Social Science Indigenous Studies
A Short History of the Blockade
Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin
- Publisher
- Canadian Literature Centre / Centre de littérature canadienne, The University of Alberta Press
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2021
- Category
- Indigenous Studies, Native American, Canadian
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781772125382
- Publish Date
- Feb 2021
- List Price
- $12.99
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781772125504
- Publish Date
- Feb 2021
- List Price
- $12.99
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Description
In A Short History of the Blockade, award-winning writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson uses Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg stories, storytelling aesthetics, and practices to explore the generative nature of Indigenous blockades through our relative, the beaver—or in Nishnaabemowin, Amik. Moving through genres, shifting through time, amikwag stories become a lens for the life-giving possibilities of dams and the world-building possibilities of blockades, deepening our understanding of Indigenous resistance as both a negation and an affirmation. Widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation, Simpson’s work breaks open the intersections between politics, story, and song, bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. A Short History of the Blockade reveals how the practice of telling stories is also a culture of listening, “a thinking through together,” and ultimately, like the dam or the blockade, an affirmation of life. Introduction by Jordan Abel.
About the author
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Leanne's books are regularly used in courses across Canada and the United States including Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, The Gift Is in the Making, Lighting the Eighth Fire (editor), This Is An Honour Song (editor with Kiera Ladner) and The Winter We Danced: Voice from the Past, the Future and the Idle No More Movement (Kino-nda-niimi editorial collective). Her paper "Land As Pedagogy" was awarded the Most thought-provoking 2014 article in Native American and Indigenous Studies. Her latest book, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance is being published by the University of Minnesota Press in the fall of 2017. As a writer, Leanne was named the inaugural RBC Charles Taylor Emerging writer by Thomas King. She has published extensive fiction and poetry in both book and magazine form. Her second book of short stories and poetry, This Accident of Being Lost is a follow up to the acclaimed Islands of Decolonial Love and was published by the House of Anansi Press in Spring 2017. Leanne is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg and a member of Alderville First Nation.
Editorial Reviews
“Simpson, a celebrated Indigenous storyteller, artist, and scholar, offers four Nishnaabeg stories from the wisdom of the beaver nation and the foundational teachings of their blockades (dams) as an established practice of world-building resistance. Together, the stories are also a commentary on current issues of social media, lateral violence, binary thinking, and surveillance that house the potential to hinder the generative, relational, and reciprocal nature of Indigenous resistance.” Morgan Mowatt, University of Toronto Quarterly, August 2023 [doi: 10.3138/utq.92.3.hr.018]
Other titles by
Ndè Sı̀ı̀ Wet’aɂà
Northern Indigenous Voices on Land, Life, & Art
Noopiming
The Cure for White Ladies
Islands of Decolonial Love
Stories & Songs
Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg
This is our Territory
Luminous Ink
Writers on Writing in Canada
This Accident of Being Lost
Songs and Stories
Islands of Decolonial Love
The Gift Is in the Making
Anishinaabeg Stories
Dancing On Our Turtle's Back
Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence