On activisim and poetry: An interview with Tunchai Redvers

All Lit Up: Congratulations on your debut collection of poetry and prose with Kegedonce Press! Can you tell us about Fireweed and how it came to be?Tunchai Redvers: Thank you! I loved to write growing up in my middle and early high school years. But then there was this long period into my undergrad years where I stopped writing poetry. I still loved to write, though it was mostly limited to academia. There was a part of me that shut off, and was afraid to touch poetry or expressive writing, for fear of what would come out, I think. I had gone through quite a bit, and was not expressing—or ready or willing to express—all these things I was carrying. Then in my final semester of undergrad, I got super sick with mono and burnout. I was basically bedridden for months, so I picked up the pen, and the bulk of Fireweed poured out of me. I was finally able to confront my story, and continued to work on it, add, and edit over the next couple of years until I was ready to release it into the world. ALU: In addition to being a writer, you’re also an activist. Can you tell us about your Indigenous youth-led organization We Matter and what you hope to achieve? TR: I started We Matter with my brother, Kelvin, in 2016. There were a number of Indigenous youth suicide crises occurring, and we were upset by the lack of action, support, and recourse for Indigenous youth around mental health and life promotion. Growing up Indigenous, we were also so used to seeing and experiencing a lack of positive and hopeful representation in the public and media. So, we decided to do something about it and started We Matter, which began as a national multi-media campaign to communicate to Indigenous youth that they are not alone, and that no matter how hard life gets, there is always a way forward. It snowballed from there, and now three years later we are Canada’s only national Indigenous youth-specific mental health and life promotion organization—dedicated to creating spaces of support for Indigenous youth and promoting hope, culture and strength. We have a small team of six serving the entire country, and ultimately, want Indigenous youth to be able to exist in a world where they feel seen, heard, loved, resourced, and supported—which unfortunately is not the current reality. ALU: We read that when the We Matter Campaign was launched in 2016, it reached over one million people through social media. What was that response like? TR: Having such a massive reach within just one month spoke to the enormous gap that existed, and reassured us that what we started was so, so needed and missing. The response was amazing, and inspired us to keep pouring everything we could into growing the campaign and organization.   ALU: How does your activism inform your writing, if at all?TR: My poetry and activism go hand-in-hand. My identity as a queer Indigenous womxn is inherently political, therefore all of my writing which centres this identity, and the self-love, healing, anger, and reclamation that comes with it, is inherently political and radical. Therefore, my poetry and activism is actually one in the same, I suppose. I advocate for myself through my writing, and in turn, anyone else who relates or identifies with that. My poetry and writing are for myself first, and subsequently those who find solace, understanding, discomfort, or learning from it.A few years ago I attended an Assembly of First Nations annual meeting, where the National Chief and Indigenous Affairs Minister were doing an open Q&A. I went up to the mic, and I posed my question in the form of a poem I had written on Canada’s role in the Indigenous youth suicide epidemic. I read the poem, paused, and waited for a response, to which they had no idea how to respond. It was a super powerful moment. That’s what I like to do with my poetry—create moments of impact. Fireweed is full of those impact moments. They are very short pieces, sometimes even just one or two lines, but hit you, and force you to sit with them for a moment. ALU: What are you currently reading?TR: This is a good story. Back in late August of last year, I was roaming around this old used bookstore in Vancouver near my brother’s place. It was one of those bookstores where there were just stacks and bins of books in no order. At the end of one row, at the very bottom of this huge shelf, I was drawn to a book—there was only one copy there, and pulled it out. It’s called Guerrilla Radio: Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio and Serbia’s Underground Resistance. I had never had any sort of fascination/interest with Serbia, nor had ever thought about the Balkans really, but I love rock’n’roll and I love resistant and resurgent movements, so I had to buy it. It sat on my shelf for months, and then early this year I met my partner, who happened to move to Canada in late August of last year, from the Balkans—she’s Serbian. I remembered I had found this book, which I am now currently reading. Coincidence? * * *Tunchai Redvers, known to spirit as White Feather Woman, is a two-spirit social justice warrior, writer, and wanderer belonging to Deninu K’ue First Nation. With Dene, Métis and Scottish roots on her maternal side and English, Italian and Irish roots on her paternal side, she was born and raised in Treaty 8 territory, Northwest Territories. Now living in southern Ontario, she is the co-founder of We Matter, a national organization dedicated to Indigenous youth hope and life promotion. Recognized nationally and internationally for her work, her advocacy and writing centers the reclamation and indigenization of identity, mental health and healing. She spends most of her time resisting, loving, and travelling across territories, and considers herself a nomad just like her ancestors. She finds safety in the words: be proud of who you are, be thankful for those who love and guide you, and never forget where you came from.* * *Fireweed is available August 2019. Ask us for a reminder email here.