Quote by Tommy Orange: “We are the ones who made it this far.”

Survival across generations of violence, displacement, and loss is not a small thing. This statement is both pride and mourning — an acknowledgment that simply being here, against the odds, carries enormous weight. It's a reminder that presence itself can be an act of resistance.

Orange published There There in 2018, a novel depicting the lives of twelve urban Native Americans converging at a powwow in Oakland. It arrived as movements for Indigenous rights and land sovereignty were gaining momentum globally, and as #NoDAPL protests brought Indigenous voices into mainstream American media.

American author and member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma whose debut novel There There was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2019. His work brings Indigenous urban experience in America to the centre of contemporary literary fiction.