Hapa-palooza hype builds, but will it deliver?
It wasn’t until this year, at age 56, that Jonina Kirton connected her story with that of other mixed-race women.
“I hadn’t really put two and two together that someone else could have almost the same experience as I had,” says Kirton, who identifies as Metis-Icelandic. “What I found was we have a unique perspective because we have been privy to more than one side of a world.“
Kirton recently contributed to the collection “Other Tongues: Mixed Race Women Speak Out,” and when she learned about the first-ever Hapa-palooza Mixed-Roots Festival in Vancouver, she was thrilled.
“My experience growing up was that a discussion surrounding mixed-race wasn’t had,” says Kirton. “This festival sounds great because it’s not just a discussion, it’s a celebration.”
The festival, which spans from September 7 to 10, will feature dance, literacy events, artistic and film performances, and according to its website, will place “prominence on celebrating and stimulating awareness of mixed-roots identity.”
“I’ve been searching my whole life for where do I fit I the world,” says Kirton. “And I think anybody has that question in life, but when you’re mixed race I think it’s a bigger question because there isn’t one assumed place.”
While Kirton identified more closely to her father’s side, she felt disconnected. She wasn’t white like her mother, and yet she wasn’t Metis like her father either.
“Some people feel disparaging of the white culture,” says Kirton. “But to be both is confusing. You’re both the oppressor and the oppressed. And there is some guilt there for sure, because I can never claim the same experience as my aboriginal brother’s and sisters.”
Jeff Wilson, a musician for Still Creek band, understands the feeling of identify confusion.
“Being mixed-race, I have felt like I don’t fit anywhere,” says Wilson over the phone. “If I were in the states I’d be black, but here I guess I consider myself bi-racial. But this festival is proof that there’s a lot of people just like me with shared experiences.”
Each person’s story is unique, and Sonnet L’Abbé, who also contributed to the Other Tongues anthology, is curious to see how the Hapa-palooza festival will convey that.
“I’m interested to see how the festival covers the breadth of mixed-race experience,” says L’Abbé, who is writing her dissertation on plant metaphors and how they are used to cover abstractions, like the word race.
“People don’t want to use the word race,” says L’Abbé. “I think the term race has the history of hierarchy and classification that happened post-Darwin where everybody wanted to apply those rules to people.”
While the festival intrigues L’Abbé, she wishes race-related topics were not an issue.
“[This issue is] so important to me,” she sighs, “but I wish I didn’t have to talk about it, ever.”
Plenty of anticipation is building for the festival from the people who know about it, but Kirton wonders if like her, some people may not realize how important the festival might be to them.
“Part of the job they’re going to have is trying to get people to realize why they might want to be there,” says Kirton. “Some people might not know what they might benefit from this until they get some exposure to it. So I’m hoping that the word gets out to those who might need it.“
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