ST. MARY’S STUDENTS “YAK” THEIR WAY TO A PUBLISHED BOOK
While living in China for two years, St. Mary’s Academy students Clara and Anna Gustafson took a family trip to Tibet in October, 2006, began to notice how central the yak was to the traditional nomadic life in the country and began writing a series of haiku poems relating to the great animal. This unique experience led them to publish a 29-page children’s book of haiku and photography about the yak’s influence on the Tibetan culture. Titled Yaku, the book will be released Friday, February 8 at Wallace Books, 7241 SE Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, (503) 235-7350.
“During the long car rides between towns, we thought about the numerous reasons yaks are so important to nomadic life in Tibet: yak butter and milk for food offerings, yak hair for clothing and offerings, yak bones for prayer wheels, yak dung for fuel, yak meat for nourishment,” says Anna. “We talk about these topics in the various haikus.”
Over the past decades, there has been world discussion about the Tibetan/Chinese predicament and the gradual loss of the traditional ways of the Tibetan people. This, in part, inspired the girls to learn more about the unique animals that are such a significant part of the time-honored Tibetan culture.
“The yak is very similar to the buffalo in early American culture – it is an indigenous animal that offers many means to sustain the local people,” says Clara. “We felt that the haiku form of poetry was a simple way to compliment this theme.”
One haiku that illustrates this is:
Yak meat, staple food
Steak, jerky, stew, soup, momo*
Tender, delicious
* a momo is similar to a pot sticker filled with yak meat
Clara and Anna’s mother, Kathy Schroeder, took all of the photographs featured in the book and the girls, currently a 17-year-old junior and 15 year-old sophomore, wrote and edited the haikus and designed the piece.
To listen to the girls and their mother discuss their journey and the resulting book, visit the KINK website, Rebecca’s Blog, The Tibetan-Yak Connection, http://www.kink.fm/pages/1533904.php?
Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously operating secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person, and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.
