Iskwewak Kah Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomakanak

Now in its second edition, this groundbreaking work of literary and cultural criticism analyzes representations of Indigenous women in Canadian literature. By deconstructing stereotypical images of the “Indian princess” and “easy squaw,” Janice Acoose calls attention to the racist and sexist depictions of Indigenous women in popular literature. Blending personal narrative and literary criticism, this revised edition draws a strong connection between the persistent negative cultural attitudes fostered by those stereotypical representations and the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Acoose decolonizes written English by interweaving her own story with reflections on the self-determination of her female ancestors and by highlighting influential Indigenous female writers who have resisted cultural stereotypes and reclaimed the literary field as their own. This important text urges both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to move beyond words to challenge the harmful attitudes that condone violence against Indigenous women. Thoroughly updated and featuring new photographs, questions for critical thought, and a discussion of Indigenous women’s literary voices that have emerged in the past twenty years, the second edition of Iskwewak is an invaluable resource for students and teachers of Indigenous studies, women’s studies, and literature.

This is a collection of classic and newly commissioned essays about the study of Indigenous literatures in North America. The contributing scholars include some of the most venerable Indigenous theorists, among them Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe), Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan), Craig Womack (Creek), Kimberley Blaeser (Anishinaabe), Emma LaRocque (Métis), Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee), Janice Acoose (Saulteaux), and Jo-Ann Episkenew (Métis). Also included are settler scholars foundational to the field, including Helen Hoy, Margery Fee, and Renate Eigenbrod. Among the newer voices are both settler and Indigenous theorists such as Sam McKegney, Keavy Martin, and Niigaanwewidam Sinclair. The volume is organized into five subject areas: Position, the necessity of considering where you come from and who you are; Imagining Beyond Images and Myths, a history and critique of circulating images of Indigenousness; Debating Indigenous Literary Approaches; Contemporary Concerns, a consideration of relevant issues; and finally Classroom Considerations, pedagogical concerns particular to the field. Each section is introduced by an essay that orients the reader and provides ideological context. While anthologies of literary criticism have focused on specific issues related to this burgeoning field, this volume is the first to offer comprehensive perspectives on the subject.

Returning Home features and contextualizes the creative works of Diné (Navajo) boarding school students at the Intermountain Indian School, which was the largest federal Indian boarding school between 1950 and 1984. Diné student art and poetry reveal ways that boarding school students sustained and contributed to Indigenous cultures and communities despite assimilationist agendas and pressures. This book works to recover the lived experiences of Native American boarding school students through creative works, student interviews, and scholarly collaboration. It shows the complex agency and ability of Indigenous youth to maintain their Diné culture within the colonial spaces that were designed to alienate them from their communities and customs. Returning Home provides a view into the students’ experiences and their connections to Diné community and land. Despite the initial Intermountain Indian School agenda to send Diné students away and permanently relocate them elsewhere, Diné student artists and writers returned home through their creative works by evoking senses of Diné Bikéyah and the kinship that defined home for them. Returning Home uses archival materials housed at Utah State University, as well as material donated by surviving Intermountain Indian School students and teachers throughout Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Artwork, poems, and other creative materials show a longing for cultural connection and demonstrate cultural resilience. This work was shared with surviving Intermountain Indian School students and their communities in and around the Navajo Nation in the form of a traveling museum exhibit, and now it is available in this thoughtfully crafted volume. By bringing together the archived student arts and writings with the voices of living communities, Returning Home traces, recontextualizes, reconnects, and returns the embodiment and perpetuation of Intermountain Indian School students’ everyday acts of resurgence.

Despite a recent increase in the productivity and popularity of Indigenous playwrights in Canada, most critical and academic attention has been devoted to the work of male dramatists, leaving female writers on the margins. In Indigenous Women’s Theatre in Canada, Sarah MacKenzie addresses this critical gap by focusing on plays by Indigenous women written and produced in the socio-cultural milieux of twentieth and twenty-first century Canada. Closely analyzing dramatic texts by Monique Mojica, Marie Clements, and Yvette Nolan, MacKenzie explores representations of gendered colonialist violence in order to determine the varying ways in which these representations are employed subversively and informatively by Indigenous women. These plays provide an avenue for individual and potential cultural healing by deconstructing some of the harmful ideological work performed by colonial misrepresentations of Indigeneity and demonstrate the strength and persistence of Indigenous women, offering a space in which decolonial futurisms can be envisioned. In this unique work, MacKenzie suggests that colonialist misrepresentations of Indigenous women have served to perpetuate demeaning stereotypes, justifying devaluation of and violence against Indigenous women. Most significantly, however, she argues that resistant representations in Indigenous women’s dramatic writing and production work in direct opposition to such representational and manifest violence.

Troubling Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Education offers a series of critical perspectives concerning reconciliation and reconciliatory efforts between Canadian and Indigenous peoples. Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars address both theoretical and practical aspects of troubling reconciliation in education across various contexts with significant diversity of thought, approach, and socio-political location. Throughout, the work challenges mainstream reconciliation discourses. This timely, unflinching analysis will be invaluable to scholars and students of Indigenous studies, sociology, and education. Contributors: Daniela Bascuñán, Jennifer Brant, Liza Brechbill, Shawna Carroll, Frank Deer, George J. Sefa Dei (Nana Adusei Sefa Tweneboah), Lucy El-Sherif, Rachel yacaaʔał George, Ruth Green, Celia Haig-Brown, Arlo Kempf, Jeannie Kerr, David Newhouse, Amy Parent, Michelle Pidgeon, Robin Quantick, Jean-Paul Restoule, Toby Rollo, Mark Sinke, Sandra D. Styres, Lynne Wiltse, Dawn Zinga

Feminist scholars write about the dynamic ways they reach beyond academia to engage broader communities

This book begins with an introductory section that briefly reviews the history of First Nations political development in Saskatchewan, the historical process of First Nations education, health care among Saskatchewan First Nations, the development of First Nations media, and First Nations people in sports. The main section contains over 125 biographies of Saskatchewan First Nations people which together demonstrate the diversity & department of this community and their contribution to the province.

Canada boasts a remarkable number of talented theatre artists, scholars, and educators. How Theatre Educates brings together essays and other contributions from members of these diverse communities to advocate for a broader and more inclusive understanding of theatre as an educative force. Organized to reflect the variety of contexts in which professionals are making, researching, and teaching drama, this anthology presents a wide range of articles, essays, reminiscences, songs, poems, plays, and interviews to elucidate the relationship between theatre practice and pedagogy, and to highlight the overriding theme: namely, that keeping 'education' – with its curriculum components of dramatic literature and theatre studies in formal school settings – separate from 'theatre' outside of the classroom, greatly diminishes both enterprises. In this volume, award-winning playwrights, directors, actors, and scholars reflect on the many ways in which those working in theatre studios, school classrooms, and on stages throughout the country are engaged in teaching and learning processes that are particular to the arts and especially genres of theatre. Situating theatre practitioners as actors in a larger socio-cultural enterprise, How Theatre Educates is a fascinating and lively inquiry into pedagogy and practice that will be relevant to teachers and students of drama, educators, artists working in theatre, and the theatre-going public. Contributors Maja Ardal David Booth Patricia Cano Diane Flacks Kathleen Gallagher John Gilbert Sky Gilbert Jim Giles Linda Griffiths Tomson Highway Janice Hladki Cornelia Hoogland Ann-Marie MacDonald Lori McDougall John Murrell Domenico Pietropaolo Walter Pitman Richard Rose Jason Sherman Lynn Slotkin Larry Swartz Judith Thompson Guillermo Verdecchia Belarie Zatzman