Meet Kinsale Hueston: A Poet, Writer, and Activist from the Navajo Nation

Scrolling through Twitter, I came across Kinsale’s graduation photos. I loved them and immediately showed them to my mom. The photos of her in traditional regalia went along with the caption: “this is what I wore to my (fairly white & religious) high school graduation last year. it’s our land, our right, our cultures. don’t ask permission. just do.” Kinsale Hueston is a nineteen-year-old woman from the Navajo Nation. She has just finished her first year at Yale University and has won awards for her poetry including the Yale Young Native Storytellers Award for Spoken Word/Storytelling, the J. Edgar Meeker Prize (May 2019, Yale University), and three National Scholastic Gold Medals for poetry and dramatic script. Her work for her community, her inspiring poetry and the courage that she demonstrates online is why I interviewed her today.

Keke Magazine: What is it like being a Native American student at Yale?

Kinsale Hueston: It’s hard to navigate spaces where you are always going to be the minority—no matter what. I think as natives if you’re not at a tribal college or a college near a reservation then you’re always going to be one of the smallest minorities and that makes it really hard in terms of visibility and getting enough resources for your organization and drawing more native students to the school. I think the natives at my college definitely face those issues but I think we find a lot of courage, strength and resilience in each other. The native community at Yale is very close and very supportive. I’ve made a lot of really amazing friends who are also native and it wouldn’t have been possible without going to college because I live so far from different reservations. I’m really glad that it’s brought all of us together.

K: What were some of the biggest difficulties of being the only Native at your high school?

KH: For me, it was definitely the most difficult to cope with the fact that there was a huge knowledge gap between me and my peers. We were very traditional on my mom’s side and we would always go to the reservation and I knew all these things about my culture, so when I came back not many of my friends understood those things about me. This was especially true being that where I’m from less than one per cent of the county is actually Native American, and even smaller than that are Navajo. These people who I grew up with were very isolated and had never really been outside of Southern California, which meant that many people believed all these stereotypes about Native Americans that they had grown up with. They also didn’t have any concept about what it means to be Diné or to be part of a tribe. It’s much more complicated than just saying that we are all a part of one tribe, which was something that they had never really thought about. Writing became a way for me to navigate that space and that lack of understanding. It was really hard for me at times to be the only native, aside from my sister. I didn’t have anyone to talk to about important issues. This was one of the main reasons why I started doing diversity education work as it meant that I was able to educate staff and students about these issues. It was also hard to keep up the motivation to keep doing this work which is why I’m really grateful that now at college I have other native friends that I can discuss things with.

K: Is there a common misconception that other people have about your culture that really annoys you?

KH: The concept that natives are historical people, not contemporary people. It feeds into a lot of stereotypes that are still very relevant and perpetuated. I think the biggest issue when it comes to being represented is the notion that the only represented native people exist between 1492 and when the Independence of Declaration was signed. People think they disappear right after colonial history. It’s just not true. Yes, we have been around since time immemorial and these lands have been ours; we are still here. Most of us don’t live on reservations anymore: We live in urban areas, we live in suburban areas and rural areas. We go to college, we are actors, singers or scientists. We do such amazing things yet people still have this idea that we are not relevant. I think that’s the most hurtful and the most dangerous because when you think that native people are in the past, you are not thinking about solutions for our future.

K: I love that photo of you from the Women’s March. Were you skeptical to enter a space that has been criticized in the past for playing into white feminism?

KH: Yeah, of course. There was the criticism that came about the Women’s March and the women who came out with their controversial pink hats for that one march and then disappeared and didn’t advocate for any other issues and the actions of the Trump Administration in regards to black communities, native communities, the LGBTQ+ communities and all that. So, when the one-year anniversary march came along (the one that the photo is from), I know native women especially had made a conscious decision to come out and spread awareness over the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) cause by wearing red. I made that decision to go specifically for that cause as I knew it would be underrepresented where I was marching in Orange County. The picture went viral and it opened a lot of conversations. I was wearing my regalia with a red scarf which represented MMIW and I had that stance. There is a white woman in the background looking at me like she had no idea what was going on or what I was doing, which really shows the lack of understanding between different communities in feminism and how native women were really underrepresented in this march yet had so many important issues to talk about. I went to the march with that in mind and that me being there was a conversation that needed to happen. It also challenged who we typically see in the mainstream media when it comes to these things. Conversations happened because of the photo online and my presence at the march itself.

K: Do you have any personal/goals dreams for the future that you’re willing to share?

KH: I am on the track to going to law school and hopefully becoming a tribal lawyer. I want to work with the communities that I already work with poetry but instead coming at it with a different career. It’s the best way that I can think of for giving back to my community, that shaped me into who I am today, in a much more hands-on way. In some way, I know that poetry will still be in my future and writing will be too. I know a lot of amazing people that still make their art but also have another career on the side. To me, I see that as getting to do two things that you really love. I think that people that do that are very admirable and something that I definitely want to do. It’s my favorite thing to do and it makes me happy, I can’t see myself giving that up.