Hello, relatives. Welcome to All My Relations. I'm Matika. And I'm Temeris. Hi, everyone. Today we're closing

out this season with something new and something we're really proud of the launch of our author talk series,

leading up to the official start of the All My Relations Book Club. Yay, Books.

Adam, clapping, sound effect. We believe books can build community, and we're starting this journey with an author whose words have cracked us open, made us laugh, and reminded us of

who we are. Sasha Llepoint is with us today. Welcome, Sasha. Tegu Tzee, thank you for having me here. It's so

awesome to be here. Thank you. Sasha, we're going to have you introduce yourself in your own way as well,

but I'm going to share with our listeners a little bit about what we know about you. Sasha is a poet,

a memoirist, a truth teller, and protector of ancestral memory.

She's the author of Red Paint, the ancestral autobiography of a punk rock survivor, the poetry

collection Rose Quartz, and most recently a thundersong, a stunning collection of essays.

And she has more on the way.

Sasha Takshablu Le Point is from Upper Skagit and Nooksak,

native to the Pacific Northwest.

She draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in the city.

She writes with a focus on trauma and resilience,

ranging topics from PTSD, sexual violence, the work of her great grandmother, what she did for

the Lachutsi language revitalization, to loud basement punk shows and what it means to grow up

mixed heritage. With obsessions that range from Twin Peaks to Coast Salish

Salmon ceremonies, Sasha explores the truths of indigenous identity in coast Salish territory.

And in this conversation today, we talk about what it means to write the things we're told

not to say, like the sacredness of red paint, and the sheer force it takes to be a prolific indigenous writer in this world.

This is the last episode of our season.

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