Award-winning Northwest Native-American author Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe will be speaking at Seattle University on Friday, January 24, from 4 – 5 p.m. to kickoff SU’s Lushootseed Lecture Series.  Sponsored by the Indigenous Peoples Institute (IPI) and the Lemieux Library, the Lushootseed Lecture Series invites tribal members, Indigenous people, and other scholars to speak about the Lushootseed language and issues impacting Native Americans and Native American history and culture. The event is open for all to come and listen. 

“The Lushootseed Lecture series is a three-part series that will highlight the cultural life experiences of two Coast Salish women and the art of traditional storytelling through the eyes of a Coast Salish man,” explains IPI Senior Director Jill LaPointe. “Among many Coast Salish communities the winter season is intrinsically connected to their spirituality. Historically, the Winter season is when history, culture and spiritual practices are passed from one generation to the next. Attendees on the 24th will gain greater insight into the significant impact that Vi taqʷšəblu Hilbert had on the revival of the Lushootseed language and culture throughout to the Salish Seas and beyond.”   

LaPointe will read passages from her memoir, Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk – winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award and the Washington State Book Award for nonfiction – as well as her latest collection of essays, Thunder Song. A member of the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribe, LaPointe draws inspiration for her writing from her coastal heritage as well as her life in Seattle.  

The remaining Lushootseed Lecture Series events will take place February 19, with Janet Yoder, author of Where the Language lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed and March 19, with Roger Fernandes, Native American artist, storyteller, and educator. 

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Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe is from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribe. 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 her great grandmother did for the Lushootseed language revitalization, to loud basement punk shows and what it means to grow up mixed heritage. With strange obsessions revolving around Twin Peaks, the Seattle music scene, and Coast Salish Salmon Ceremonies, Sasha explores her own truth of indigenous identity in the Coast Salish territory. 

This event is co-hosted by the Indigenous Peoples’ Institute and the Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons.