Growing up I always liked learning about different cultures and ethnic groups, our ancestry, origins, history, and I guess that had to with the discrimination I witnessed early in life and the way I was raised by my family. I wanted to know why, why people were such a way, why we discriminate, where were came from, what race even means, questions that most people don't bother with.
I believe if people were more aware of how truely diverse the world is and the stories behind that, then we would collectively see how connected we are rather than different. It boddles me still that many adults dont know what social constructs are, thus believing that different races are literally different species from another, which goes down to a lack of education.
A huge inspiration for our characters are real life indigenous people. Indigenous people are generally ignored and cast off by the world, misunderstood, hunted. yet if the rest of the world did listen and understand them, it would probably make us all question our human nature; thow we percieve nature, race, our origins, our lifestyle. Theres about an estimated 500 million indigenous people worldwide, which makes up 5% of the human population. That is so little and yet they protect 90% of the Earths biodiversity which is an insane!
This is because if the nature dies, so do indigenous communities, their way of life perishing forever. Which is possibly the most saddening thing l think of when thinking about this topic of climate change. Because its not just wildlife going extinct, its millions of humans that have co existed on this planet for thousands if not hundred of years. They, the literal blueprint of humanity- gone, due to the corruption and callousness of other humans. They lasted this long because they live completely sustainable lives in respect of nature not against.
This is why indigenous people, in their great diversity, are the archetype e for our sea people. They are a reimagination of the world if the world helped indiginous people to thrive entirely and learned from them the philosophies that promote sustainability and mutual respect for nature, whilst also, developing advanced technology; again the concept of solar punk and indiginous-futurism can really play into this; imagine a technologically advanced, spiritual race of people living in harmony with nature, it is very much possible.
A lot of my personal art features indigious faces and spiritual philosophy. My Pinterest is the closest you can get to seeing inside of my mind, understanding what inspires me. If you're curious you should check out these main boards - Inspiration, Ancestors, and My Dark Muse; Ocean and Manga are good to look at too.