Synopsis:
Birthing holds a different significance for Indigenous communities that have experienced colonial attempts at elimination. For scholar, poet and irredentist Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville, (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki), birth is an act of resistance. She joins us to talk about her journey to parenthood and her experiences as a scholar who traverses between Indigeneity and migrancy.
Notes:
UBC academic page
Personal website
Alice Te Punga Somerville: My story as told to Elisabeth Easther
Alice Te Punga Somerville and the politics of italics
Important reading and writing questions for Alice Te Punga Somerville
Writing while colonised
Buy her first book of poetry
Music:
Music in this episode includes ‘SMOOTH LIFE’ by Killer Chops used under an Audio Standard Licence from Adobe Stock.
Birthing and Justice is written and produced by Dr Ruth De Souza on the traditional and unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations. Sound editing by Olivia Smith.