Born Sacred: Poems for Palestine

In October 2023, upon witnessing the escalation of Palestinian genocide, Ktunaxa poet Smokii Sumac began writing poems reflecting on the stories of Palestinians in Gaza who were risking their lives to share news of the genocide of Palestinian culture, literature, and life. These 100 poems offer a witnessing of the escalation of colonial violence, both current and historical, across oceans, lands, cultures, and people, and the reckoning one has in the face of a genocide.

Vulnerable, eloquent, compassionate, and enduring, Born Sacred is an in-time reflection honouring the shared histories of Indigenous Peoples of North America and of the people in Palestine. Sumac offers this collection as a small piece of life dedicated to Palestinians and resounds the collective call for solidarity in our shared liberation.

Smokii Sumac (they/he) is a Ktunaxa two-spirit poet and emerging playwright. Their first book, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world won an Indigenous Voices Award. Indigenous sovereignty and centring our own knowledges is deeply important to Smokii’s creative work. He believes in the power of storytelling and has featured Indigenous writers and musicians on The ʔasqanaki Podcast, a limited podcast series that Smokii created and hosts. Their first play, Seven and One Heart, was workshopped in Montreal and developed in Toronto during the 2024 Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival. Smokii will be also releasing a Canada Council-funded spoken word album in spring 2025. Smokii is happy to live in his home territories of ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa, near the banks of the Kootenay River, with his husband, their cats, chicken, and a ＂big ole rez dog＂ named Kootenay Lou.