Sasha LapointeCritiques

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe is a Court Salish woman living in Tacoma, Washington. In these essays, she writes about her family, her history, and her concerns as a queer indigenous woman.

The essays' topics are wide-ranging and deeply personal. One is about food - becoming vegetarian, but still finding connection in the salmon ceremonies of her tribe - another about her queerness and another about her relationship with her mother. Throughout all of them, who she is in her passions and love for her people comes through loud and clear. LaPointe identifies her great-grandmother as the storyteller, but she definitely is too. I'm only sorry I didn't read her memoir Red Paint first, as that may have given me more of a clear background to place the individual essays in.

This is an absolute marvel of a book!

Love historically does not bode well for the women I come from. For over five generations the women of my lineage have been monumentally fucked over by love. Love has been weaponized against us in varying degrees of violence and abandonment. In cases of ownership and gain, love has been used to defeat us as indigenous women...”

“All over the world. Indigenous communities are fighting for their survival, the survival of their sacred lands, their languages, and stories...They are water protectors and knowledge keepers, storytellers and healers. “

I am so glad Lapointe landed on my radar, after reading a couple of glowing reviews. This collection of essays takes a deep, clear-eyed look at what it is to a Native woman, with all the pain and joy that has been thrown in her path, along with her special relationships with her mother and grandmothers. Lapointe is a punk rocker, a poet, activist and a very fine writer. I am looking forward to reading more of her work.½

LaPointe's band, Medusa Stare, is on Bandcamp:

https://medusastarepunk.bandcamp.com/releases

The book is touching, haunting, full of pain and triumph, grounded in the history and geography of the Salish Sea, and her people.

This book really drew me in and I read it quickly. I’m still thinking about it, not ready to review.

This is a gut-wrenchng book to read from first to last. LaPointe is a powerful, poetic writer whose story begins with abuse, betrayal and loss. Unfortunately, trauma and betrayal continue throughout much of her life. She does find equilibrium, and perhaps even redemption, but it's a long difficult journey.½

I totally had no idea what this book was about. For some reason I thought it was going to be about punk rock. I was so wrong. And this book was so fantastic! I am glad I did not know what I was going to read. It is about Sasha who is of the Coast Salish tribe. She tells her story and intersperses her ancestor, Comptia, story in it also. Sasha tells of moving around a lot as a child and the abuse and assaults she lived through. It was not until she looked back on her past that she was able to call it what it was. She speaks of the two main men in her life--Richard and Brandon--and the love she had with each but neither was enough to help her heal. She had to learn how to heal herself with the help of her female ancestors. I liked that she brought Comptia's story into this book as I learned something about the history and culture of the Skagit River area of Washington, a place I know so little of. I admire Sasha, her healing, and her going into her future. I am so glad I read this. Just wonderful!

nonfiction/memoir - woman poet/writer/punk musician/fan from a Coast Salish tribe deals with trauma from rape and sexual assault, and a heartbreaking miscarriage; she also researches her ancestral stories, particularly the abuses and crimes suffered during colonization.

Didn't love it but it was a satisfying memoir about coming of age as an adult and finding a place in a world that is both intimately yours and very much not yours. I feel like her writing is a little unpolished but the feeling is there. There are a lot of things in the book that I feel like could have been spun out more, made richer and deeper, but she never gets beyond what felt like a surface exploration of some very difficult topics.