Last year, I discussed THAT poem with my year 13 English students and I will do so again along with a discussion of all the rhetoric and commentary surrounding it. I will tell them, as I tell them with everything we discuss, that they do not need to like/agree with or even fully understand a text. They can hate it/dislike the strength of language, the powerful language and they can disagree with the themes. They can be challenged and they can choose to think it is racist. All of that is fine. They can even think it is not good poetry. However, what they cannot do is go down the path of trying to ban it or to silence the power of your truth. Death threats, ACT and others sending out hateful, spiteful, racist, bigoted and misogynistic tweets and posts have NO place in Aotearoa. We are not Nazis. As a teacher, a writer, a feminist woman and one who knows far too much about stupid people trying to knock down other people's beliefs and mahi, I will forever support you (unless you start advocating for kitten killing.)
I LOVE that you teach this to our rangatahi. So, so important for our kids to have this kind of education to send them off into the world. Thank all the goddesses for educators like you!
Thanks. People need to be challenged. They don't need to agree but I want an Aotearoa where different ideas are freely expressed and debated respectfully. Women/writers should be listened to. Sometimes, we know stuff. ;)
...until "the blonde jesus returns from the blue skies", or ACT is vanquished. Noho ora mai, those uncles are bad news. Kia kaha wāhiine toa! Ngā mhi nui!
Brilliant, Tusiata. I remember sitting in a dark cinema watching Once Were Warriors. Jake points at Beth and says "Don't get lippy with me woman!" And I scrunched down in my seat and silently begged Beth not to get lippy with Jake. Just shush. Oh my gosh what a powerful lesson that was, that my own womanly feminist brain was trying to shush Beth, as if her silence would make everything go away. Thank you for your courage and for continuing to NOT BE SHUSHED!
I have been told by a man that I say ‘um’ too often and too loudly and that I ‘overtalk’ (is that even a word?!) and that I take up too much space…..so many man rules to follow. SO….YES, let’s get ‘lippy’ and often.
How will ACT try to reconcile the voice of this poem with the voice of the poem that so infuriated them: will they take this at face value, as literal truth, the way they react to the '250th anniversary of James Cook's arrival in New Zealand'?? I really do wonder if the main agitators skipped all their high school English classes, or slept through them, when they could have learnt about tone, register, voice, persona, imagination, fantasy, hyperbole as rhetorical and interrogative technique, the speculative 'what if'? And all nuance, the Keatsean mysteries/doubts/uncertainties that they seem incapable of sitting with and mulling over.
Last year, I discussed THAT poem with my year 13 English students and I will do so again along with a discussion of all the rhetoric and commentary surrounding it. I will tell them, as I tell them with everything we discuss, that they do not need to like/agree with or even fully understand a text. They can hate it/dislike the strength of language, the powerful language and they can disagree with the themes. They can be challenged and they can choose to think it is racist. All of that is fine. They can even think it is not good poetry. However, what they cannot do is go down the path of trying to ban it or to silence the power of your truth. Death threats, ACT and others sending out hateful, spiteful, racist, bigoted and misogynistic tweets and posts have NO place in Aotearoa. We are not Nazis. As a teacher, a writer, a feminist woman and one who knows far too much about stupid people trying to knock down other people's beliefs and mahi, I will forever support you (unless you start advocating for kitten killing.)
I LOVE that you teach this to our rangatahi. So, so important for our kids to have this kind of education to send them off into the world. Thank all the goddesses for educators like you!
Thanks. People need to be challenged. They don't need to agree but I want an Aotearoa where different ideas are freely expressed and debated respectfully. Women/writers should be listened to. Sometimes, we know stuff. ;)
Backing down to bullies rewards their bad behavior.......backing down to fascists creates complicity. Fuck that. Xxx ❤️
Exactly the same situation in USA right now. Some in our current "leadership" are following Trump's playback.
😢 and now our guvmt are running to catch up......
...until "the blonde jesus returns from the blue skies", or ACT is vanquished. Noho ora mai, those uncles are bad news. Kia kaha wāhiine toa! Ngā mhi nui!
Brilliant, Tusiata. I remember sitting in a dark cinema watching Once Were Warriors. Jake points at Beth and says "Don't get lippy with me woman!" And I scrunched down in my seat and silently begged Beth not to get lippy with Jake. Just shush. Oh my gosh what a powerful lesson that was, that my own womanly feminist brain was trying to shush Beth, as if her silence would make everything go away. Thank you for your courage and for continuing to NOT BE SHUSHED!
Let’s get Iippy, Beth! ✊🏽📣
I really want a "Deranged Bitch" top!
I have been told by a man that I say ‘um’ too often and too loudly and that I ‘overtalk’ (is that even a word?!) and that I take up too much space…..so many man rules to follow. SO….YES, let’s get ‘lippy’ and often.
How will ACT try to reconcile the voice of this poem with the voice of the poem that so infuriated them: will they take this at face value, as literal truth, the way they react to the '250th anniversary of James Cook's arrival in New Zealand'?? I really do wonder if the main agitators skipped all their high school English classes, or slept through them, when they could have learnt about tone, register, voice, persona, imagination, fantasy, hyperbole as rhetorical and interrogative technique, the speculative 'what if'? And all nuance, the Keatsean mysteries/doubts/uncertainties that they seem incapable of sitting with and mulling over.
I'm so glad you have a platform!
CABBAGE