Darcy Little Badger wears a handmade cosplay costume in honor of Poison Ivy. Her bustier’s intricate beadwork and traditional Apache camp skirts are some of her tributes to the Lipan Apache culture. (Lauren J. Map/San Diego Union-Tribune)

Lauren J. Mapp San Diego Union-Tribune

Darcy Little Badger carried a bunch of roses and wore a Poison Ivy cosplay costume as she toured the halls of the San Diego Convention Center on Friday, July 21st.

But instead of wearing the bodysuits and minidresses that many Poison Ivy cosplayers wear to San Diego Comic-Con, Little Badger wore traditional Native American-inspired costumes.

Her red leather corset bust was adorned with intricate hand-stitched beadwork with woven leaves and vines against a red background.Her beaded top was paired with a traditional Lipan Apache camp The skirt, sewn by her mother, was of green calico fabric with a white vine pattern, a nod to the DC Comics anti-heroine Poison Ivy, who first appeared in the Batman series in 1966.

Little Badger used to watch her mom do beading projects and incorporate tiny beads into her own designs.

“Watching her made me want to do it. I learned mostly through trial and error, but also by asking her for help. So she taught me everything I know,” said author and comic writer Little Badger.She is the author of award-winning works Fantasy novel “Erazzo” (with Magdalene Visaggio) Manga “Strangeland” series.

Cosplay — a Japanese coined word that combines the words costume and play — is a style of performance art that creates costumes that pay tribute to your favorite characters from cartoons, TV shows, and movies.

For Indigenous cosplayers like Little Badger, the style of costume design provides a means of using traditional crafts such as beadwork in new ways, tying their traditions with their love of comic books.

At Comic-Con, it’s not uncommon to see people wearing cosplay costumes designed to be exact replicas of the original character’s, such as Taran Huston, who dressed up as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars series.

Houston, who started cosplaying inspired by her high school friends, made her first costume with her mother. It’s Boma, a character from the Japanese anime series “Heat Guy J”. They went to a thrift store and bought several items similar to Boma’s clothes, then cut and sewed them to fit the character.

Over time, cosplay became one of Houston’s favorite hobbies. The Los Angeles resident sometimes dressed up as a Star Wars character with a group of other cosplayers to visit sick children in the hospital, and eventually Houston inspired his spouse, Little Badger, to start cosplaying as well.

When choosing cosplay costumes to make, Houston tends to pick goofy male or tough female characters that he feels a personal connection with. Houston said that regardless of which character he chooses, anyone can create a costume that represents their culture and experience.

“There are a lot of people who say, ‘A cosplayer should stay true to the character’s ethnic identity,'” Houston said.

“Personally, I think it’s a little silly. Houston said the Skywalker cosplay costume he wore at Comic-Con on Friday had a more accurate design, but he wanted to borrow Navajo culture for the new portrayal of the character.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do, especially because the[Jedi’s]shoes could be like a Navajo woman’s lap boots, and the upper part of the costume could definitely be like a Navajo rag dress,” Houston said.

Some Comic-Con attendees, such as Grace Bennally of Phoenix, Arizona, consider incorporating Indigenous culture into cosplay as an extension of Native storytelling traditions.

On Friday, passers-by quickly spotted Benalee, dressed as Princess Zelda, wearing the Zonite costume from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the latest installment in the Zelda game series.

As with other cosplay costumes she designed, the Navajo cosplayers incorporated aspects of her culture into their costumes. Her Benalie hand was adorned with a Navajo ring made of silver and carved turquoise stones, and around her neck was a choker of bone and silver beads tied with a leather cord. This was a gift from her mother.

As a child, Benalley said she saw little representation of indigenous people in the media. Even today, she said, it’s still rare to see Native American characters in animated series and movies, despite the growing popularity of shows like “Reservation Dogs.”

Putting an Indigenous twist on a pop culture character, Benalee is now able to share her story with her nearly 10,000 Instagram followers on Instagram And the people she interacts with at Comic Con.

“Storytelling is the only way to tell our story within the community,” Bennerley said. “Our myths, legends, folklore, it’s all thanks to people from the past. Even in the age of social media, we’re still telling stories in our lives, and I think that’s great.”