While Martha’s vineyards are perhaps the most famous resort, attracting wealthy people from Seth Meyers and Obamas every summer, the island also has a rich and complex Indigenous history. Aquinnah Wampanoag writer Joseph Lee expresses the voice of the past in his new book That’s all about this land: community, power and the search for indigenous identities.
This book chronicles Lee’s growth in Martha’s vineyards, and also takes into account the significance of being in the community with other indigenous people in the world. Here he discusses the book Community Sovereignty, drawing inspiration from Aquinnah Wampanoag writer and historian Linda Coombs, who learned the Wampanoag language as a child, and his favorite things he did when he returned to Martha Vineyard. This conversation has been edited and condensed.
Fashion:How does it feel to see this book in the world?
Joseph Lee: I mean, this book is really exciting. It’s a little weird because, you know, you’re doing something for a long time, most of the time, and then suddenly it’s in the world and people are reading it, which is exciting, a little horrible. It’s great to transition from writing only, writing with your laptop to talk about it and promote it, but it’s definitely a shift.
You delve into your current history, including the origin of your own name. What is your research process like?
It’s very mixed, because I use many different types of sources. A lot of them are just talking to my parents or talking to cousins or going back to tribal meeting minutes, but [there was also some] Browse local papers, or we have a tribal newsletter, and I read a lot. I also do research online and interview people elsewhere. This is a very diverse range of research. It’s just trying to collect as much as possible [use] As many sources as possible.
Do you have any books that you are helpful to?
I want to say almost every book written by the natives before me. Actually, my own tribe, Linda Coombs has one, and that’s what it is called Colonization and Wampanoag Story. I’m not sure what the technical classification is, but it’s a book with many historical and creative retellings that imagine what life was like before our tribe colonized. These books actually helped me – the information in these books worked for me – but it also helped me personally think of becoming the author of Wampanoag, a local writer and putting something similar into the world.
