of MAVIN, a national non-profit that raises awareness about mixed race people and families. His commentary on race and cultural identity has been featured in MSNBC.com, The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, and BBC. He continues to serve on the Advisory Board of MAVIN and Mixed in Canada.
"If we can remember 20 different ways to order our coffee, we can remember more than just six terms for describing our identity." NBC Nightly News, 2010
Louie spent the first part of his career in higher education, working on behalf of low income, first generation students, first at the University of Washington's Educational Opportunity Center (TRiO) and then at Muckleshoot Tribal College.
Louie is the founder of Eighth Generation, through which he merges traditional Coast Salish art with icons from popular culture and influences from his mixed heritage to make strong statements about identity. His trend-setting aesthetic has been featured at the Smithsonian's NMAI, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the cover of Native People's Magazine. This is remarkable, considering that Louie is a self-taught artist who began making art in 2008.
The name "Eighth Generation" references the inter tribal value of "Seven Generations," which suggests that we consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. By naming my business Eighth Generation, I embed respect for the previous generations all my work and recognize that my successes are a result of our collective effort. Eight is also a lucky number in Cantonese because, when spoken, it sounds the same as the word for prosperity.
Rather than following the well-worn pathway for artists toward working with galleries, Louie has pursued product development as a means of making his work sustainable while keeping it accessible. In 2012, Louie launched “Mockups,” a DIY art toy based on his work with youth and his desire to a make the experience of personalizing a pair of shoes more accessible. He followed up by launching home décor and phone cases in 2013. By financing and developing these products on his own, Louie blazed a trail to a greater degree of self-determination for other artists and entrepreneurs.
Collectively, Louie's unique merger of art, activism, and business has been the subject of UNRESERVED: the Work of Louie Gong, a Longhouse Media film that was selected to screen at prestigious film festivals around the world, including Festival De Cannes and National Geographic’s All Roads Film Festival; and Schuhe Machen Leute, a 2013 documentary produced in Germany. Louie's work with Eighth Generation has also been featured on CNN's Great Big Story, NPR's All Things Considered, and many other prominent news media.
In 2012, Louie began an artistic partnership with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian called Design Yourself: I AM NMAI, and a collaboration with Manitobah Mukluks that led to the "LG Gatherer," a limited-edition boot that sold out many times over. In 2013, Louie participated in a collaboration with Paul Frank Industries that resulted in limited-edition pillows, blankets, and tote bags.
In 2014, Louie launched the Inspired Natives™ Project. The Inspired Natives™ Project aims to help highly skilled and motivated artists shift from either the handmade or gallery-based model of selling art to an arts entrepreneurship model where artist participate in product development and distribute to markets around the globe. With a goal of regional diversity, the first artist in the Inspired Natives Project was Acoma Pueblo artist Michelle Lowden. In 2015, Sarah Agaton Howes, an Ojibwe artist and teacher who specializes in floral designs, joined the Inspired Natives™ Project. Blackfeet artist John Isiah Pepion joined the Inspired Natives™ Project in 2019, and Diné/Navajo artist Jared Yazzie joined as the most recent Inspired Natives™ Project collaborator in 2021.
After many years of hard work, Eighth Generation became the first Native-owned company to offer beautiful wool blankets in 2015. The first production run was a custom-designed blanket in honor of The Evergreen State Longhouse's 20th Anniversary. Subsequent contributions have made Eighth Generation the Longhouse's largest individual donor.
In 2019, Louie sold Eighth Generation to the Snoqualmie Tribe. Through its ownership of Eighth Generation, the Tribe strengthens Eighth Generation's messaging and mission, supporting and elevating Native artists, and continues to educate about the harmful effects of cultural appropriation.
In late 2021, Louie announced his retirement as CEO of Eighth Generation, switching his focus from business leadership to other creative pursuits. He will continue as an Inspired Natives™ Project collaborator with Eighth Generation in addition to pursuing his own projects and passions.
Louie has been honored to be on the cover of City Arts Magazine (2016) and Native Peoples Magazine (2013). He has also been honored to be included in Native Max Magazine's list of the "Top 10 Inspirational Natives: Past and Present" and Indian Country Today's "Faces of Indian Country 2015." In 2016, he was a finalist for Seattle's "Mayor's Arts Award" and received the Seattle Indian Health Board's Adeline Garcia's Community Service Award, through which the nation's largest Urban Indian Health Clinic recognizes community leaders for volunteer service. In 2018, he received the Michell Museum's "Woody Crumbo Award for the Preservation and Advancement of American Indian Art." In 2019, Eighth Generation received the National Center for American Indian Economic Development's "Small Business Empowerment Award" and was named to Native Business Magazine's inaugural "Top Native Entrepreneurship list."