This week on the Chat, we’re in conversation with acclaimed writer and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of the superb new work This Accident of Being Lost. Genre-bending, fiercely political, and deeply personal, the pieces that make up this collection resist and defy entrenched colonial narratives and speak back to power in direct, intimate ways.
Writing in The Winnipeg Review, writer Gwen Benaway says “What fascinates me about Simpson’s work is not its Anishinaabe cultural roots, but its examination of intimacy and love. You can’t separate being Indigenous from how we love others. It’s an extension of culture and worldview .... [t]his notion of reclaiming love and intimacy as a space for resistance and revitalization sits at the heart of Simpson’s new work.”
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, musician, and is a member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and has lectured at universities across Canada. She is the author of three previous books, including Islands of Decolonial Love, and the editor of three anthologies. She has released two albums, including f(l)ight, which is a companion piece to this collection.
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THE CHAT WITH LEANNE BETASAMOSAKE SIMPSON
Trevor Corkum: Congrats on the publication of This Accident of Being Lost. Who and what inspires you, as an artist and human being?
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: MIigwech. Inspiration is an internal process for me, a way of living and creating. I think the trick is to generate a cycling of energy within oneself to continually thrive, to continually generate new ideas. That’s certainly more difficult for Indigenous peoples as we cope with the on-going violence and trauma of occupied bodies and land, but that’s what sustains me.
TC: Your writing is fierce and in-your-face, but also deeply confessional and tender. One of my favourite pieces is “Pretending Fearless.” What was your greatest fear as you wrote?
LBS: I write from a pretty fearless place. I work with an Elder, Ethel Lamothe in Denendeh and she often talks about how fear is the colonizer working through our minds and our hearts. Fear prevents us from living who we are supposed to be as Indigenous peoples. In my creative process and my life, I actively combat fear to make space for creative sovereignty.
TC: The work is wide-ranging, gathering together stories, poems, songs, and other narratives. As you approached the writing, did you have a particular vision for the collection as a whole, or did it come together organically?
LBS: Everything in my work is a deliberate intervention. I had a conceptual vision for the project. I’m drawn to layering meaning into my work and I’m unconcerned with genre. I like constructing new worlds, and then living in them with the characters.
TC: You’re a multi-talented artist, scholar and activist, working across genres. You’re also a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University. In what ways do your various activities and creative outlets intersect and inform each other?
LBS: All of my work comes from the same practice and an intense love of Nishnaabeg land, people, thought and worlds. The current world—so desecrated from the damage of capitalism, colonialism, and heteropatriarchy—is not the world my ancestors intended for me, nor is it the world I want to leave my descendants. I’m unconcerned with credentials, awards and careerism, and more concerned about whether my ancestors would recognize me as Nishnaabe. I’m more concerned with building a Nishnaabe world from my descendants.
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