Indigenous Poetics in Canada

by Neal McLeod (Editor)

Overview

Indigenous Poetics in Canada broadens the way in which Indigenous poetry is examined, studied, and discussed in Canada. Breaking from the parameters of traditional English literature studies, this volume embraces a wider sense of poetics, including Indigenous oralities, languages, and understandings of place.

Featuring work by academics and poets, the book examines four elements of Indigenous poetics. First, it explores the poetics of memory: collective memory, the persistence of Indigenous poetic consciousness, and the relationships that enable the Indigenous storytelling process. The book then explores the poetics of performance: Indigenous poetics exist both in written form and in relation to an audience. Third, in an examination of the poetics of place and space, the book considers contemporary Indigenous poetry and classical Indigenous narratives. Finally, in a section on the poetics of medicine, contributors articulate the healing and restorative power of Indigenous poetry and narratives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554589821
Publisher:	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication date:	05/16/2014
Series:	Indigenous Studies , #13
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Neal McLeod grew up Cree on the James Smith Reserve in Saskatchewan and studied at the Swedish Art Academy at Umeå. His 2005 exhibition au fil de mes jours (in my lifetime), at Le Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, was remounted at the Museum of Civilization in 2007. He has two books of poetry—Songs to Kill a Wîhtikow (2005) and Gabriel’s Beach (2008). Cree Narrative Memory (2007) was nominated for book of the year at the Anskohk McNally Aboriginal Literature Awards. He teaches Indigenous studies at Trent Universityin Peterborough, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction Neal McLeod 1

Poetics of Memory

1 Achimo Duncan Mercredi 17

2 Interview with Armand Garnet Ruffo Neal McLeod 23

3 Edgework: Indigenous Poetics as Re-placement Warren Cariou 31

4 Pauline Passed Here Janet Marie Rogers 39

5 Writer-Reader Reciprocity and the Pursuit of Alliance through Indigenous Poetry Sam McKegney 43

6 Remembering the Poetics of Ancient Sound kistêsinâw/wîsahkêcâhk's maskihkiy (Elder Brother's Medicine) Tasha Beeds 61

7 On Reading Basso David Newhouse 73

8 The Pemmican Eaters Marilyn Dumont 83

9 Cree Poetic Discourse Neal McLeod 89

Poetics of Place

10 "Bubbling Like a Beating Heart": Reflections on Nishnaabeg Poetic and Narrative Consciousness Leanne Simpson 107

11 Getting (Back) to Poetry: A Memoir Daniel David Moses 121

12 Kwadây Kwandur-Our Shagóon Alyce Johnson 137

13 "Pimuteuat/Ils marchent/They Walk": A Few Observations on Indigenous Poetry and Poetics in French Michèle Lacombe 159

14 Through Iskigamizigan (The Sugarbush): A Poetics of Decolonization Waaseyaa'sin Christine Sy 183

15 The Power of Dirty Waters: Indigenous Poetics Niigaainwewidam James Sinclair 203

16 A Poetics of Place and Apocalypse: Conflict and Contradiction in Poetry of the Red River Resistance and the Northwest Resistance Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber 217

17 My Poem Is an Indian Woman Rosanna Deerchild 237

Poetics of Performance

18 Interview with Marvin Francis Conducted by Rosanna Deerchild Shayla Elizabeth 247

19 Blood Moves with Us-Story Poetry Lives Inside Janet Rogers 253

20 Revitalizing Indigenous Swagger: Poetics from a Plains Cree Perspective Lindsay "Eekwol" Knight 259

21 A Conversation of Influence, Tradition, and Indigenous Poetics: An Interview with Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm Rhiannon Johnson 263

22 The "Nerve of Cree," the Pulse of Africa: Sound Identities in Cree, Cree-Métis, and Dub Poetries in Canada Susan Gingell 271

23 Poetics of Renewal: Indigenous Poetics-Message or Medium? Lillian Allen 293

Poetics of Medicine

24 Indigenous Poetry and the Oral Lee Maracle 305

25 Poems as Healing Bundles Gregory Scofield 311

26 Small Birds / Songs Out of Silence Joanne Arnott 321

27 Stretching through our Watery Sleep: Feminine Narrative Retrieval of cihcipistikwan in Louise Halfe's The Crooked Good Lesley Belleau 331

28 "Learning to Listen to a Quiet Way of Telling": A Study of Cree Counselling Discourse Patterns in Maria Campbell's Halfbreed Gail MacKay 351

About the Contributors 371

Index 381

Editorial Reviews

‘‘In a fine introduction, McLeod does an admirable job of framing the essays and interviews to come while giving readers less familiar with indigenous poetics insight into some of the tropes and rhetorical strategies practitioners use, including kiskino (‘things...pointed to, but never completely articulated’), kakêskihkêmowina (‘counselling narratives’), and aniskwâcimopicikêwin (‘the process of connecting stories together’). That this collection exists is at once a challenge to the white publishing world that has long refused to recognize indigenous poetic practices as ‘poetry’ and a testament to the health and vibrancy of the living word of indigenous consciousness.... Summing up: Highly recommended.''

B. Carson

‘‘Indigenous Poetics in Canada is that rare book of scholarship that speaks to the heart and spirit as well as the mind. The selections in this collection offer powerful individual and collective insight into the ways that diverse traditions of Indigenous poetics animate our imaginative possibilities and extend our cultural understandings across time, space, and difference. To study Indigenous poetics is to be forcefully reminded of both our historical traditions and their continuing significance, and the poets, writers, scholars, and story-makers featured in this volume are among the most eloquent and insightful voices on the topic today. This is a transformative intervention in Indigenous literary studies as well as the broader canon of Canadian literature, reminding us that questions of aesthetics are always in dynamic relationship with the lived experience of our politicized imaginations in the world.''

Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation)

‘‘Conversations about Indigenous literatures will be forever enriched by this stunning new collection. Here, the leading voices in Indigenous literary studies draw upon deep currents of inspiration—both ancient and contemporary—as they reflect upon and powerfully perform the act of re-making the world through language. Joyful, humbling, and wonderfully diverse, Indigenous Poetics in Canada welcomes readers and writers into a re-indigenized rhetorical landscape-and I cannot wait to see what takes place there.''

Keavy Martin