Performance: Poetry from Oceania and Turtle Island

Indigenous Poets from Oceania and Turtle Island (the United States) will share poetry and stories that honor ancestral connections to land and water. Facilitated by Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu and Kim Shuck, the program’s readers include Robert Sullivan, Jayna Lizama, Nicola Andrews, Mahealani Ahia and Lehua M. Taitano. 

Kim Shuck is a San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita and a Cherokee Nation poet and author. 

Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, PhD is a Tongan storyteller, community organizer and scholar. 

Robert Sullivan, PhD is Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu/Maori from Aotearoa/New Zealand. He received the 2022 Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a distinguished contribution to New Zealand poetry.  

Jayna Lizama is a queer Chamoru poet and graduate student at University of California, Davis and traces her ancestral roots to the village of Talo’fo’fo, Guam. 

Nicola Andrews is a member of the Ngāti Pāoa iwi, is of Māori and Pākehā descent from Aotearoa/New Zealand and is a poet and librarian in San Francisco. 

Mahealani Ahia is a Los Angeles-born Kanaka ‘Ōiwi artist, scholar, activist and cultural practitioner. 

Lehua M. Taitano is a queer Chamoru writer and interdisciplinary artist from Yigu, Guåhan.