Indigenous Stories Research Articles

Revealing and Revelling in the Floods on Country: Memory Poles within Toonooba

Revealing and Revelling in the Floods on Country: Memory Poles within Toonooba

The gift of shame

This short confession looks back at the confessional mode of a 2009 article, ‘The Object of Devotion,’ on the impact of religious orientation on my scholarly formation, before turning to a different sort of self-examination: the moment of shame that is at once a source of pain and a generous gift. The inventory offered here concerns not religious orientation but the shame that arises from being wrong. It also casts light on changes that have come to our profession, where racist structures of thought and their administrative and social manifestations have become more visible than before. It’s not that our work environment has changed; rather, the assumptions that were there all along have become visible, and recognizing them – and responding to them – has become imperative. In this way, when I make a confession, and talk about my own shame, it’s in part the product of my own experience, but it is also the product of our common situation. This confession also looks forward to the fruitful outcomes of this experience, including collaborative workshops on indigenous pedagogy, on the role of indigenous story, and on the stories we tell about the land.

“Trust neither the Horse, nor Modernity”: Explicating Mahmoud Darwish’s Allusions to Babylon, Sodom and Ancient Indians in “Counterpoint: Edward Said”

ABSTRACT This paper examines the allusions to Babylon, Sodom and the Red Indians in Mahmoud Darwish’s tribute to Edward Said, which he entitled “Counterpoint.” This paper argues that these allusions add a new understanding to the significant contribution of Darwish’s poetry to postcolonial literature. It shows these allusions suggest that the postcolonial narrative is an encompassing narrative that is continuously renewed and retold by meta-narratives by authors whose peoples experienced colonialism for two reasons: first, colonialism has never ended, but it continues with new shapes; and second, allusions in postcolonial literature aim at reciprocating “postcolonial solidarity.” This paper further demonstrates that these allusions gesture toward sharing the belief that indigenous stories and struggles are more powerful and rooted when waged together against the colonialist negation of the history and culture of native people.

Ni de aquí ni de alla: A Mythohistoriography of Growing Up In-Between

Abstract Using Aurora Levins Morales’ concept of “medicinal histories,” and Audre Lorde’s “biomythography,” this mythohistoriography weaves together multiple histories of the Guatemalan Civil War, Indigenous stories of resistance in Guatemala, queer and trans presences and erasures, the author’s family stories during this time, and the author’s upbringing as this armed conflict was supposedly ending. Through a Two-Spirit critique this layering project calls for different types of historicizing practices and methodologies for queer and trans studies to focus on in order to do responsible decolonial work. Ultimately, this project is part of a healing praxis meant to deal with generational traumas forged through forcefully forgotten and erased historias and memories of queer and trans Indigenous Guatemalans.

Precarity and the stories we tell: Post-truth discourse and Indigenous epistemologies in Thomas King’s The Back of the Turtle

ABSTRACT This article stems from the assumption that the stories emerging from distinct cultural traditions constitute discrete epistemologies that determine how human individuals and societies face ontological vulnerability and precariousness. Focusing on Thomas King’s novel The Back of the Turtle (2014), it examines the differential agency of two interlocking sets of stories and their respective epistemological systems. Consequently, the article is divided in two main parts. The first examines the novel’s rendering of the tensions between the Enlightenment’s investment in the search for empirical truth, and its current alignment with unfettered neo-liberal capitalism and post-truth discourse. The second part reads the novel’s use of ancestral Indigenous stories as a counterpoint to the stories of modern progress underlying western epistemologies. The emerging question is whether Indigenous ways of knowing embedded in ancestral stories may potentially show the way towards an “ecology of knowledges” that lessens precarity and works towards ecological sustainability.

Images, Land, and Places: Telling Indigenous Narratives and Histories

Abstract Jennifer Graber’s The Gods of Indian Country (2018) and Pamela Klassen’s The Story of Radio Mind (2018) tell stories of Christian and settler-colonialist history from new vantage points highlighting two areas: (1) the importance of land and places, and (2) the use of images in research. Both authors spent time in the lands of their research, and both employ images and maps in meaningful ways. To understand Indigenous experiences on the land and the devastation of dispossession, knowledge of land and places is crucial; to reinterpret the visual record, Indigenous perspectives are imperative. However, largely missing in both texts are Indigenous feelings for the land and their interpretations of the visual record. Therefore, this essay is framed around three questions for scholarship regarding Indigenous spiritual traditions: (1) How can research help readers understand Indigenous stories of dispossession? (2) What guidelines should authors consider when attempting to rewrite/explore/investigate historical narratives? (3) In what ways can Indigenous perspectives revise stories of marginalization and contribute to revitalization?

Beyond Wiindigo Infrastructure

Infrastructure has long been central to the destruction of Indigenous life and the making of settler colonial futurity. Infrastructure constitutes the body of the Wiindigo—the beast of Anishinaabe legend. Roads and rails, pipelines and dams, prisons and borders have all worked to carve up Turtle Island into preserves of settler jurisdiction, while entrenching and hardening the very means of settler economy and sociality into tangible material structures. Yet infrastructure is not inherently violent—it is also essential for transformation; a pipe can carry fresh water as well as toxic sludge. In this paper we suggest that effective initiatives for justice, decolonization, and planetary survival must center infrastructure in their efforts, and we explore how Indigenous stories can help us envision and walk a different path. Drawing on our distinct work in communities, classrooms, court houses and city streets, we insist that our collective futures hinge on remaking socio-technical systems—on building beyond Wiindigo infrastructure.

Cineando

FQ columnist Manuel Betancourt chronicles an unprecedented and growing canon of narrative films from throughout Latin America that examine how twentieth- and twenty-first-century ideas of modernity impact the lives and languages of the indigenous characters placed front and center in these films. While nonfiction filmmaking has a long history of documenting indigeneity on-screen, including by indigenous filmmakers, in the world of narrative features, those who are framing and directing indigenous stories are still largely outsiders. Betancourt explores these issues of language and representation with regard to three recent films: Retablo (Álvaro Delgado Aparicio, 2019), Sueño en otro idioma (I Dream in Another Language, Ernesto Contreras, 2017) and Wiñaypacha (Eternity, Óscar Catacora, 2018).

Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson

Reviewed by: Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson Alexa Woloshyn (bio) Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson University of Minnesota Press, 2020 Hungry Listening is a disciplinary reckoning. The book argues that settlers listen to Indigenous music and sounds through settler colonial musical logics. This book has two primary audiences: Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Some of the moments directed to Indigenous readers are open to non-Indigenous readers like myself to witness and learn. Others contain unexplained knowledge or exist in spaces where I am not invited. Robinson also directly asks non-Indigenous readers to name and reject settler logics of listening, composing, performing, and writing. Robinson hopes for transformative intersectional work between Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. He models this intersectional work in Hungry Listening by drawing on multiple disciplines and speaking to multiple positionalities. The book title is a concept developed by Robinson, which he explains in the introduction. It is an English translation of two Halq'eméylem words: (1) shxwelítemelh ("the adjective for settler or white person's methods/things" [p. 2]), which is based on the word Stó:lō people (xwélmexw) used for starving White settlers in the mid-nineteenth-century gold rush; and (2) xwélalà:m (listening). Robinson also provides an overview of his critique of "inclusionary music" and "inclusionary performance" as musical contexts in which Indigenous content is mined for aesthetic interest and "fit"—or assimilated—into [End Page 119] Euro-American classical compositions and performances. Robinson offers an alternative model, "Indigenous + art music," which rejects assimilation and embraces incommensurability. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of a "tin ear," which reflects the settler listener's ability to perceive only Western ontologies of music. Thus, a "hungry listener" not only desires to consume but also to fit Indigenous content into something knowable and recognizable. Throughout the chapter, Robinson illustrates Indigenous and settler logics of listening. He argues for an unsettling of listening that embraces multisensory, flexible, non-teleological listening and does not appropriate Indigenous ways of listening. Read the introduction and chapter 1 before reading any subsequent chapters, including assigning any later chapters to students. Chapter 2 models an intersectional citational practice that emphasizes decolonial alliances among Indigenous, Black, Asian, Latinx, settler, and LBGTQ2 scholars. Robinson discusses examples of "performance writing," which he praises for challenging "the unmarked normatively of listening through explicitly marking listening positionality" (p. 81). This chapter challenges music scholars to explore sensory and affective writing approaches that can engage more deeply with our listening experiences. Robinson revisits some familiar musicology texts, asking us to embrace their nonnormative possibilities instead of merely citing them within normative structures. In chapter 3, Robinson positions his examples—colonial and contemporary—within a four-model taxonomy: integration, nation-to-nation music trading and reciprocal presentation, a combination of the first two, and coexistence without integration. This taxonomy will help analyze case studies beyond those included in Hungry Listening. Robinson presents case studies by non-Indigenous composers, in which Indigenous music and stories are forced awkwardly and violently into Western musical structures. In contrast, Mohawk composer Dawn Avery's piece "Sarabande" demonstrates "a sharpness of difference" (p. 143). Chapter 4 explains how the histories of Indigenous song collection enabled and justified Canadian composers' extraction of Indigenous songs as a resource to create so-called Canadian music. Robinson directs much of this chapter to Indigenous readers with the hopes that they together can find "different means by which [they] . . . might address this misuse of our songs" (p. 151). The chapter ends with a pointed critique of settler imaginings of the Inuit dogsled through an extensive event score for Alexina Louie's Take the Dog Sled. Chapter 5 critiques what Robinson calls "inclusionary performances" for trying to evoke feelings of reconciliation rather than take substantive actions toward nonrepresentational reconciliation. Robinson underlines what is at stake when settler audiences embrace [End Page 120] these feelings of reconciliation and do not push deeper: "For settler audience members, it may be a much easier task to embrace the mystery of Indigenous stories and aesthetics than to play a leading role in the eradication of another kind of mystery...

De la autoevangelización al dinero sagrado. mitos, historias y prácticas cristianas entre los wixarika

Even though Wixarika people are often characterized as «pagan», Christianity is an important aspect of their religious practice. In this paper indigenous stories about Christ and the saints, as well as certain Catholic ceremonies, like Holy Week, are explained as related to how Wixarika people engage with non-Indigenous populations, modern technology and capitalist economy. In no way there is a rejection of any of those. However, for the communities it is a priority to maintain autonomy, so the control of the uncanny powers of otherness is a crucial, but impossible aspect of Wixarika Christianity.

Clay and Common Ground: Clanships and Polyspirited Embodiment

In this article, I explore embodiment within discourses on trans and two-spirit through a consideration of polyspirited(many-spirited) within the context of Indigenous and transnational stories of clay. Two main articulations spiral out from embodiments of the polyspirited: 1) that embodiment is not limited to one or two spirits but potentially many spirits operating through or within the body collectively in reciprocal relationality; and 2) that stories of clay teach us that the Westernized scientific conception of the human body is limited in its capacity to articulate what it means to be in relation. By understanding clay stories, we begin to comprehend that we are potentially more than two-spirit peoples.

Reimagining the Four Rs of Indigenous Education for Literary Studies: Learning From and With Indigenous Stories in the Classroom

Reimagining the Four Rs of Indigenous Education for Literary Studies: Learning From and With Indigenous Stories in the Classroom

Oceania

Reviewed by: Oceania Safua Akeli Amaama Oceania. Royal Academy of Arts, 2909 1012 2018 London, uk. In December 2018, as part of the Pacific History Association ( pha) Conference program, participants visited the Oceaniaexhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Curated by Nicholas Thomas (University of Cambridge), Peter Brunt (Victoria University of Wellington), and Adrian Locke (Royal Academy of Arts), the central display was located in the main galleries at Burlington House. For the conference audience traveling to the United Kingdom from Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, expectations for Oceaniawere high, particularly in terms of its success in contextualizing stories, objects, and cultural histories. How would Oceaniaengage audiences with stories relating to the diverse Pacific, and what factors would influence the complementing but also competing and contested narratives? Drawing global media attention, the opening was attended by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex, with major outdoor performances by Pacific Island groups from around the region. Although the exhibition marked 250 years since Captain James Cook navigated the Pacific, Oceaniasought to highlight Indigenous stories, like those of Tahitian navigator Tupaia, who had traveled with Cook. The scope of the exhibition was far-reaching, with objects drawn from public institutions in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, and Germany, though some, such as photographs by Mark Adams, were sourced from private collections. However, that these public institutions are located mainly in the northern hemisphere indicates the complex changes that have occurred in terms of the extension of space, place, and people in Oceaniaas these objects have traveled. In this way, Pacific Islanders' involvement in the exhibition was limited to engagement with collections housed in these institutions. Access to the collections usually involves institutional collaboration and dialogue with communities, and it is unclear how this was managed for the exhibition. The 169 objects on display explored six key themes: voyaging and navigation, making place, the spirit of the gift, performance and ceremony, encounter and empire, and memory. The most moving theme was that of "making place," which included an assortment of spiritual figures representing various Pacific Island places such as Sāmoa, Rapa Nui, the Torres Strait Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Austral Islands, and the Caroline Islands. For instance, a wooden female figure from Amaile village in Sāmoa had been acquired by a missionary in 1839, and its presence evoked for me intangible connections to my mother's village. Display methods varied, with some objects placed in crowded or difficult to view cases or modern "cabinets of curiosities," thus continuing problematic museum practices, and other, larger pieces such as canoes placed in central, open areas, enabling a close view of their dimensions and craftsmanship. In many respects, the outdated exhibition style and display techniques evoked mixed feelings, ranging from curiosity and respect to confusion and alienation. [End Page 278]Despite containing a diverse range of objects including digital and mixed media, the exhibition left visitors to wonder about the deeper narratives foregrounding these objects and their significance, since many of the display labels provided limited information. Oceaniawas a collective space encompassing centuries of exchange and interaction, thus raising the question, to what degree can a space illustrate the depth, scope, and complexity of Oceania? The ambitious exhibition captured complex snapshots of places, spaces, and peoples. Compared to the aforementioned larger themes, for me, the exhibition also denoted some other, recurring themes concerned with representation, loss, change, identity, and continuity, particularly when the contemporary works were placed in dialogue with the historical objects. Often the latter conveyed very modern forms and identities. Works by established artists such as Lisa Reihana and Yuki Kihara and the haunting life casts produced by Fiona Pardington added another layer of complexity by incorporating digital and visual modes of display. According to the Royal Academy of Arts, as a diverse space, Oceaniarepresented Indigenous "histories of inter-island trade, ocean navigation, and social and artistic traditions." However, its inclusion as part of the academy's anniversary celebration raises the question of how the institution, with its long imperial and colonial history, is coming along in terms of its approach to the voices and experiences...

Decolonizing the Medium: How Indigenous Creators are Defying “Sidekickery” and Centering Indigenous Stories and Characters in the Comics Landscape

The Journal of American CultureVolume 42, Issue 4 p. 326-334 Original Article Decolonizing the Medium: How Indigenous Creators are Defying “Sidekickery” and Centering Indigenous Stories and Characters in the Comics Landscape Amanda Morris, Amanda MorrisSearch for more papers by this author Amanda Morris, Amanda MorrisSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 December 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13095Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume42, Issue4December 2019Pages 326-334 RelatedInformation

An illustrated storybook of indigenous stories as a learning tool for scholars and communities

Content: Our presentation will focus on a project idea that brings together conventional and unconventional teaching methods by means of a story of indigenous stories illustrated by artists.
 Storybooks -when authentic and not grammatically sequenced- have the merit among the others to: (1) convey a direct message; (2) offer different interpretations of a certain event, liberated from cultural assumptions; (3) expose the reader to several tenses at the same time (Ellis, Brewster, 2002; Mourão, 2003) which gives a sense of circuitry and multidimensionality; (4) be dynamic and adaptive, and therefore not statically connected to certain events or interpretation, as well as released from beliefs and value-sets; (5) be uncontroversial, thus universally shareable.
 Objective and audience: collecting indigenous stories from different legal traditions that will be narrated by two shape-shifters feminine spirits. Both stories and storytellers mirror the fluid and immanent governing water and earth, in such a way that can be understood by students, indigenous and non-indigenous researchers, community members.
 Methodology: Focus groups will be set up with the aim to collect stories from the coastal and rural communities of two Regions: two communities from the Western coasts of Canada and New Zealand (representing the Sea-Region); two local communities from Brazil and India (representing the Earth-Region). These are chosen for their rich and diversified local knowledge, based on the centrality of the sea and the earth in the human existence. Community-based artists and storytellers will be engaged in co-creating the final outcome (a story illustrated by an indigenous artist per community). The story of the stories, with the two feminine spirits as protagonists, will be illustrated by one or two children book’s illustrators.
 Expected result: an illustrated book, that will have the original trait of being a frame story narrated by the two spirits of water and earth, containing indigenous narratives on the symbiotic relationship that governs communities and nature.

Reconciliation as Relationship: Exploring Indigenous Cultures and Perspectives Through Stories

Responding to the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, a non-Indigenous author and her coeducator embarked on a learning and research journey with 4-year-old children in a preschool program. The challenge for the educators was to make the experience meaningful to the children rather than handing down a set of information on Indigenous cultures and history. Through exploring Indigenous stories, both the educators and the children shared their wonderings and coconstructed the meanings of them. Developing authentic appreciation toward Indigenous cultures and values through the power of stories became a first step toward reconciliation.

One Made by Many: the Recording of Present-Day Kalahari Stories

ABSTRACT An inclusive methodology emphasises other-centredness and many ways of knowing including spirituality. It draws on the spirit of ubuntu, kanala and participatory communication towards research that results in a product that is “the one made by many”. How this type of methodology can be implemented ethically in the recording and dissemination of indigenous stories and, more importantly, how it may challenge the spiritual well-being of the storyteller is considered. Three case studies involving the author directly are examined. Aspects of The South African San Institute’s San Code of Ethics are considered specifically in the argument for participant agency. Challenges addressed include the following. What are the ethical concerns that need to be addressed in the process of recording and transcribing indigenous stories and the publication and dissemination of the product? If and how does the telling of their stories impact the spiritual well-being of the storytellers? How can an inclusive methodology assist in preparing storytellers for possible negative impacts on their spiritual well-being in the telling of their stories?

The Times and Artistry of Segun Adeku: A Neo-Traditional African Artist

This study focuses on the life and artistry of Segun Adeku, a neo-traditional African artist. The study brings to limelight the artist’s creative background, ideologies and views about the society, as well as the styles and techniques that have shaped Adeku’s artistry over time. This study was conducted through participant observation method, personal contacts and informal oral interviews with the artist. Other information was sourced through exhibition catalogues of the artist’s works. The study examines artistic development of Segun Adeku, his sources of inspiration, and critically appraises his works of art. The findings of the study reveal that Adeku is a dexterous neo-traditional African artist who has been preoccupied with forms that are heavily ornamented, using repeated hues and lines to express Yoruba folklores and indigenous stories that preach love and harmony in the society. The study concluded that with Adeku, the theory of the universality of experience holds, whether trained or untrained artists, the difference is only in their sociological make-up. However, this study is neither definitive nor exhaustive in its approach; rather, it serves as an insight into documentation of African artistry so as to avoid going into the oblivion. Keywords: African art, art workshop, neo-traditional artist, Segun Adeku DOI: 10.7176/ADS/75-03 Publication date: August 31 st 2019

Tricky Stories: Settler-Academic Reflections on Anti-Colonial Teaching

Personal stories and storytelling often appear as part of an effort to decolonize our approaches to teaching and learning. However, it can be difficult to develop adequately Indigenous-informed, anti-colonial storytelling practices, especially for non-Indigenous settler–academics and would-be allies situated in colonial institutions. The lessons learned from feminist or anti-oppressive narrative-based pedagogies might help but they do not account for Indigenous epistemic differences. In this paper, I reflect upon the questions and challenges that I encounter in my practice of using quasi–Indigenous stories to unsettle mainstream approaches to knowledge in the geography classroom. Rather than presenting a clear set of solutions, I hope to evoke and share the uncertainty that this work invites.

Indigenizing Work as “willful work”: Toward Indigenous Transgressive Leadership in Canadian Universities

As Indigenous peoples employed at a university who are working to Indigenize it from within, in this article, we share our experiences, discuss some of our challenges, and show how we draw meaning and strength from Indigenous stories to ground us in our approach. We use Indigenous, anti-oppressive, anti-racist and decolonizing theories, Indigenous standpoints, embodied experiences, and emotive responses to make explicit the lived work realities of Indigenous people in mainstream universities. Through a dialogic approach, we trace one pathway for explicating Indigenous transgressive leadership in Canadian universities. In our discussion, we situate Indigenizing work as “willful work” (Ahmed, 2014). We call for a “strategic willfulness” as a constructive orientation, for Indigenous leaders to embrace, as we continue to confront the colonial, hetero-patriarchal and whitestream nature of Canadian universities. Most importantly, we underscore the need for Indigenous leaders involved in Indigenizing work in the university to draw from Indigenous epistemological and relational ethics in their leadership work, and to be strategically willful, interruptive and transgressive.