大象传媒

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

First Nations, English

Indigenous Literatures in Canada

March 20, 2014
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From February 27th to March 2nd at 大象传媒 Harbour Centre, several noted experts in Indigenous Literatures in Canada came together as part of a funded workshop to edit anthologies designed for the university classroom, to share their expertise with the general public and to mentor a new generation of scholars. Because the study of Indigenous literatures in Canada is not much more than twenty years old, much of the infrastructure of any discipline鈥攔ecognized curriculum, textbooks, faculty positions鈥攈as only recently been developed; over the same time period, universities have become aware of the general lack of Indigenous students in their programs. This workshop was specifically committed to bringing together established academics with a burgeoning group of graduate students, many of them Indigenous, to consider the unique intellectual, social and emotional demands of the field.

On the first evening of the workshop, UBC Canada Research Chair, Cherokee scholar and fantasy writer gave a public lecture entitled 鈥淲hy Indigenous Literature Matters,鈥� from a book with the same name that he is under contract to write for Wilfrid Laurier University Press. He challenged and charmed the packed lecture hall with the charge that ignoring the full canon of Indigenous literatures鈥攊ncluding works of orature and those recorded in material culture鈥攊s an act of erasure of Indigenous knowledge.

On Friday, February 28th, Canada鈥檚 leading expert in Inuit literature, from the University of Alberta, suggested that the protocols of eating and sharing in Inuit cultures offers us a way to approach stories. Citing the short film Tungijuq in which eating, death, reincarnation and new life are interconnected, Martin challenged the squeamishness of eaters and readers in the south who use their lack of familiarity with Inuit culture as an excuse not to partake.

On Saturday afternoon, March 1st, Cherokee scholar , from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discussed the inspiration for his most recent (and award winning) book,  (2012), which Daniel Justice calls the most important contribution to Cherokee cultural knowledge in the past half-century. Working with elders in his community who were bothered by previous published works they felt were inadequate, Teuton helped them produce a volume of stories and a discussion of the protocols around storytelling. His presentation was a model of engaged research, proving that literary scholarship can be responsive and responsible to community.

Local graduate students including Ashley Morford, Natalie Knight (Yurok) and June Scudeler (Metis) then worked with a scholar from across the country to champion one of three books in an event modelled after the CBC鈥檚 鈥淐anada Reads鈥�. The students used facebook and twitter to stir up excitement about 大象传媒鈥檚 Turtle Island Reads 2014 and promoted often neglected texts by Indigenous authors from both sides of the border. 大象传媒 faculty (Cree-Metis) and acted as emcees for the event, alternately rousing the crowd and acting as timekeepers. Queen鈥檚 University鈥檚 defended Sherman Alexie鈥檚 Flight, Laurentian University鈥檚 (Bonnecherre First Nation) defended Sean Tinsley and Rachel Qitsualik鈥檚 Ajjiit, and University of Regina鈥檚 (Metis) defended Dawn Dumont鈥檚 Nobody Cries at Bingo. While the crowd voted the last book to be the 鈥淭urtle Island Reads book of the year鈥�, the book table sold out of all of the copies of each book and the event has inspired the emcees to plan an annual competition.

Because a key part of building the field is supporting academic publishing, the workshop was also a place for Sophie McCall to introduce her critical edition of Anahareo鈥檚 , for Sam McKegney to launch (both with University of Manitoba Press) and for delegates to attend a presentation and question and answer period with established publishers, including Lisa Quinn from Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Also announced was Anishinaabe writer and Trent doctoral student 鈥檚 next novel, Sweat, to be released by Scrivenor in May. And students read portions from the English version of the first novel written in syllabic Inuttitut, , first published in 1987 and released in January 2014.

Delegates attended a variety of other workshops, from the ethics for teaching traumatic texts to the methods for teaching oral storytelling, and from Indigenous literatures in French to Indigenous Science Fiction. They also were introduced to the newly established (ILSA) that was recently founded by several scholars in attendance, to continue to forge new ways of literary analysis that honours the history and promotes the ongoing production of Indigenous literatures in all forms, reaffirms the value of Indigenous knowledges and methodologies within literary expression and study, and fosters respectful relationships within and between academic and non-academic communities. The purpose and values of were demonstrated in the activities of the workshop, as this generation of scholars contend with ways to amend conventional literary criticism to better suit the subject they study.