Tommy Orange and the New Native Renaissance
Photo credit: Elena Seibert
On a June afternoon, Tommy Orange, author of There There, one of this summer’s breakout books, stood at the foot of the stage at the Fellowship of Humanity, a lavender-interiored church on 27th Street in Oakland, California. Behind him, a banner congratulated this year’s graduating class of East Bay Native American high school seniors. It read: “The students of today are the warriors of tomorrow.”
Orange hates public speaking. With his head buried in his notes, he intoned, “As Native people we have a bad history with schools, with institutions. They’re still teaching history wrong. We still hear them saying: ‘just get over it already,’ even when they’re saying they know the feeling is there. Get over what? The mountain that is history?”
Orange wore navy Nike high tops, a navy button down shirt to match, acid washed jeans and a black fitted cap with the iconic Port of Oakland crane (inspiration for the imperial walkers in Star Wars) and “The Town” in stylized cursive above its bill. His look, like his words, werein a way that feathers, fringe, beadwork and mystical proclamations just aren’t. Everything about his person was Native to Oakland, troubling assumptions about both those things: Natives and Oakland. “It is an exciting time to be Indigenous,” he said, addressing the graduates. “We need you to help make this world a better place for your little brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, cousins, whether they’re here yet or not.”
