How might poetic practices undermine racist ideologies and colonialism, engendering ecological attentiveness, and anomalous and compassionate communities? Christine Stewart’s Treaty 6 Deixis takes up these timely and pressing questions as it investigates what it means to be a non-Indigenous inhabitant of Canada’s Treaty 6 territory, “in this city, on this land, in this country, on this planet, in a way that acknowledges and honours all my obligations and all my relations, the complex web of connective tissues that keep me here.” (Deixis is a word or phrase – like “this,” “that,” “ now,” “then” – that points to the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking or a writer is writing.)

Written beside the kisiskâciwani-sîpiy (North Saskatchewan River) on Treaty 6 land – which encompasses most of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan – this gorgeous long poem reinstates and re-sounds the extent of the author’s obligations, considering the ways in which language can be formally and contextually engaged to refigure and potentially re-articulate the world. Treaty 6 Deixis, Stewart’s long-anticipated first solo trade collection, is an exemplary, ethically engaged, and much-needed exploration, and a step towards reconciliation.

Christine Stewart lives on the North Saskatchewan River. She works at the University of Alberta and the Learning Centre in downtown Edmonton. Publications include from Taxonomy, Pessoa’s July: or the months of astonishments and The Trees of Periphery. The Humanist is forthcoming from Red Nettle Press.

Christine Stewart's profile page