The Sealy Challenge
#๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ 3:
๐๐ฒ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐จ๐๐๐ฎ๐น ๐ง๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ: ๐ ๐๐ผ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ด๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฃ๐ผ๐ฒ๐บ๐, gathered by ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ, Editor โ๏ธ
The way this collection started off I already felt seen and read. It writes: โDoes time exists mostly within need? The need to get somewhere; for a day to come, for yesterday to be gone?โ
Oof. With the way I am hyper-aware of time, this really hit home.
I must admit I had to Google a lot of the terms in this book but I was grateful for it and honoured that I was able to learn more about Indigenous culture through this collection.
I related so much to the recurring theme of colonization, feeling a sense of generational loss, losing a home and trying to root yourself in a culture that is being erased. Being Afro-Palestinian, their words spoke so much truth, and I felt a sense of kinship with these authors who express a tremendous sense of loss that is bigger than one individual.
Every contributor brought their own point of view to what it means to be an Indigenous person, and it comes out in poetry about body and heritage, prose about the reality of having someone try to assimilate you, horror stories about infected people and more. This was a thoughtful body of work Iโm happy to have discovered, and look forward to reading more Indigenous voices from around the globe. Being dispossessed, oppressed and erased is a reality far too many of us understand intimately.
๐ ๐ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐/๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐/๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐บ๐:
โBarbed wire fences spread like invasive vines whose only fruit are cancer tumors that bloom on every branch of our family.โ
- Craig Santos PerezโHe is so incensed by our nativeness that he still refuses to allow my firstborn to test out of ELL, to remain home with me, to accept his role as satellite white father. Heโs overturned ICWA cases and kept kids away from their parents. He practised family law. Heโs white. He knows the white system.โ
- Joan Naviuyuk KaneโDamnedest thing you ever see
When travelling with a talking skeleton.
Every now and then, the bones be asking,
โWhen are we not in a dream?
When are we not skeletons?โโ
- Sy Hoahwah
Follow me on Instagram @samaapoetry for more and check out what The Sealy Challenge is here. Yesterdayโs selection is right here.
Tomorrowโs selection is My Art is Killing me by Amber Dawn.
