WORD Christchurch has begun in Ōtautahi and two of the speakers are indigenous wāhine who formed a close bond touring the west coast of the US.
Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe is a poet and essayist from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribes in the US and one of the speakers at WORD.
Guest curator and award-winning poet Tayi Tibble said she wanted to bring in diverse wāhine voices.
The first out-of-town festival Tibble was invited to was WORD but there weren’t other rangatahi Māori and she said Aotearoa has come a long way since then, having more of a range of voices.
She was really pleased to bring in LaPointe and reciprocate the manaakitanga the poet showed Tibble in the US during her book tour.
LaPointe said it was a gift to be in Aotearoa.
“It just reiterates to me the connection and the care and the love indigenous communities have and show each other,” she said.
Meeting was ‘ancestors’ wildest dreams’
The pair met in Seattle in 2022. Tibble’s editor knew LaPointe’s agent, Duvall Osteen, who is now Tibble’s agent as well. Osteen sent LaPointe Tibble’s book saying their books were ‘sister books’ and thought the two would be well-matched to do events together because of the similar themes and work as indigenous women.
“The first tour we were just blown away to meet each other and be able to share our knowledge. It was really like ‘whoa, this is our ancestors’ wildest dreams’, Tibble said.
“In my writing experience in the literary world, I never experienced an immediate bond as we had. I felt like I had met a sister,” LaPointe said.
They met up again at the Portland Book Festival, did a series of events together, and LaPointe said it felt effortless to be in a conversation with another indigenous poet.
Tibble said they talked about how the Pacific Ocean was a highway and they were picking up on a journey their ancestors had made.
Choosing the Res over LA
“Sasha, she always laughs because she remembers at the end of our tour, I had another week in the US and I planned to go back to LA for the week and then I was like to Sasha, ‘Hey, instead of going to LA, can I please come and hang out at your house?”
“I live on the reservation in the northwest and I was so blown away... and was like ‘Tacoma is no LA’ but I was so happy.”
She said they talked about writing, shared stories, and went down to a creek near her house where salmon have resumed running.
“It was a very inspiring week, a very meaningful week and I’m so glad you chose the res over LA,” LaPointe said.
Racism on tour
Their latest US tour in April was “amazing and cool” but also stressful, full-on and some places weren’t safe spaces, Tibble said.
In particular there was an event on Bainbridge Island, which is occupied Coast Salish territory.
Tibble said the island was stolen land and also where the first of more than 120,000 Japanese people were uprooted from their West Coast homes and confined to concentration camps during WWII because of their ethnicity.
The event was a packed event, with at least 150 people, and they got a standing ovation. However, afterwards during question time they were given “intense ignorant questions”, which Tibble said showed they didn’t comprehend what they’d said about their experiences as indigenous people.
She said it was very aggressive and they were asked about white feminism and how to decolonise and “solve racism” and one woman had asked what she could do to make sure her daughter wasn’t “a racist”.
Not paid for a sold-out event
Tibble said to make matters worse, the organisation hadn’t told them it was a priced event and it had no intention of giving them money for their time.
When they raised the issue, the organisation doubled down to say there would be no payment.
“I think we felt trapped, I know I felt trapped on the stage,” LaPointe said. “Older white women were asking us really out-of-pocket stuff... a lot of focus on white feminism and this was clearly not the point of our talk and we felt unprotected.”
“It’s not our job to tell you how to fix colonisation, it’s your job to listen. Hear our story as Indigenous women, hear our work, and maybe just let it sink in, but it’s not our job to solve your white guilt, your coloniser guilt.”
The next day they visited Chief Seattle’s grave and its marker said “Chief Seattle, firm friend of the Whites”. LaPointe said that was the moment she broke down into tears.
It was the burial site for one of their most prominent and beloved chiefs who they both wanted to honour but to experience the racism and then see the plaque just really ‘dug the dagger in,” LaPointe said.
Support from other BBIPOC
Tibble said the experience was still important because it was eye-opening and put them on the path to think critically about how they moved through Pākehā tours and literary spaces in New Zealand and in the US.
“I don’t think our ancestors’ wildest dreams were for us to go share our stories to white people for no money and be traumatised.”
Tibble said there were native American women who caught on to what had happened and how the museum had no intention of compensating them, and they raised funds within their community.
LaPointe said she learned, “No actually, we can choose not to answer your bogus questions that are sometimes borderline, sometimes outright racist.”
She also said there was also huge support from Quenton Baker, a queer black poet who had their backs and decided to support them in attending their events and help moderate.
Tibble and LaPointe speak tonight in Ahakoa He Iti He Pounamu: A Poetry Reading and talk about kinships this Saturday, August 31.