Week 3 Term 4 - New Text: Tusiata Avia - 'The Savage Coloniser Book' (October 23 - October 27)

Tusiata Avia's 'The Savage Coloniser Book'

THE TEXT

I have been on a mission to find the right text for our new NCEA Level 1 English course. I wanted to find a text that was relevant, challenging and engaging for both akonga and kaiako. Released 2020, Tusiata Avia's 'The Savage Coloniser Book' is a collection of poetry written at time that is both personal and political reckoning. She addresses political figures and events closely connected to New Zealand in Captain James Cook, the 2019 Christchurch masacare, COVID 19 (to name a few). "The voices of Tusiata Avia are infinite. She ranges from vulnerable to forbidding to celebratory with forms including pantoums, prayers and invocations. And in this electrifying new work, she gathers all the power of her voice to speak directly into histories of violence." (Te Herenga Waka University Press). I came across this text earlier this year, I had heard alot about it. It was not until this year that I read it and fell in love straight away. I knew that this text would be the perfect text for our new NCEA Level 1 Program, as her voice is relevant to what the students know and what they need to know in their world and space right now. It also aligned with our theme - Our Stories, Our Histories and Our Voices. 

THE TITLE

There is nothing tamed or civilised with the title. Avia is unapologetically 'savage' in her mission to question and challeng the colonial lens. She uses the political events in New Zealand exploits the colonial outlook on it by celebrating and questioning it. The title is suggestive to the tone of the collection as a whole and in our current political and social landscape 'The Savage Coloniser Book' aligns itself well. 

THE POETRY

There are three poems from the collection that stand out for me. They are: 

• Jacinda Ardern goes to the Pacific Forum in Tuvalu and my family colonises her house

This poem is Avia's bitter lyric to Jacinda Arden and her time in Tuvalu for the Pacific Leaders Forum. In a time where our political leaders are scrutinised for every step that they take and decision that they make, Avia does not shy away from her critique of our former Prime Minister. She writes: 

It's a crisis all right, but it's also tiring and Jacinda goes back to her house which she paid for out of her prime minister money

We all know that her partner does a lot of the child-care, but you can't tell me that it is not tiring to be a prime minister of a whole country and have a baby as well. 

It must be nearly as titiring as being a Tuvaluan prime minister sitting on his own roof to stop from drowning

• Massacre

The Christchurch Mosque Attack 2019 is the center of Avia's 'Massacre'. A dark day in New Zealand's history and one that was felt across the world. Avia sheds light on the event and details the day of and the days following on what happened. She sheds on the colonial lens on the massacre - how people across the country felt for the victims, her interpretation of 'he isn't us' something that Jacinda Arden said in relation to the murderer and where Avia feels that 'he is us' because she too herself has been around people who shared similar racist views. She connects the murdered and the murderer to Parihaka and Ruatoko. I particulary loved the last verse where she highlights how even though we are deeply hurt for the Muslim community, the racisim towards them and 'other's will continue. It is something that is engrained in our society. She writes: 

A white poet can only talk about he feels

I can only talk about how I feel

I can only weep like the white woman

and write you this poem that will note end

• Covid in the time of Primeminiscinda

2020 is a year that we will all remember. COVID 19, lockdown, masks, pandemic. An era that saw our lives change overnight and where the word and concept of 'isolation' became a reality for everyone. Avia writes and ode to Jacinda and her leadership during COVID 19. She writes: 

I'm sitting in cafes with the panickers, the terrified and the lonely. 

I know ther eis plenty to panic about. 

I'm staying six feet away. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

I believe that this collection is a powerful resource. We have been looking for texts to use in our program that is relevant, though provoking and engaging. 'The Savage Coloniser Book' is a text that I am excited to use in our NCEA Level 1 English program for 2024. It aligns with our new curriculum for NCEA level 1 (Alby's Blog Entry Post - 27/08/23). As mentioned earlier, our theme for our new course is 'Our Stories, Our History, Our Voices' - I believe that this text will help our students understand the voices and perspectives of others (who are in close proximity in their local, social and cultural context). It will also encourage them to think about their voice in the social, cultural and political landscape and space that they are in.  

THE LEARNING

'The Savage Coloniser Book' is going to be the primary text for our Term 1 program in our new NCEA Level 1 Course. We have starting to plan this out and we are currently working on our unit plan for Term 1 - see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 15/10/23. The text is rich and we are hoping to focus on: 

• Learn about the context of Tusiata Avia’s collection of poetry from TSG - how does it fit into the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.
• The students need to have a deep understanding of the context and pull on the text for examples.
• Who is Tusiata Avia as a poet and what these poems mean?
• What language are we seeing here that is linked or appropriate to the context?
• The students will look at poems from the collection that they have studied in class and bringing all the knowledge from the texts studied and talk about the language of ‘protest’ or ‘anger’ from the texts.