Writer and poet Sasha LaPointe Photo: Supplied/ Bridget McGee Houchins
At the age of three, writer Sasha LaPointe was given her Skagit name in a ceremony - taqʷšəblu.
In the Pacific Northwest, it’s a big deal to be given a Skagit name and she was her great-grandmother’s namesake - Violet taqʷšəblu Hilbert. It’s been a source of pride and a foundation to draw power from ever since.
But LaPointe’s journey to accepting and being proud of her native heritage hasn’t been straight, nor smooth.
From the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribes, Sasha’s family are native to the Pacific Northwest where she grew up on a reservation near Seattle.
“I lived in this very beautiful space that was also challenging and hard - growing up on the reservation in the middle of the woods, so younger me couldn’t wait to get out. I dreamed of the city, I dreamed of going to concerts, venues and anywhere but the reservation.”
And that’s what she did.
With a court-approved emancipation at the age of 15, LaPointe spent her late teens and early twenties working and performing in Seattle.
Her writing draws inspiration from both her Coast Salish heritage and her life in the city.
In her memoir, Red Paint and recent collection of essays, Thunder Song, LaPointe writes about her upbringing, growing up as mixed-heritage and grappling with which parts of herself to celebrate and which parts to conceal. There’s trauma, PTSD, sexual assaults, finding community in the Seattle punk scene and re-discovering and reclaiming her heritage.
Red Paint won the Washington State Book award while Thunder Song has received praise from Seattle Magazine and The Seattle Times. Her collection of poetry Rose Quartz is also available through Milkweed Press.
LaPointe’s great grandmother died when she was 25. She was hugely instrumental in preserving and revitalising their native Lushootseed language. She was a storyteller and LaPointe is hugely grateful she was able to have so much time with Violet taqʷšəblu Hilbert. It was in the moment she passed, her need to carry on the work hit her.
“I would come home for the salmon ceremonies or naming ceremonies but it was always begrudgingly. But as soon as we lost her, something clicked in me. All of a sudden I felt so lucky.”
It wasn’t until she had experienced the city and meeting non-Native people, she realised how special her childhood was and “that I had been around her and our culture as Coast Salish people.
“I realised when she passed away, I’ll never hear her tell another story in Lushootseed again - how lucky I was that since birth this has been something around me.”
Previously she had been so hungry for anywhere but the reservation, she had started “cultivating this life that I thought was right.”
That extended even to her diet.
One of LaPointe’s favourite essays, ‘Salmon Ceremony’, in Thunder Song takes place during the time LaPointe was a vegan. During one of the ceremonies, her uncle dropped a large king salmon into her arms before she could reveal she didn’t eat fish.
“What kind of Indian are you?”, her uncle asked.
A gut punch. And a question that has stayed with her.
In the punk scene everyone else was vegan and an animal rights activist, she’d taken on the same beliefs.
She now says that in doing so, and being so impressionable she had denied a deep part of herself.
Her family and ancestors are salmon people and the culture is built around salmon returning. It wasn’t just food but a sacred resource.
These days, LaPointe finds joy and power in being a native person.
LaPointe studied at The Institute of American Indian Arts with a focus on creative nonfiction and poetry and received a double MFA. She’s been a mentor for Seattle’s youth poet laureate programme and teaches creative writing at the Native Pathways Programme at The Evergreen State College.
She will be appearing in several sessions at the Word Festival in Christchurch.
In describing her anticipation and excitement over visiting New Zealand for the first time, LaPointe says she’s “high-key freaking out”.
Sasha LaPointe spoke to Perlina Lau of Culture 101.
