<\/p>\n
Dear sir you are most welcome to Memkumbli, \u2018Tis pity you cannot abide potlatch, Won\u2019t you, just this once, sit down and eat with us? – No wonder native peoples\u2019 degredation!<\/em> But sir, remember your own Jesus and his story Well, now I see how the owl surrounds the moon – My people, now we can begin. Wanistalkilia! <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kathryn Southworth<\/strong> is a retired academic living in London. She has published reviews and poems in a number of anthologies and magazines including South Bank Poetry and South.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: The potlatch celebrations of northwest coast indigenous peoples involved elaborate gift-giving and were so disapproved of by church and government that the practice was banned and practitioners imprisoned. Wanistalkilia (meaning clearing out the house) was the name given to rare and valuable copper shields which might be ritually destroyed at a potlatch.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Canada \u00a0Christmas 1891 Dear sir you are most welcome to Memkumbli, may the spirits of my longhouse light upon you. \u2018Tis pity you cannot abide potlatch, \u00a0– a sorry offence against all virtues of economy and improving labour. Won\u2019t you, just this once, sit down and eat with us? Join with our dance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14970,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14521\/revisions\/14970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCanada \u00a0Christmas 1891<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nmay the spirits of my longhouse light upon you.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0– a sorry offence against all virtues<\/em>
\nof economy and improving labour.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nJoin with our dance, bear spirit guide your steps.
\nStay for the gifting \u2013 or if you will have no gifts
\nthen I\u2019ll destroy my copper shield, worth all of two canoes.<\/p>\n
\nthrowing away a fortune just to mark<\/em>
\nanother girl\u2019s first bleeding!<\/em>
\n– Yes, I have heard such sentiments before.<\/p>\n
\nabout the merchant who gave everything for one choice pearl:
\nsuch is my honour, and my gifting
\nhonours you and all our company here.
\nCome, do you refuse gifts from your friends
\nupon the birthday of your lord?<\/p>\n
\nthe woodsmoke clouds your eyes and the shrill pipes
\nhave dulled your weary brain; \u2018tis time
\nto show you to a bed. Good rest
\nand soft dreams be yours.<\/p>\n
\nAll will be cleared from house and home today.<\/p>\n