Here comes my voice: what is the name in Samoan for the bird with the outstretched wings?
The voices of Tusiata Avia are seemingly infinite. She ranges from vulnerable to forbidding to joyful, with forms including pantoums, prayers and invocations. And in this electrifying new work, she gathers all the power of her voice to speak directly into histories of violence.
Avia addresses James Cook in fury. She unravels the 2019 Christchurch massacre, walking us back to the beginning. She describes the contortions we make to avoid blame. And she locates the many voices that offer hope. The Savage Coloniser Book is a personal and political reckoning. As it holds history accountable, it rises in power.
