Winner, PROSE Awards 2019
Short-listed, ACQL Gabrielle Roy Prize for Literary Criticism 2018
Winner, NAISA Award Best Subsequent Book 2018
Part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural
history, and part literary polemic, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter
asserts the vital significance of literary expression to the political,
creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous peoples today.
In considering the connections between literature and lived experience,
this book contemplates four key questions at the heart of Indigenous
kinship traditions: How do we learn to be human? How do we become good
relatives? How do we become good ancestors? How do we learn to live
together? Blending personal narrative and broader historical and
cultural analysis with close readings of key creative and critical
texts, Justice argues that Indigenous writers engage with these
questions in part to challenge settler-colonial policies and practices
that have targeted Indigenous connections to land, history, family, and
self. More importantly, Indigenous writers imaginatively engage the many
ways that communities and individuals have sought to nurture these
relationships and project them into the future.
This provocative volume challenges readers to critically consider and
rethink their assumptions about Indigenous literature, history, and
politics while never forgetting the emotional connections of our shared
humanity and the power of story to effect personal and social change.
Written with a generalist reader firmly in mind but addressing issues of
interest to specialists in the field, this book welcomes new audiences
to Indigenous literary studies while offering more seasoned readers a
renewed appreciation for these transformative literary traditions.
Selected as an Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Community Read by the
Association of University Presses.
