In Episode 19 of Kinectify Conversations, Sean Topchi sits down with DG Smalling, a Choctaw Nation Master Artist, to discuss his unique career journey and the intersection of art and tribal gaming. DG shares his transition from a background in crisis management, focusing on political violence and terrorism, to becoming a renowned artist within the tribal gaming industry. He delves into his innovative single-line drawing method, developed during his time in the Balkans, and how it serves as a meditative and meaningful practice.

The conversation highlights the critical role of tribal sovereignty in addressing complex social issues like human trafficking. DG discusses his involvement with Operation Lady Justice and the impact of his artwork on raising awareness and driving change. The episode explores the potential for collaboration between tribal and commercial gaming entities to combat crimes and enhance security through shared best practices.

DG's insights into the cultural and economic significance of tribal gaming, coupled with his artistic contributions, provide a compelling narrative of resilience and innovation. The podcast underscores the importance of leveraging art and sovereignty to foster community well-being and highlights the ongoing efforts to create a safer and more inclusive environment within the gaming industry.

Click here to listen on Spotify.

Transcript

Sean Topchi: Welcome to Kinectify Conversations. My name is Sean Topshi, and I'm the Director of Business Development at Kinectify. Our mission is to share the experience, expertise, and insights from gaming industry leaders that comes from years of navigating the complexities and impact of compliance. On this episode, I am joined by special guest.

DG Smalling: My name is DG Smalling, Choctaw Nation Master Artist.

Sean Topchi: Thanks for joining us today and remember to like and subscribe to the podcast. You can also learn more anytime at Kinectify. com. That's K I N E C T I F Y dot com.

All right, DG Smalling, welcome to the podcast, my friend. I'm so excited to have you here. I don't think I can go anywhere in tribal gaming without seeing you, hearing about you or seeing one of your pieces, but if it's okay with you, introduce yourself [and] give a little background on what you do currently.

DG Smalling: So, my name is DG Smalling and I'm a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. I also have privilege of being one of our master artists. So what does that mean? Well, master artists, simply in the traditional sense, sits at (if you have a Venn diagram) between what is belief or faith, what is commerce and what is politics of a nation and in our Southeastern tribal construct. That's a very simple paradigm.

And so I don't participate really in galleries. I don't participate in different Indian markets. There's certainly no criticism or critique inferred there. It's just a different model. And what I've decided to do with my career as an artist has been to focus on the primary space and industry that is driving this period of reclamation in Indian country.

And that's obviously gaming and tribal gaming. It's a very fascinating industry for that reason. And you brought up an interesting point, being really the only contemporary Native artists that has made a career of this industry. That doesn't mean that each tribe or each nation doesn't use their own artists or certain artists for different parts of their different facilities or projects.

One person certainly couldn't do that, but what [that] has afforded me in this time period is the ability to collaborate in a way that's quite meaningful that others don't do. As you pointed out, over the time, [when] we're looking at almost 20 years there's relationship.

And so I'm able to collaborate with incredible technologies. The game that we developed, which was the first native collaboration game. And that was fascinating. And then then the same thing I've been doing with Gary Platt, you know, manufacturing for chairs and their furniture over several years.

And now we're going to amp that up even more with our native narrative lines where that's quite interesting because everything there, we have tribal leaders signing off for authenticity. There are many more, but tribal gaming has been critical to to my success and to what I do.

So I'm glad that you feel that way. That means that I'm actually doing my job.

Sean Topchi: And you're really doing a fantastic job of it. And, up until not too long ago, really, having seen you in the industry from a distance, that's what I knew you for. I've obviously had the pleasure of getting to know you more pretty recently and your background and where you come from with some of your lens and what helped develop some of your artistry.

There's a little more linkage than I would have initially expected which. Coming from anti-money laundering compliance and doing education, human trafficking and things like that. Don't typically think you're gonna, intersect with art people. So I would love if you could dive into that as well [because]I think it's such an interesting journey and in a sense helped lead you to where you are now.

DG Smalling: Well, that's a very fair point. My background isn't in art. My background and my training studies are all around crisis management in particular, as it relates to political violence...

Principally in the Balkans, some Middle East and Africa. But principally Balkans focus during the conflicts there. And when you think about those, the nature of those conflicts in the nineties, in the early 2000s it was very much this nebulous space between both what we would call nation state conflict, ethnic component, ethnic cleansing. But there was a tremendous component that was driven by illegal organizations like mafias and such, and the co-option between what was governmental and what was this weird sort of gray space.

And when you talk about, money laundering, which was core to it, or you're talking about because that was core to the fluidity of actually being able to purchase and move and expedite and operate in that space, then you talk about the whole realm of trafficking, which was a notorious component. Mainly with the use of rape camps and others that period of time was greatly informative, but it started earlier because my parents work religious organizations doing aid work and other things like that in central and Southern Africa.

So when we left the reservation, I was nine years old. And left a small rural community in southeastern Oklahoma. And that was middle of the school year. And the next time I went into a school was in Lausanne, Switzerland. And, from there we went to Douala, Cameroon, Yande, Cameroon.

And those were shortly after different Insurrections [and] rebellions. There was instability all around us at Ecuador, Guinea. I remember going down there, my father and I, I was very young and delivering aid. And we knew we were the first in the country because people were chopping down trees so we could drive into Bata.

And then when we were in Johannesburg, my parents worked the different townships. This was still during Apartheid, coming to the end of Apartheid. So they worked the townships, so Soweto, Sebokim, Alexandria. And then they also worked principally inner city, the Hillbrow area, which was, and still is, notoriously violent.

And so coming back to the States, it was a no brainer where I was going to go in terms of what I was good at and what was naturally inclined. I was very fortunate to be able to study under different people and apprentice under different people and to be directed for quite a while by some of the best in the world at what they did.

And it was a very instructive period of time. And when that came to an end, I was here in the States, I needed to fulfill some clan obligations and I certainly didn't want to go into politics. And it was very much the arts. And fortunately in The Choctaw culture, as well as the Chickasaw, because we're brother tribes, but Southeastern at large and Indian country at large, the role of the artist, particularly when you're able to make it a profession as I have, [occupies] a place that's quite elevated and quite esteemed. And I'm very fortunate that I tell people I feel like I'm working a legal con that I get away with this and I love it.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify.

ABOUT DG SMALLING

Learn more about DG Smalling at https://dgsmalling.ai

ABOUT KINECTIFY

Kinectify is an intelligence and risk management technology company serving gaming operators in the US and Canada. Kinectify's modern AML and Responsible Gaming platform empowers clients to efficiently manage risk with real-time intelligence so they can focus on growing their businesses instead of being bogged down by compliance. In addition, Kinectify's advisory services enhance gaming operators' capacity with industry experts who can design and test programs, meet compliance deadlines, and even provide outsource services for the day-to-day administration of compliance.

To learn more about Kinectify and book a demo, click here.