(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Contemporary Fiction Views: Women characters connected to their cultures [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-11 House post and totem at White Rock, B.C. If Vancouver Island and Aotearoa New Zealand were next to each other, one slightly curled around the other like a mother protecting her daughter, the two parts of author Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall would be closer to each other. In her new book Tauhou, the fables, poems and fragments of family history work to make the two parts ever more near to each other. As a writer of Māori and Coast Salish descent, Nuttall comes from peoples who have been nourished and worn down by the ocean, peoples who have suffered at the hands of colonizers, peoples who hear and speak with the past and the natural world on occasion. In the various parts of Tauhou, women who live on both islands try to become their own true selves. Sometimes it's through artistry, whether that which they create or the tattoos that are representative of their people. Sometimes it's through the appreciation they have for the gifts of the land. Sometimes it's acknowledgement of the pain that has been inflicted upon them or the pain of their ancestors. In one imagined sequence, a group of women spirits "look at one another, these women from across the centuries, and find small glimmers of themselves hiding in one another's forms." Tauhou is a deeply feminine book in that every main character, all of them female, is thoroughly a being of her place and her family. Even the characters who are lonely and not seeking out others makes connections with other women that make her more fully herself. Many of the characters are lesbian, and the effect is to more fully be imbued with the strengths and sorrows of womanhood. Nuttall's writing is deeply felt when she is describing how the various characters feel or spend their time. But it really shines when she is describing the world around those characters. It is easy to feel that one is in the forest, just beyond the sound of the ocean. Anyone who has ever been near the ocean, especially near the San Juan Islands that are part of the landscape in Nuttall's writing, knows days like this: "It is a pretty gloomy day, the coastal skyline falling down close to the earth." Or this: She watches the weather pass through the forest, slowly and with a lighter touch than it would on the coast. Often there is a fine mist, or slight rays of light that penetrate the dense thicket of redwoods around her home -- the only signal of what is happening in the world beyond her cabin. In one of the stories, a young woman is sent across the ocean to the other island. She is to warn the people there of the huge ships that have been seen carrying light-skinned strangers. It is a day of difficult paddling. One of the people she meets was a childhood friend of her grandmother when she made her way to the island. The fellowship and sisterhood that carries through the generations is shown, not told about, and is a strong representation of how people can connect. In several segments, contemporary women see and sometimes talk to spirits from the past. There is no comfort, but there is comradeship and recognition. Nuttall does not write extensively of the trauma done to her peoples as subjects of colonialization, but what is there is powerful. In an afterword, she is more forthright: This writing is entirely imagined and doesn't reflect any real iwi or culture. ... It is not supposed to be an accurate, traditional or "correct" perspective on any Māori or Coast Salish people or culture. ... The only things that are completely and unequivocally true in this work are the effects of colonization and genocide against Indigenous people, such as pollution, land neglect and abuse, domestic violence, the legacy or residential schools, urbanization, cultural and familial disenfranchisement, children in state care, suicide, and mental and physical illness. Nuttall is not explicitly writing about herself, but her strength and resilience shine in Tauhou. It is a book of remembrances, of being connected to the natural and spirital world, and of being part of a rich culture that may not reveal itself easily to strangers, but is something in which individual members of a big family can thoroughly belong. 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