Cut to Fortress considers the possibility of decolonization through a personal lens, urging for a resistance that is tied using cord and old-growth tree roots; a resistance that tethers us all together in this contemporary existence.

With an upbringing in Surrey, fraught familial conflicts, the passing of his older brother and its influence on his world view, Bige slices through the forts built overtop occupied Turtle Island to examine their origin and his own. His journey climbs into the mountains while he reconnects with his Dene and Cree cultures like a gripping hand on jagged rock. His path draws into the concrete urban streets that Wetako-medicine lurks through, especially for his people.

The labour of these travels brings him to the springs where healing passed-down traumas becomes possible by drawing water through vulnerability. (From Nightwood Editions)

Tawahum Bige is a Łutselkʼe Dene, Plains Cree poet and spoken word artist from unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-waututh territory. Their poems explore growth and resistance as a Two Spirit nonbinary artist. Bige's work can be found in publications like Red Rising Magazine, Prairie Fire, CV2 and Arc Poetry Magazine.