Teresia Teaiwa has walked on ahead of us, and I am sadder than I can say. She was a brilliant, courageous, beautiful Pacific woman who led the way for so many of us. She was one of the most powerful and articulate voices when it came to colonization and militarization, thinking and speaking in ways that the rest of us had to run to keep up with. She was kind, generous, and an extraordinary poet.
I am heartbroken. There never was and never will be anyone like her. And those of us who were lucky enough to have been on the receiving end of her beautiful smile, or any of the beautiful words she wrote and spoke, or to have stood in her light, were blessed.
Her being gone from us… the void is immeasurable.
God bless her soul, and blessings and prayers for her ohana.