LÉULI ESHRAGHI
Léuli ESHRAGHI
L’hétérosexualité samoane est une performance chrétienne pour l’honte-temps grégorien/
Samoan heterosexuality is a Church performance for Gregorian shame-time 2020
video (duration 5 minutes, 56 seconds)
Sāmoan artist, curator and researcher, Dr Léuli Eshrāghi presents a recent video performance titled L’hétérosexualité samoane est une performance chrétienne pour l’honte-temps grégorien / Sāmoan heterosexuality is a Church performance for Gregorian shame-time (2019). This performance venerates the fluidity of (pre-colonial, pre-Christian) Sāmoan sexuality and gender through five gestures that incorporate natural and bodily waters. The poetic verse is spoken in French (with a smaller English version listed below), and reads as a series of amorous-erotic lines to accompany the five gestures.
This performance consists of five gestures (saltwater on hands as ancestral veneration, golden showers on shoulders and chest as care, cumlined chest and arms as chosen kinship, intentional hand massage as healing traumas, shared breath affirmation as living beyond Western taboos). These allude to non-heteronormative Indigenous desire and pleasure in the precolonial Pōula ceremony from the Sāmoan archipelago, beyond Christian pain as a mirror to Indigenous self in all colonized territories. Drawing on the faletele architectural form, a half-oval of bowls is activated with the different waters during the performance. Video documentation of the performance realized by asinnajaq and Dayna Danger.
Léuli Eshrāghi
L’hétérosexualité samoane est une performance chrétienne pour l’honte-temps grégorien
[Sueur/eau salée entre mes mains]
Ces jours, ces déserts-là à Mparntwe
M’ont appris le savoir chaleureux
Donner et recevoir, songer et réaliser
Amour tendresse sentiments ardents
Le regard est léger, le toucher est continu
Le regain de vivre est fort, la perspective est réelle
Tout sauf aride, Lhere Mparntwe
M’a appris le savoir chaleureux
Ces étendues sablonneuses et fluides ancestrales
Me saluant comme si je leur étais familier
L’étreinte montant les escaliers d’avion
L’horizon se défilant à perte de vue, de pensée,
Est si bien connu des Nations locales
[Averses dorées sur mes épaules et mon torse]
Toi, bel être moite, collant, épais
Venant vers, autour et en moi
Tonnerre tropical distant à même là
Pas de maladies équatoriales en vue
Quoique, tant de douleur de domination de colonisation abritée en ces terres
Bien-être aux plaies
Ouverture aux foyers
Nos chevelures longues dansant dans le vent venu au soleil couchant
J’enveloppe mon ʻie lavalava
Autour de tes mains guérisseuses
Autour de tes cuisses épaisses
Je te montre des univers en devenir
De toutes les rives d’océans profonds
Çà et là, tu me montres des univers
Dédiés au rendre possible
Comme les pluies qui s’en viendront
[Sperme versé sur mon torse et mes bras]
Sau e tāʻele i auro ma aʻu
Viens te laver aux averses dorées avec moi
Sau e ʻai muli, e ʻai mimisā
Viens bouffer du cul, manger du sperme sacré
À Tiohtià:ke, Mooniyang, Montréal
Dans cette ville francophone autochtone allochtone
Cette confluence des fluides
Cette aire multilingue plurielle possible où je me retrouve
Nous porterons des colliers de coquillages et du tissu d’écorce autour de la taille
Avec le cordon en fibres de coco comme les ancêtres l’ont fait
Dans tous ces portraits hantant gesticulant habitant depuis
Collections muséales coloniales sur peuples damnés, voués à l’inexistence
Maints traumatismes infligés par missionnaires, planteurs, agents néfastes passés et actuels
‘O ā lau gafa faʻaauro?
Quelles sont tes généalogies dorées ?
En pose d’homme-araignée
Nous parcourrons le plancher l’un vers l’autre
‘Ou te fiafia i ʻai muli ma alu loloto ia ʻoe
J’adore te bouffer les fesses, aller profondément en toi
Aujourd’hui j’ai envie d’une nouvelle histoire autochtone du Grand Océan
Non plus plate, point pacifique
Née dans la pénombre d’avant toute existence historicisée par les Lumières éteintes d’une Europe et de ses colonies de peuplement de militourisme d’écarts creusés en quête d’équilibre et d’épuration de ses excès racisés, hétéroformels
La nuit du début des univers : pō
Pourrait-elle nous libérer une fois pour toutes ?
L’hétérosexualité samoane est une performance chrétienne pour l’honte-temps grégorien
Songeons alors aux liaisons possibles entre fruits préférés, aux ébats sans pudeur limitante
[Massage des mains, pincement des tétons]
Chaleur + sécheresse
Soleil battant + alcools infinis
Après les restos et les bars, les piscines et les baignoires
Des amants au savoir chaleureux, aux corps luisants
La sueur coule sur ton dos, sur mon front et mon torse
Envoyant d’étreintes à travers nos lignées de chair,
Nos géographies sensuelles, nos constellations liées
Les corps se rapprochant de plus en plus près
Et profondément sur le bord de l’infini
S’étirant et atteignant plus loin encore
Je te masse les mains, les jambes, les pieds, les bras, la tête
Tu me tends ton corps à dominer
Je masse de l’huile de coco, de l’eau de coco, de fibre de coco
Depuis l’ancêtre Tuna jusqu’à moi
Tout prendre, tout ressentir, tout partager
Les langues poussent jusqu’où notre plaisir dépassera aujourd’hui
Ce soir nous parlerons de mouvements de douleurs de limites voulues exsangues
La pression de tout transcender, guérir, survivre
S’embrasser pour se lier de tendresse
Lécher pour s’ouvrir à d’autres univers
Les corps luisant dans une frénésie dansante pourpre sacrée : ula
Pour redevenir terre/sol/sang : toto
Pour redevenir possible par de gestes scintillants faisant de l’éphémère, réalité
[Partage du souffle avec quelqu’un du public]
Sāmoan heterosexuality is a Church performance for Gregorian shame-time
[Sweat/saltwater between my hands]
These days, these deserts in Mparntwe
Have taught me warm knowing
Giving and receiving, dreaming and realizing
Love tenderness burning affections
The gaze is light, the touch is steady
The new life is strong, the prospect is real
Anything but arid, Lhere Mparntwe
Has taught me warm knowing
These ancestral sandy and fluid expanses
Greeting me as if already known to them
The embrace climbing the airplane steps
The horizon stretching as far as the eye and mind can see
Is so well known to local Nations
[Golden showers over my shoulders and chest]
You, beautiful, sweaty being, sticky, thick
Coming to, around and in me
Tropical thunder in the distance even here
No equatorial diseases in sight
Though, so much pain from domination from colonization held in these lands
Wellbeing for wounds
Openness for hearths
Our long hair dancing in the wind that comes with the setting sun
I wrap my ʻie lavalava
Around your healer hands
Around your thick thighs
I show you worlds in becoming
From all the shores of deep oceans
Now and then, you show me worlds
Dedicated to making possible
Like the rains that will come
[Cum poured on my chest and arms]
Sau e tāʻele i auro ma aʻu
Come wash in golden showers with me
Sau e ʻai muli, e ʻai mimisā
Come eat ass, eat sacred cum
In Tiohtià:ke, Mooniyang, Montréal
In this francophone Indigenous non-Indigenous city
This confluence of fluids
This possible plural multilingual zone where I find myself
We’ll wear shell necklaces and barkcloth around the waist
With the coconut fibre rope like the Ancestors did
In all these haunting, gesticulating, inhabiting portraits since
Colonial museum collections on damned peoples, doomed to non-existence
Numerous traumas inflicted by past and present missionaries, planters, harmful agents
‘O ā lau gafa faʻaauro?
What are your golden genealogies?
In spiderman pose
We’ll cross the floor to each other
‘Ou te fiafia i ʻai muli ma alu loloto ia ʻoe
I love eating your ass, going deep inside you
Today I’m in the mood for a new Indigenous history of the Great Ocean
No longer flat, never pacified
Born in the darkness from before any existence historicized by the extinguished Enlightenment
From that Europe and its settler, militourist, widened gap colonies
Seeking balance and purification for racialized, heteroformal excesses
The night of the beginning of worlds: pō
Could it free us once and for all?
Sāmoan heterosexuality is a Church performance for Gregorian shame-time
Let’s think then of possible connections between favourite fruits, of shameless sex
[Massage hands, pinch nipples]
Heat + drought
Beating sun + endless alcohol
After restaurants and bars, swimming pools and bathtubs
Lovers in warm knowing, in shiny bodies
Sweat runs down your back, down my forehead and chest
Sending embraces through our cumlines,
Our sensual geographies, our related constellations
Bodies come closer and closer together
And deeper on the edge of infinity
Reaching out and reaching even further
I massage your hands, legs, feet, arms, head
You give me your body to dominate
I massage coconut oil, coconut water, coconut fibre
From Ancestor Tuna to me
Take it all, feel it all, share it all
Tongues grow to where our pleasure will go beyond today
Tonight, we’ll speak about movements pains and strained boundaries
Pressures to transcend everything, to heal, to survive
Kissing to bond through tenderness
Licking to open up to other worlds
Bodies glistening in a sacred purple dancing frenzy: ula
To become earth/soil/blood again: toto
To become possible again through shimmering gestures making the ephemeral a reality
[Share breath with someone in the audience]
Sāmoan heterosexuality is a Church performance for Gregorian shame-time
[Sweat/saltwater between my hands]
These days, these deserts in Mparntwe
Have taught me warm knowing
Giving and receiving, dreaming and realizing
Love tenderness burning affections
The gaze is light, the touch is steady
The new life is strong, the prospect is real
Anything but arid, Lhere Mparntwe
Has taught me warm knowing
These ancestral sandy and fluid expanses
Greeting me as if already known to them
The embrace climbing the airplane steps
The horizon stretching as far as the eye and mind can see
Is so well known to local Nations
[Golden showers over my shoulders and chest]
You, beautiful, sweaty being, sticky, thick
Coming to, around and in me
Tropical thunder in the distance even here
No equatorial diseases in sight
Though, so much pain from domination from colonization held in these lands
Wellbeing for wounds
Openness for hearths
Our long hair dancing in the wind that comes with the setting sun
I wrap my ʻie lavalava
Around your healer hands
Around your thick thighs
I show you worlds in becoming
From all the shores of deep oceans
Now and then, you show me worlds
Dedicated to making possible
Like the rains that will come
[Cum poured on my chest and arms]
Sau e tāʻele i auro ma aʻu
Come wash in golden showers with me
Sau e ʻai muli, e ʻai mimisā
Come eat ass, eat sacred cum
In Tiohtià:ke, Mooniyang, Montréal
In this francophone Indigenous non-Indigenous city
This confluence of fluids
This possible plural multilingual zone where I find myself
We’ll wear shell necklaces and barkcloth around the waist
With the coconut fibre rope like the Ancestors did
In all these haunting, gesticulating, inhabiting portraits since
Colonial museum collections on damned peoples, doomed to non-existence
Numerous traumas inflicted by past and present missionaries, planters, harmful agents
‘O ā lau gafa faʻaauro?
What are your golden genealogies?
In spiderman pose
We’ll cross the floor to each other
‘Ou te fiafia i ʻai muli ma alu loloto ia ʻoe
I love eating your ass, going deep inside you
Today I’m in the mood for a new Indigenous history of the Great Ocean
No longer flat, never pacified
Born in the darkness from before any existence historicized by the extinguished Enlightenment
From that Europe and its settler, militourist, widened gap colonies
Seeking balance and purification for racialized, heteroformal excesses
The night of the beginning of worlds: pō
Could it free us once and for all?
Sāmoan heterosexuality is a Church performance for Gregorian shame-time
Let’s think then of possible connections between favourite fruits, of shameless sex
[Massage hands, pinch nipples]
Heat + drought
Beating sun + endless alcohol
After restaurants and bars, swimming pools and bathtubs
Lovers in warm knowing, in shiny bodies
Sweat runs down your back, down my forehead and chest
Sending embraces through our cumlines,
Our sensual geographies, our related constellations
Bodies come closer and closer together
And deeper on the edge of infinity
Reaching out and reaching even further
I massage your hands, legs, feet, arms, head
You give me your body to dominate
I massage coconut oil, coconut water, coconut fibre
From Ancestor Tuna to me
Take it all, feel it all, share it all
Tongues grow to where our pleasure will go beyond today
Tonight, we’ll speak about movements pains and strained boundaries
Pressures to transcend everything, to heal, to survive
Kissing to bond through tenderness
Licking to open up to other worlds
Bodies glistening in a sacred purple dancing frenzy: ula
To become earth/soil/blood again: toto
To become possible again through shimmering gestures making the ephemeral a reality
[Share breath with someone in the audience]