About
I have chosen to highlight the work of academic, artist, media artist, poet and Wasauksing First nation member, Rebeka Tabobondung because of how she weaves her artistic practice with her academic analyses. Through her multidisciplinary work, Rebeka highlights the importance of self determination through the construction of autonomous Indigenous media. She describes these connections in the following writing: Indigenous Perspectives on Globalization: Self determination Through Autonomous Media Creation.
Her Poetry
We are waking up to our history
from a forced slumber
We are breathing it into our lungs
so it will be part of us again
It will make us angry at first
because we will see how much you stole from us
and for how
long you watched us suffer
we will see how you see us
and how when we copied your ways
we killed our own.
We will cry and cry and cry
because we can never be the same again
But we will go home to cry
and we will see ourselves in this huge mess
and we will
gently whisper the circle back
and it will be old and it will be new
Then we will breathe our history back to you
you will feel how strong and alive it is
and you will feel yourself become a part of it
And it will shock you at first
because it is too big
to see all at once
and you won’t want to believe it
you will see how you see us
and all the disaster in your ways
how much we lost
And you will cry and cry and cry
because we can never be the same again
But we will cry with you
and we will see ourselves
in this huge mess
and we will gently whisper the circle back|
and it will be old and it will be new.
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