Alice Te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised - Kupu rere kē

[ID: A poem titled: Kupu rere kē. [in italics] My friend was advised to italicise all the foreign words in her poems. This advice came from a well-meaning woman with NZ poetry on her business card and an English accent in her mouth. I have been thinking about this advice. The convention of italicising words from other languages clarifies that some words are imported: it ensures readers can tell the difference between a foreign language and the language of home. I have been thinking about this advice. Marking the foreign words is also a kindness: every potential reader is reassured that although you're expected to understand the rest of the text, it's fine to consult a dictionary or native speaker for help with the italics. I have been thinking about this advice. Because I am a contrary person, at first I was outraged — but after a while I could see she had a point: when the foreign words are camouflaged in plain type you can forget how they came to be there, out of place, in the first place. I have been thinking about this advice and I have decided to follow it. Now all of my readers will be able to remember which words truly belong in -[end italics]- Aotearoa -[italics]- and which do not.

Next image is the futurama meme: to shreds you say...]

(Image ID by @bisexualshakespeare)

each night that gaza experiences is deadlier than the last, as idf soldiers record propaganda tiktoks, make rave parties and grwms and fit checks, gloat over having food and water, and film themselves deriving sadistic pleasure from torturing their hostages and victims and desecrating the dead.

Palestinians have to display their martyred before the camera for you to believe the atrocities that the zionist entity has subjected them to. they cannot even mourn in private. the apartheid entity murders them in cold blood, and you deliver the killing blow by doubting them.

babies whose families have been killed will never get to know their own name.

i can't reshare a tenth of the videos and photos that cross my timeline. i have seen more dead children in the past month than i have known death my entire life.

israeli settlers burn olive trees, bomb bakeries and fishing boats, shower white phosphorus and earthquake bombs on the captive civilians of gaza. you already know about the disastrous effects of white phosphorus, but earthquake bombs were last used during ww2 to wipe out entire cities.

how holy is the land that seeks to be built over the mass graves of thousands of children? is it holier than the miracle of a child being born in this hypocritical world?

all 11 universities in gaza have been bombed. academics should be agitating right now, especially those who call themselves "decolonial thinkers." destruction of universities is a sinisterly deliberate act to sabotage the Palestinians who will survive this great catastrophe.

the act of cleansing your hands before prayer is extremely important to muslims. no part of us can remotely comprehend the grief of the mother who refused to wash her hands from the blood of her children after losing them in a zionist airstrike over gaza. "I swear I won't wash them, I won't wash my hands, how else am I supposed to sleep near my kids."

it is only both moral and right when one side defends itself. the other side are the price of war, no better than insects and cattle and sheep left to die within the four walls of the slaughterhouse.

this situation should not be up for debate, but let me finish with one final thing : do your research about Palestine. HOWEVER. you do not need a degree in middle east studies to object to an ongoing genocide. if someone outwits you in a debate about historical details and every nuance of a subject, you were and will remain entirely correct in objecting to a genocide.

may those martyred rest in peace and be reunited again with their loved ones in heaven's eternal vastness.

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE.

There is no difference between a Ukrainian not being able to speak Ukrainian and an Irish person not being able to speak Irish. Both are the result of imperialism and oppression.

But for some reason people are upset at the fact that English is dominant in Ireland, but dislike derussification (restoration of national identity after centuries of russian imperialism, oppression and genocide).

Why? Because while imperialism is evil, its definition is obviously "evil western europeans with boats". Also, how can Russia be evil when it has bears, snow, vodka and balalaikas?

Brush-tailed bettongs (also known as woylies) once inhabited more than 60% of mainland Australia. However, the European colonization of the country brought with it predatory feral cats and foxes, and the destruction of much of the animal’s native grassland and woodland habitats.

Between 1999 and 2010, the species’ population size declined by 90% – a drastic drop that some research suggests may have resulted from the spread of blood parasites, alongside other factors. Today, the brush-tailed bettong is limited to just a few islands and isolated mainland pockets in Southwestern Australia: a mere 1% of its former range.

Marna Banggara

“We are on a mission, if you like, to bring back some of these native species that have gone missing in our landscape since European colonization,” says Derek Sandow, project manager of Marna Banggara, an initiative dedicated to restoring some of the Yorke Peninsula’s historic ecological diversity.

Formerly known as the “Great Southern Ark,” the project, which was launched in 2019 by the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, was renamed to honor the region’s native Narungga people, who are heavily involved with the initiative.

“Marna in our language means good, prosperous, healthy, and Banggara means country,” says Garry Goldsmith, a member of the Narungga community who works on the project.

The team initially erected a 25-kilometer predator-control fence across the narrow part of the Yorke Peninsula to create a 150,000-hectare safe haven for the first species to be brought back: the brush-tailed bettong, known as yalgiri to the Narungga people. “We’ve reduced fox and cat impacts to a level that’s low enough for these yalgiri to be reintroduced and for them to actually find refuges, find food, and to survive themselves,” says Sandow.

Between 2021 and 2023, the team introduced almost 200 brush-tailed bettongs to the protected area. Sourcing these individuals from various remaining populations across Western Australia helped to “increase the genetic pool,” says Goldsmith.

EcoSystem Engineers

Brush-tailed bettongs feed on bulbs, seeds and insects, but their primary food source is fungi growing underground; to find it, they must dig. “They’re nature’s little gardeners,” says Sandow, “a single yalgiri can turn over two to six tons of soil per year.”

I hate Russia because I was born there and I know what it’s like — the system and the mentality. My family is of German origin, but they abandoned their heritage for this mess. I consider myself German and I support Ukraine.

Do you really hate every single person just because they were born in that “prison of nations”?

I have gotten quite a few asks these days, and I will answer them all in due time. However, I will answer this one first. Why? Cause

So, let's set up the facts straight. This is a very, VERY manipulative way to ask questions, as you are basically fishing for validation from a victim of your country's aggression and imperialism.

Like, my family and livelihood are at stake, y'know. I have every right to hate every russian under the sun for all I care, because this is about my safety. These people are literally killing my people.

But I will assume that you are just a well-meaning person from a German minority seeking to reconnect with their roots, abandon russia and support Ukraine. So I will try to answer those questions earnestly.

1. Do I hate each and every single person who was born in the "prison of nations", as you have correctly called it? No. Moreover, I know Ukrainians who were born there for different reasons and circumstances. There are even ethnic Russians that are currently fighting for Ukraine as Ukrainian citizens and I have nothing but respect for these people. Places people were born in, especially in the Soviet Union and immediately after were very weird anyways, and a nation has long ceased being an ethnic thing, it is now a political thing.

I also have a lot of respect for the Ichkerian government in exile, for example, and the people of Ichkeria and other minorities abroad fighting for Ukraine and supporting Ukraine. I'm pro-decolonisation. Duh.

2. Do I think that all russians have to "pay for it"? Duh. Yup. Absolutely. Because it is from their own irresponsibility and inability to act that the current regime still stands. Those living in russia will have to pay reparations (as I will mention in a different ask). For russians who have left and abandoned russia? Your payment is the sense of shame and de-imperialisation of your minds. It's the acceptance that russia is an empire state, and it cannot and should not exist as it is now, and I think it's a fair price to pay. An ideological price, or more like a logical conclusion to me.

3. In case you are asking me about the artists and any other russian creators I urge people to boycott — I think it is fair to do so. If you actively identify as a russian, accept payments through russian services like Boosty and such, yes, other people's art, including the minorities' art and Ukrainian art should always be prioritised. Because russia spent centuries literally destroying our cultures. We deserve to have our voices heard over russians. And yes, it includes the minorities from inside russia, but only if they are no longer in russia or supporting it. Because otherwise it will just transform into bombs onto Ukrainian heads, one way or the other, and further the russian regime.

If you are German, identify as German, you left russia, you no longer pay taxes there and you understand that russia is an empire that must cease to exist in its current state and give way to its minority nations to be independent and to leave Ukraine and other countries the fuck alone, I don't see what problems you may have.

But I also don't see why you seek my validation in this particular question.

I personally can't see myself interacting with anyone from russia under any normal circumstances. I just cannot. But then again, can you really blame me? russia really is a Nazi Germany of this century. I'm literally trying to protect myself.

Hope this helps and viel Erfolg bei der Dekolonialisierung deiner selbst!

Okay I know I've seen this post before but as usual the search function is failing me. There was a post I saw (albeit a while ago) quoting an indigenous professor from I think UC Berkeley?? who was speaking on a panel discussion about diaspora ethnic communities and who realised that the diaspora that no one was actually speaking about was the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant one and when she stood up and said she was going to speak on it the panel got real awkward bc they initially treated that like it wasn't a diaspora, until she pointed out that if she spoke about her own people's dances and culture that wouldn't be a diaspora because they were the native people here, and only after that particular elephant in the room had been addressed could a real open conversation about the nature of diaspora and ethnicity happen, and she felt it her duty to make sure the native students who looked up to her felt safe to stand their ground as she stood hers. I know this post exists somewhere on here and it will have the source but I have searched everything I can think of and I can't find it.