Old Woman with Berries in Her Lap

Through a single descendant's voice that speaks to the S?mi diaspora, this collection of poems is a journey through colonialism, transgenerational trauma, and identity. Many have heard of the S?mi reindeer herders brought to Alaska by Sheldon Jackson in the 1800s, but not much is known about the S?mi diaspora experiences in the state and beyond. The poems in Old Woman with Berries in Her Lap use the North S?mi language as well as graphics and various types of poetry to tell these stories of migration and diaspora. Vivian Faith Prescott's use of language is both a celebration of the richness of the S?mi languages and a mourning of the loss of language that occurs when a population is displaced and forced to exist in a totally foreign language space. According to S?milinguist, professor, and politician Ole Henrik Magga, the S?mi languages have "very easily . . . one thousand lexemes with connections to snow, ice, freezing, and melting." These lexemes frame many of Prescott's poems, introducing ideas and feelings around the loss of language and culture. A compelling insight into the S?mi culture from a contemporary poet's eye, Old Woman with Berries in Her Lap juxtaposes past and present in an act of reclamation.