Joy Harjo INTERVIEW
February 2009
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Originating in the music
Joy Harjo's poetry is often related to her origin. She is a descendant of Creek Indians and emphasizes a holistic view of the world, which now has been expressing more and more because of the climate crisis.
Poet and musician Joy Harjo has released seven a collection of poetry, including She had some horses, In mad love and war, The woman who fell from the sky and How we became human. Her first CD, Letter from the End of the 20th century, released in 1997.
Joy Harjo is a poet and musician with roots in the Creek Indian culture and the American South. She visited Sweden to participate in the International Poetry Festival and Free Newspapers took the opportunity to meet her for a conversation on the origins and global awareness.
In Oklahoma, USA, are no indigenous communities gathered under the name Creek Nation since the late 1800s. It consists of the descendants of the thousands of Indians as displaced persons by the U.S. military to the Indian reservation in Oklahoma. The aim was to civilize the Indians, while their limited land resources. Joy Harjo was born in Oklahoma and call themselves "creek" or "Creek", now she lives in Albequerque, New Mexico, and Honolulu, Tahiti.
Her poetry has taken her to Sweden and the Stockholm International Poetry Festival, where she appeared November 17 in conjunction with Stew Claeson. Joy wearing a white cowboy hat, dark clothes and her tattooed hand has a slightly limp handshake. In Sweden, she has been once before, but the more time she spent in Norwegian sameland. Sámi history and communities reminiscent of the Indians.
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-The name Harjo, I have heard will be in Finland, but it is also a tribal name that means "so brave you åre crazy," says Joy Harjo and laughs. Joy Harjo has published several poetry books, written a children's book, played four music and is currently producing a "one woman's show" as she called Wings of skylights, wings of morning light. The show is about a woman of Indian origin. She describes it as a helningsritual with laughter and sorrow, but not autobiographical.
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-I like freedom and like to write fictional stories, but much of it is taken from what I seen and heard among American Indian women. Her poetry is linked to elements of nature, man and music. Some of her songs are similar to spoken word, where she speaks of music in the background, not rarely a melancholy saxophone and drums.
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- I do poetry, whether I talk or sing. Spoken word is a dramatized monologue, while poetry is song tied to the paper. Poetry came into the world of music and dance before paper was invented, so when I sing rejoice poetry about leaving the paper, "says Joy Harjo and smiles wrong. She is self-taught saxophonist, and writes every day. Words used, discarded and recycled. Joys favorite comes from the Creek language.
- I'm trying to learn my language, and where I often hear the word "vnvketcka" (pronounced anagetchka) which means "love and compassion." In some of his songs sing Joy Harjo at the creek. Her origin is of great importance to her, but overshadowed by a multi-layered personality.
- There is a notion that all Indians have the same origin, but there are hundreds of tribes with different traditions. Indians have generally been a symbol of the indigenous population, but it does not include our humanity and true history. My grandmother played the saxophone in his indian by before Oklahoma was even a state and it is probably a show that is not consistent with Disney's Pocahontas. Joy compare Indians with the Sami way of life and traditions.
- No people live as they used to. We have our ceremonial sites, and just as your samer dress, we do not traditionally to be found. We have jeans and t-shirts for us, just like any other. Joy Harjo has been praised several times for his poetry, which often is related to her origin. But the term "original American" uses her not yourself.
- It is an academic term as part young Indians feel comfortable in, but I prefer to call ourselves Indians or the tribe name. I do not think that the origin can be used on only one ethnic group, but the term "native american" really applies to all those born in America. USA just got a president who called the Afro-American, even though he lived all his life in America. Barack Obama is on everyone's lips, and Joy wrote with joy on her blog: "Obama won!"
She hopes that Obama will at least try to enforce agreements that protect the climate, but also work for a fairer America. Joy Harjo writes committed on her blog on environmental issues and indianers rights in both North-to South America.
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-What climate crisis is about is a conscious approach to food we eat and the place we live. We live in a dynamic world where not only people talking and doing things. Even plants and animals, earth, sun, moon and remains of our ancestors created this world. It is a complex system. Some researchers have begun to see the world as, with climate change. It is an approach that has existed among Indians of all time - that the world is linked by a great awareness.
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can not see, can not hear,
Can not know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That are not always sound but other Circles of motion.
(Joy Harjo, from the book In mad love & war)
Harjo of the tattooed hands to the face and föser away hair. The tattoo, which she did on Tahiti, which is her second home in addition to New Mexico.
- The tattoo represents the participation, assistance to what I create with my hands, as music and poetry. And so it is nice to carry with them a work of art wherever you go, "says Joy, and the crooked smile is back.
