Indigenous Storytelling and Connections to the Land

This book builds on the perspective that, for Indigenous peoples, relations to the land are familial, intimate, intergenerational, spiritual, instructive, and life nourishing, and it is these relations that Western societies sought to destroy as part of their colonial projects of territorial conquest and exploitation of resources. Positioning storytelling as a research methodology and a model of decolonial practice, this edited collection seeks to explore the following key questions: how does Indigenous storytelling contribute to understanding Indigenous identity and the crucial role of the land in Indigenous ways of life? How can Indigenous storytelling subvert colonial narratives of the land? How can Indigenous storytelling contribute to addressing colonial exploitations of the land and its resources? Can Indigenous storytelling become a rich mode for the investigation of current climate crises? And, finally, how does storytelling assist Indigenous peoples in restoring their intimate relations to the land and its natural gifts? Through critical analysis of a unique range of Indigenous storytelling practices, including fiction, performative art, new media platforms, archaeological findings and personal live-experienced stories, this collection aims to examine the interplay between colonialism and current environmental challenges, and to expose the impacts past, present, and future of Western worldviews on Indigenous connections to the land, whilst simultaneously bringing to the fore Indigenous ethos of care and land custodianship.

Discusses a range of Indigenous storytelling practices, including performative art, new media, & archaeological findings Provides new readings of current climate crises, expose the colonial implications of past & present environmental change Demonstrates the gravity of Indigenous storytelling as a pedagogical tool of stewardship, a model of decolonial practice

Auteur

Francesca Mussi has recently completed a Leverhulme ECR fellowship in the Department of Humanities at Northumbria University, which has led to a monograph, Good Medicine Stories, exploring how the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission relates to Indigenous epistemologies and storytelling practices. This is under contract with Liverpool University Press. Mussi's first monograph, Literary Legacies of the South African TRC: Fictional Journeys into Trauma, Truth and Reconciliation (Palgrave, 2020) draws on her doctoral research conducted at the University of Sussex (2013-2017) and makes a significant contribution to South African studies, demonstrating the value of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a literary subject in contemporary South African fiction. She also has considerable experience in reviewing postcolonial-related books for journals such as Textual Practice, Contemporary Women's Writing, Le Simplegadi, Testimony Between Historyand Memory, the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing. Currently, she is "Cultore della Materia" in English Literature at the University of Pisa, Italy, and she is Senior Editor for the Postcolonial Studies Association Newsletter.

Contenu

Chapter 1. Don't bother the earth spirit [] she is working on a story: Indigenous Perspectives on Human-Land Relations by Francesca Mussi.- Part One: (Auto)Ethnographic and Archaeological Stories.- Chapter 2. The Big Tree where everything happens: Can the shattered be mended? by Yvette Abrahams and Siv Øvernes.- Chapter 3. An Appraisal of the Aari People's Indigenous Connections to and Conceptions of their Land (Fä'ek) through their Indigenous Religious Beliefs, Myths and Rituals by Endalkachew Hailu Guluma and Temesgen Minwagaw Lemma.- Chapter 4. The Landscapes of my Ancestors: Using Archaeology to Tell the Story of Métis Connections to the Landscape by Dawn Wambold.- Part Two: Literary explorations.- Chapter 5. Meahcci: The Place We Live by Lill Tove Fredriksen.- Chapter 6. Water, Air, Stone: Storying Elemental Kinship by Kristin Lucas.- Chapter 7. ARE THEY GETTING IT?: Texting with Water in Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's Big Water by Abbey Ballard.- Chapter 8. Aloha 'ina: Island-Wahine Relationality in Hawaiian Mo'olelo by Emma Barnes.- Part Three: Performance and Media.- Chapter 9. Dealing with Climate Change from the Margins: Creative Expressions of Indigenous Values and Practices from the Sundarban and the Pacific by A. B. M. Monirul Huq.- Chapter 10. Márkomeannu-2018/2118 at the Convergence of Fiction and Reality: Art, Performance and Storytelling Between Pasts and Futures in a Land of Relations by Erika DeVivo.- Chapter 11. Lands of Solidarity: Understanding Contemporary North American and Palestinian Indigenous Realities through Interactive Documentary by Lara El Mekaui.- Chapter 12. Podcasting Indigenous Land Connections in Stories from the Land by Jeff Donison.- Afterword Wisdom Still Sits in Places: Relationality, Ecology, Story by David Stirrup.