A former Poet Laureate on the wisdom of Native women

KERA's Think

KERA

Society & Culture, 071003, Kera, Think, Krysboyd

4.8 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For a Native American girl growing up, finding your voice is finding your power. Joy Harjo is a former poet laureate of the United States and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her life dedicated to words and music, opening her eyes of life beyond traditional Western thought, and why artists are the culture point people for troubled times. Her book is “Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Looking for the stories that matter most to Central Texas, I'm Jerry Kihanal, host of the Austin Signal, your daily dive into the news, music, sports, and culture shaping life in Austin.
0:14.1	We bring you reporting from trusted voices at KUT, KUTX, Texas Standard, and more all in one place. Tune in, stay informed, and get connected every day on the Austin Signal. Austin Signal, weekdays at one on KUT News, or on demand at KUT.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:49.3	Once a caterpillar is tucked within its chrysalis,
0:54.7	complex biological processes take over so that a couple of weeks later a fully formed butterfly emerges. It's a remarkable metamorphosis, but it's pretty passive for the animal.
1:01.1	The transition from girlhood to womanhood doesn't work that way.
1:05.5	From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. Throughout the process, there are inevitably problems
1:12.6	to navigate past and questions to answer about who a woman is and who she will be. My guest's
1:19.2	lifelong experience has been working through those struggles while inhabiting the great joys
1:23.6	and also the challenges of her identity as a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation.
1:28.3	One of the most important lessons she has learned is the value in asking for help.
1:33.3	And in her new book, she hopes to share that wisdom with young women who are still in the process of becoming themselves.
1:40.3	Joy Harjo was Poet Laureate of the United States starting in 2019.
1:47.6	Her newest book is called Girl Warrior on Coming of Age.
1:49.2	Joy, welcome back to think.
1:51.6	Well, thank you.
1:53.3	Thank you for having me on here.
1:54.1	Appreciate it.
2:00.5	The metaphor of weaving is one that runs through this book, especially in the way that generations are connected. And it brings to
2:03.4	mind this striking idea that, like, as in a cloth, there are individual threads that never
2:08.5	directly cross one another. They are still essentially part of the structure of the same cloth.
2:14.3	Can you talk about how you started thinking about this? I think it came about because in our language, in several indigenous languages,
2:24.3	the word for aunt, maternal aunt is mother and the paternal brothers, I mean the father's brother, the paternal uncles is his father.
	...

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