The Arts of Repair: A Conversation with Yhonnie Scarce and Craig Santos Perez

Abstract

This is an interview with Yhonnie Scarce, an interdisciplinary artist of Kokatha and Nukunu heritage, and Craig Santos Perez, a CHamoru poet and writer from the Pacific Island of Guåhan. It took shape as a conversation and, following Caspari and Daly, sought to create space to reflect on “how ideas form through encounters in the present, how present words carry past voices with them, how conversations themselves might offer modes of thinking otherwise.” Scarce and Perez’s dialogue mediates between past and future to reflect on creative practice across disciplines, enduring ancestral presence, and the possibility of finding new kin through unexpected encounters. It was facilitated by Rebecca Macklin and Susanne Ferwerda in December 2023.