A LIGHT TO DO SHELLWORK BY

A poetry collection that speaks of Indigenous culture and history by telling a family’s story through its relation to sea, land, and memory.

Prose poems begin each of the three sections in the collection, establishing its overall themes. “The Gathering” opens the first section, which brings a refreshing perspective to the relationship between Indigenous people and the sea. Like the ocean ebbs and flows, the speaker illustrates her elderly father’s memories and dreams as his health deteriorates: “The old man had been tending the Sacred Fire since before dawn, each branch and limb of oak an added prayer.” As the family is there to support and witness his transition, now the poems remain to honor his legacy. The use of line breaks and extra spacing between words, as in “The White Buffalo Painting,” in which a physically debilitated grandfather yearns to paint the strong buffalo he dreams about, reproduces the pauses made by culture-bearing oral storytellers and invites readers to reflect on other types of gaps being evoked: “Grandfather / born in 1897 / going blind / losing his hearing and / sense of touch / dreams at night / of the White Buffalo.” “The Inland Sea” begins a segment of poems connected to the desert, the land, California roads, and to women, including the speaker’s foremothers. In this section, “Fox Paw and Coyote Blessing” is particularly memorable. Mixing storytelling and wordplay, Valoyce-Sanchez skillfully illustrates belonging to multiple Indigenous backgrounds, challenging monolithic notions of Indigeneity. As with other long poems in this collection, the reader’s visual and sensorial experience might have been enhanced had the poem been reproduced on facing pages. The overall style and themes of this collection are reminiscent of Deborah A. Miranda’s writing in their fluidity and nuanced portrayal of Indigenous life. The last section begins with “The Pictograph,” which refers to ancestral wall art whose physical, but not spiritual, access is blocked by steel bars. These final poems broach the creation and interpretation of worlds through Indigenous lenses.

An illustration of intimate family history that’s a testament to the continuity of Indigenous life and poetics in California.