March Book Recommendation
by Tavi Lorelle Carpenter
It’s hard to believe it’s already March! For this month, I decided to go with another book from Heyday. This one is particularly special as it is edited and introduced by Terria Smith, longtime editor of News From Native California Magazine. Published in 2023, Know We Are Here: Voices of Native California Resistance is a collection of essays from prominent California Indigenous scholars sharing their insight into the California Indian experience.
The book is divided into different sections, including: Histories of Resistance, Culture and Language, Places, Nature, and Wellness, Education, and Solidarity. The collection of writers, each with a unique voice, serves as a reminder that indigenous California is incredibly diverse, but within the difference, there is a shared history wherein solidarity can be found.
The introduction written by Terria Smith challenges the notion that having ignorance is somehow unconscious. I’ve heard it expressed a variety of times in my life that people are genuinely surprised to know that California Indigenous people are still living. But I’d never considered what “a thin excuse” that level of ignorance is.
Each essay shares a different side of resistance, serving as a reminder that there is no one way of confronting colonial oppression. While reading this book, I couldn’t help but wish it had always existed. Books like Know We Are Here are essential in challenging the validity of ignorance. It actively confronts the lack of representation of California Indigenous perspectives within scholarship, literature, and media.
Additionally, Know We Are Here is deeply inclusive and rooted in the diversity of California tribal communities. It was beautiful to read about my own homelands and people but just as compelling to learn about how other California Indian communities and people resisted. I’ve always believed that true solidarity comes from not only a recognition of shared experiences but also from the compassionate listening of difference.
I’d like to include a small excerpt from the first essay after the introduction. It is written by Deborah Miranda, and where the book’s title is derived. I love the title because it’s so direct and clear: KNOW WE ARE HERE! It’s a demand to those who would deny our existence or feign ignorance because it’s easier and less disruptive for the settler colonial imagination.
Within the context of her essay, Miranda, writing to a 4th grader who inquired about the “Native experience in California missions,” shares an undeniable truth: “We know we are here only because a few of [our ancestors] managed to survive and used up all of their strength so we could live.”
And we honor them by continuing to resist.
This book was exceptional, and though I did read it in order, that certainly wasn’t necessary. It is styled like a reader, so one can dive into whichever section is most interesting at that moment. However, it is organized with a continuous flow and rhythm that encourages one to keep reading!
I recognize that this is a book I will continually return to throughout my life, gaining a little more every time I pick it up.
You can order your copy on the Heyday website: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/know-we-are-here/
