Why Indigenous Literatures Matter

by Daniel Heath Justice

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.

Genres: Indigenous, Nonfiction, History, Native American, Literature, Education, Theory

284 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2018

About the author

Daniel Heath Justice (b. 1975) is a Colorado-born citizen of the Cherokee Nation/ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ, raised the third generation of his mother's family in the Rocky Mountain mining town of Victor, Colorado. After a decade living and teaching in the Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat, and Haudenosaunee territories of southern Ontario, where he worked at the University of Toronto, he now lives with his husband in shíshálh territory on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. He works on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam people, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture and Professor of First Nations and Indigenous Studies and English at the University of British Columbia.

Daniel's research focuses on Indigenous literary expression, with particular emphasis on issues of literary nationalism, kinship, sexuality, and intellectual production. His scholarship and creative work also extend into speculative fiction, animal studies (including badgers and raccoons), and cultural history. He is also a fantasy/wonderworks writer who explores the otherwise possibilities of Indigenous restoration and sovereignty. His newest book is *Raccoon*, volume 100 in the celebrated Animal Series from Reaktion Books.

A few more facts about Daniel:
-he's an amateur ventriloquist with a badger puppet named Digdug;
-he's a lifelong tabletop RPG player whose favoured alignment is Neutral Good and favoured classes are Druid and Ranger;
-his favourite Indigenous writers working right now include Leanne Simpson, LeAnne Howe, Lee Maracle, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Cherie Dimaline, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Joshua Whitehead.
-the speculative fiction writers who had the greatest influence on his imagination growing up include Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and his early pop-culture loves include Masters of the Universe, Ewoks, and Thundercats;
-he's a fierce mustelid partisan with a particular love of badgers--in fact, his favourite tattoo is of the badger symbol used by his character Tobhi from *The Way of Thorn and Thunder*;
-he's a devoted Dolly Parton fan and has seen her in concert three times (but has not, alas, yet been to Dollywood); and
-he is the proud and dedicated human attendant to three very weird and awesome dogs.

In summary, he's a queer Cherokee hobbit who lives and writes in the West Coast temperate rainforest and occasionally emerges to teach and do readings. And he's good with that.

Go to his website, www.danielheathjustice.com, for more information about his published and forthcoming work as well as his irregularly-updated blog.

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teachers and librarians will gain immensely by reading this book. What they learn will help them do a better job at preparing instructional materials and/or selecting (and deselecting) materials in a library.

Writers will gain a lot, too, about their biases. Are they, for example, creating stories that depict Native peoples as deficient? Are they *aware* that they are doing that? A close study of this book--and perhaps using it in writers workshops--will help with that particular problem.

Justice (the author) is a terrific writer. He puts forth a lot of material that would be difficult to read if it is laden with jargon. It isn't. That doesn't get in the way of the crucial points made throughout this book. In the introduction, he takes up the term "settler colonialism" and does so in a way that brings clarity to an idea that many people are puzzled by when they first see it.

Throughout, Justice talks about Native writers and writing--like Louise Erdrich, and Ella Cara Deloria, and Leslie Marmon Silko. If you're teaching writing by any of those women, get this book!

[Bogi Takács]

Rich and illuminating; I especially appreciated the discussion of kinship versus ethnicity, a lot of disparate thoughts/experiences fell into place for me there. Truly a "can't unsee it now" moment, in a good sense; it changed my point of view.

I was also really happy to see discussions of queerness and speculative fiction, and a deliberate foregrounding of less-often foregrounded texts. I got so many new reading ideas. (The Year of Honoring Indigenous Writers twitter series is also reprinted in the book as an appendix: one author for each of 366 days. I remember when this was ongoing, and it's so great to see it again.)

I feel honored to have had the chance to read this volume.
____
Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library (who ordered it on my request, thank you!!)

[Bina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, with great recs for Indigenous writers.

[magali she|her]

This was mentioned in some research articles I read, so I got the ebook! Time well spent since I could take away a lot from it, I'm happy this book exists ha!

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We will have done our jobs as good ancestors if the world we leave is one more fully alive with the stories of our time and those before, if the struggles of those who came before is honoured and shared, if the justice of our fight and the rightness of our relations carry on beyond us.” (p 156).

Stories matter, profoundly; they’re the way we’re made and make ourselves; they’re the way we make our place(s) ours and known – where we’re from and where we are. And yet this fabulous, engaging and lucid discussion of Indigenous literatures focussing on writers from the territories claimed by the USA and Canada takes to meaning and significance of stories much, much further than this simplistically individualist approach.

Justice argues here that Indigenous literature has four principal ways of mattering, building his argument around learning to be human, learning to be good relatives, learning to be good ancestors and learning to live together. As I read this, and reflected on the case he builds, with all its awareness of different paths, ruptures and disjunctions, I found myself wondering whether this four-part model might be a justification for the humanities as a whole – that our study of history, of literature, of philosophy, of politics, of language and linguistics, of classics and arguably of fields including sociology and anthropology might not be about these four learnings. But that’s a diversion, for writing elsewhere.

Justice is delightfully eclectic and iconoclastic in discussion, selecting authors and works not because of their status in the canon of Indigenous writing (if there is one) but because they work, because they help him make his case. This means that although there is an emphasis on fiction and poetry, there is a strong presence of creative non-fiction, memoir and biography, genre fiction and graphic novels (although the latter two are minimal in content).

Alongside this, Justice writes himself to the text in important ways, as an author and as a critic, but also as one whose stories are problematic. In a compelling and powerful penultimate chapter, after the four tropes are unpacked and unravelled, he explores his Cherokee world as rupture from the Trail of Tears to the uncertainties and successes of nation building in a new place to the destruction of that nation building through extinguishment and the allotment of land through the Dawes Commission and Curtis Act to his family’s relocation to Colorado in search of opportunity. Through these grand narrative moments he also writes more intimate aspects of rupture: the racist grandfather and early death of his grandmother meaning his father knew little of his Cherokee world, leading to Justice’s efforts to rediscover those connections and what the mean for being human, being a good relative, a good ancestor and living together well. It’s a powerful chapter that sneaks up on us as readers to pack a punch, making very clear why stories, why literatures matter.

Amid all this, with its rich and sophisticated case, Justice wears his theoretical and analytical sophistication lightly. Although it’s a world I feel comfortable in, it’s one I work in, yet all too often I find myself reading these kinds of literary analyses and wondering who on earth they’re written for except the handful of us who also write them…. Yet I got none of that sense here, in part I suspect because Justice seems well aware of his audience as well as the political import of this work, but also because he quite explicitly builds the book as “part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural and family history, and part literary polemic” (p. xx) as he remains aware of the need for art and politics to coexist and make each other meaningful.

He also has a strong internationalist outlook, drawing as necessary on writers and scholars in other colonial and settler colonial contexts, as well as refreshingly making sure Indigenous Hawaiian (Kānaka Maoli) writers get a look in. Along with this there is a refreshing open-ness about how the text comes together, with a bibliographic essay replacing a reference list or citations making for a more discursive presentation of what mattered and why in building the argument, including those things that underpinned the case but were not explicitly named in the text. It’s a model that merits wider use.

Not only is it a great read, sitting alongside Thomas King’s The Truth About Stories and Edward Chamberlain’s If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories but it has also left me with a new, much longer reading list. It’s fabulous, and highly recommended, making a powerful case that Indigenous literatures mater because Indigenous peoples matter.

[Big Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cool overview on some of the major thematic concerns in many works of Indigenous literature (without trying to be too generic or stereotypical). The work is centred around four main questions about human existence, so the analysis tends to be both literary and philosophical. Daniel Heath Justice includes a lot of excerpts from lesser known texts in his analysis, so let’s just say my TBR has grown exponentially after reading this >:)

[Feral Academic · Rating 5 out of 5]

You 👏 don't 👏 have 👏 to 👏 be impenetrable 👏 to 👏 do 👏 significant 👏 scholarship 👏. Reading this was immensely useful and a pleasure to read.

[Keely Langford]

Didn’t read all parts as closely as I could have, as I wanted more familiarity with specific works (I didn’t want “spoilers” for texts I wanted to read). However, even in my (somewhat) of a scan, it provides context and literary discussion I appreciated (I like literary criticism, am a Harold Bloom fan). An excellent reference guide and one I’ll purchase, to re-read/refer to, as my first reading came via a library book.

[Kaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much wonderful in this book: Literature analysis and recommendations for Indigenous authors and writings, obviously. A reflection on the author's own history. And a meditation through a queer, Indigenous lens on what literature is and why it matters at all.

The book is structured into chapters around four important questions that Indigenous literature can help try to answer: How do we learn to be human? How do we learn to be good relatives? How do we learn to be good ancestors? And how do we learn to live together? I found this to be a powerful format for thinking about the importance of literature in general, and the individual works discussed in particular.

[Jenna (Falling Letters) · Rating 5 out of 5]

April 26 2020: Almost two years to do the day since I first picked this book, I started reading it once again during Dewey's April Readathon and this time I finished it!

May 8 2018: Will have to finish this when I get back from my summer job, as the library there doesn’t have a copy.

[Shelby Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A necessary and belated beginning to adding more Indigenous literature into my life and classroom.

Favorite Quotes:
"Colonialism is as much about the symbolic diminishment of Indigenous peoples as the displacement of our physical presence."
"Relationship is the driving impetus behind the vast majority of texts by Indigenous writers -- relationship to the land, to human community, to self, to the other-than-human world, to the ancestors and our descendants, to our histories and our futures, as well as to colonizers and their literal and ideological heirs -- and that these literary works offer us insight and sometimes helpful pathways for maintaining, rebuilding, or even simply establishing these meaningful connections."
"This book is avowedly political, in that it affirms the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples to the responsible exercise and expression of our political, intellectual, geographic, and artistic self-determination."
"But kindness shouldn't be mistaken for docility. It's not a kind act to allow problematic or even destructive ideas to pass unchallenged."
"The fact of the matter is that there was never a time since the beginning of the colonial conquest when the Indian people were not resisting the four destructive forces besetting us: the state through the Indian agent; the church through the priests; the church and state through the schools; the state and industry through the traders" (pg. 84).
"For many, our lives are a process of restoring -- re-storying-- the bonds that connect us and our families to those who came before and to those who come after, while grappling as honestly and fiercely as possible with the consequences of the ruptures in those relations" (pg. 186).

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an immensely useful work, not to mention a challenging and even inspirational one. I read/teach/write in this field, and I covered this with highlights and sticky notes so I could return to key passages and citations. I most certainly will be sharing this with my students.

Meant to inspire conversation and further reading (both of which it is certain to do), Why Indigenous Literatures Matter is part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural history, part literary polemic, and part autobiography from a key voice in the field. Daniel Heath Justice investigates why Indigenous literatures matter through four key questions that are relevant both to Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals alike. How do we learn to be human? How do we behave as good relatives? How do we become good ancestors? How do we learn to live together?

I found Justice's discussion of "wonderworks" and what Indigenous authors bring to post-apocalyptic fiction of special interest, and his ending section on his own journey of discovery about his Cherokee context spoke to me on a very personal level, but his expertise and deep humaneness shine through in every page. This is no dry monograph; it is an accessible, compelling book, and anyone who reads, writes, or thinks about these fundamental issues -- and who doesn't think about how we become human? -- will be well rewarded for spending time with it.

[Marla Taviano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a profound and powerful impact on me. I can’t recommend it highly enough, and I’ll be thinking about it, studying it, and quoting from it for a long time. I’ve shared a handful of books from Indigenous authors but not nearly enough. Daniel Heath Justice has given me more resources than I could ever read, and I’m so excited.

First paragraph of the preface: “This is a book about stories and some of the ways they matter. It’s about the many kinds of stories Indigenous peoples tell, and the stories others tell about us. It’s about how these diverse stories can strengthen, wound, or utterly erase our humanity and connections, and how our stories are expressed or repressed, shared or isolated, recognized or dismissed.”

“Most often a story starts with words, and words carry meaning far beyond themselves. When it comes to stories about Indigenous peoples, words—especially those in non-Indigenous languages—bear a particularly burdensome representational weight, usually encrusted with hard, jagged layers of colonialist misunderstandings. So we have to start at the beginning, with terminology, and clear away some of those dead layers to find more fertile ground before we’re able to continue with the rest of the story.” (5)

“Literature as a category is about what’s important to a culture, the stories that are privileged and honoured, the narratives that people—often those in power, but also those resisting that power—believe to be central to their understanding of the world and their place in relation to it.” (20)

The book asks, then answers, four important “guiding questions.” 1.) How do we learn how to be human? 2.) How do we behave as good relatives? 3.) How do we become good ancestors? 4.) How do we learn to live together?

And THIS? Is HUGE. “In light of the disproportionate attention given to straight male Indigenous voices in the public sphere, especially in Canada, I’ve also prioritized the work of Indigenous women and queer/two-spirit writers of multiple genders.” (30)

BUY THIS BOOK.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend if you are interested in literary criticism of Indigenous literatures, but also encompasses more than that. An appendix includes all of Daniel Heath Justice's 365 tweets for the movement he did where he tweeted an Indigenous author every day for one year to show that Indigenous authors do exist and they are plenty - so there's no excuse for saying you can't find Indigenous authors to read. I also discovered Justice received the Order of Canada this year for his work, which is a very nice thing to find out when you're reading his book about his work. Congratulations to him!

[Marina Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I think every teacher should read this.
Every lit-crit enjoyer as well.
I’ve got the hard copy and will be rereading it.

[kell_xavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was interested in themes and intentions that come through in Indigenous literatures, as related to author’s cultures, communities, and navigations with loss and survival: Justice provides a phenomenal overview of writing from many different starting points, genres, and ways of telling stories. I was please that Justice, a queer person himself, included many examples of queer authors and queer sexuality in texts, as well as some explanatory notes about the use of two-spirit as a term among Indigenous people.

At many places in the book, Justice provides examples of work that speaks to strong cultural ideas that literatures can explore; these examples work well, but I skimmed many as the plots of specific writings weren’t my focus. An informative, influential, and readable text.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful and deeply researched survey of the importance of Indigenous literature. Justice divides the book into four main sections, each titled with a question: "How do we learn to be human? How do we become good relatives? How to we become good ancestors? How so we learn to live together?" Indigenous texts and authors have always addressed these deep and vital concerns, and they continue to do so today. Justice pulls quotes from novels, poems, plays and essays that especially address these points, and weaves them together with political and social context. I am not very well read in this genre, so most of the authors were not familiar to me. As I read I kept a list of all the books that especially caught my interest, and I now have a long list for future reading.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Daniel's work as usual.

[Meg Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice is such a crucial read for everyone to read. This was the first book I read for my Native American Literature course and I urge people to take the time to read it. Every high school English curriculum should include this book. As the title suggests, Justice discusses the importance of Indigenous literature and highlights several writers and where to start consuming the stories. This is done in a well-organized and written manner that everyone can easily understand and comprehend. Throughout the book, Justice shares his own experiences and highlights the importance of imagination and its role in Indigenous rights.

As a white American, I often struggle to try to find ways I can help native rights, but this book points out that I can help simply by consuming Indigenous literature. Too often are these stories considered “too political” when that’s simply an excuse to push these stories away from the “perfect United States” narrative our country wants us to believe. It’s so important we change the narrative and highlight Indigenous voices. Representation matters and reading these stories is just a simple, enjoyable way we can do that. We often take for granted the fact that white people can easily find people within our media they relate to and identity with, and we forget this is not the case for everyone else. Our society has in fact pushed a false narrative that Indigenous people are gone, or ‘savage,’ and other derogatory terms. But this is just not the truth, far from it.

One of my favorite parts of this book is Justice’s emphasis on imagination. Reading his words on this was just a mind-changing moment for me. He talks about the importance of imagining new futures instead of succumbing to the painful reality our system wants everyone to believe. I think this is such an important lesson because our society and country’s system were created for white men. Why aren’t we imagining new systems? I think people, I know I certainly did before reading this, get lost in the fact of our reality that we can imagine a future outside of this. The American system is working, for white men, because that’s what it was designed to do. We need to begin educating each other on these issues, and a great way to do this is through consuming Indigenous literature. It’s truly changed my way of thinking about the world around me and questioning why think and act the way we do. I can’t stress enough how important this is, and it’s our responsibility to give back what our ancestors took from the original people of this land. I think any age can read this book and take value from it, but I especially believe it should be made a required text for high school courses. Before my course in college, I had never once read an Indigenous book and learned very little about the struggles they face. That isn’t right and we need to make a change. Please take the time to read this book.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an early purchase, just as the school year was ending in June, because I knew I would be teaching an Indigenous literatures course this fall (i.e. in a few days!). This book kept being mentioned as a must read and, now that I've read it, I definitely understand why. It is the product of wide and thoughtful reading in the complex and vibrant world of Indigenous writing. While I was not familiar with more than a few texts, this book made me want to read more and to explore aspects of Indigenous writing that I didn't realize was out there. It serves an accessible introduction to this neglected, but fascinating field without over-simplifying or confusing.

What I loved about this book is that it really isn't just about books, it's about the stories that we tell, which, as the introduction asserts, can heal or harm. This book doesn't shrink from the difficult stories that Indigenous people tell nor about the difficult realities that Indigenous people have faced and do face as they navigate a world imposed on them by colonization. But it also talks about how a resurgence is beginning to take hold among Indigenous peoples, which are producing unique and valuable literatures. He groups his discussion around four main questions: HOw do we learn to be Human? HOw do we behave as Good Relatives? How do we become Good Ancestors? How do we Learn to Live Together? before going on to a quite personal chapter of reading in the ruptures and his ulti mate conclusion.

If you are interested in examining these literatures, this is a crucial starting point. I can't recommend it enough.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! The premise is pretty simple/straightforward (the title says it all) and contained within that subject. I thought the “arguments”/sections were organized and structured in an understandable and enjoyable way. It is definitely an overview or big picture look at why indigenous literatures matter but I enjoyed exploring this topic. I already agreed that indigenous literature mattered before reading the book but after reading this, I have a lot more reasonings and examples surrounding that idea. The book also connects literature to many aspects of life that I hadn’t necessarily thought of in that way before which I enjoyed.

I also enjoyed the authors reading in the audiobook. They had a clear commitment to an equivalent reading experience to the physical copy as they read the entire bibliography, acknowledgments, dedications etc which I have never seen in an audiobook before.

I enjoyed how this book approached the subject from a very narrative perspective. Because this is a book about literature/art/storytelling, the author referenced a lot of books that sounded very interesting and are now added to my reading list.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about indigenous literature in the modern era in an overview. If you are already well versed in this topic, this book may be a little too much of an overview/entry point for you.

[Jennifer Daniells · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was incredibly helpful and provides a plethora of resources of Indigenous Literature. It is so important to do the work and continually “keep the fire going” as was said in the last chapter. Truth and reconciliation is an ongoing process and it is something that settlers, like myself, need to practice and maintain even within the mundane, every day lifestyles we practice. We are all interconnected to the land and each other. It is important to do the work and continuously learn.

I really loved this quote:

“This, to me, is the heart of decolonization. Love isn’t saccharine sentiment. It’s not easy answers, or getting along all the time. It’s difficult, and fierce, and fabulous. It’s fragile, and it’s strong. It sometimes lasts a lifetime, and sometimes it ends, but it is always - always - ours.” (111)

I’m very happy I read this book. It helped deepen my knowledge on this topic, and will help me teach and navigate the Indigenous literature course in the fall!

My only critique is that I wish I had more context / more analysis of some of the literature that is discussed! It would make it longer, but I’m so fascinated and want to know more!

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to be exposed to such a broad variety of Indigenous writing. The author took particular care to amplify the voices and perspectives of marginalized groups which I really appreciated. I especially enjoyed the discussion of "other-than-human" humanity. The author spent a good deal of time addressing this notion of other forms of life and the rich ways of living they can teach us. There was a particular focus on developing a relationship of reciprocity with other plant and animal entities, and even a call-out against hunting as an ego trip. Especially in certain circles, hunting can be rooted in ritual or tradition, and it can be divorced from a mindset of gratitude and appreciation.

I also really enjoyed the questions that were explored throughout the book: "How Do We Learn to be Human?", "How Do We Behave as Good Relatives?", "How Do We Become Good Ancestors?", and "How Do We Learn to Live Together?" They're questions I definitely want to revisit and continue to give thought.

[lex · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy is so annotated,,, I refer to this so often for theory, academic arguments, book recommendations, everything. On the variety of forms literature can take, on humanity, kinship, ancestry, colonialism, queerness, Indigeneity, Black Indigeneity, and more.

If they don't challenge us, confound us, make us uncomfortable or uncertain or humble, then I'm not sure what they offer us in the long run, because to my mind it's the difficult stories that offer hope of something better (102).

We view "decolonialism" and "queering" as active, interconnected, critical, and everyday practices that take place within and across diverse spaces and times (Quoting Sarah Hunt (Kwagiulth) and Cindy Holmes, p. 103).

Introduced me to new favorite poets and was cause for celebration every time a page contained a reference to one whose words I recognized.

[Michelle Boyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read if you are interested in Indigenous literature. I cannot tell you how many times as a BA, MA, and now PhD I have been asked "why literature?" when I discuss my field of study (Indigenous/Maori/American Indian literature). Over and over again I head "aren't there more important issues than books?" because the average person has no idea how significant literature and oral tradition actually is!

Read this book. It will help you find ways to express how important literature is. This was wonderfully written, has a lot of great information, and I am a huge fan of the listing of authors/novels at the end of the work if you are looking for more reading material. Wonderful. Best day of reading I've done in quite some time!

[Barbara Brydges · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable, solidly grounded academic work that should be of interest to any thoughtful reader. While he discusses many books by indigenous writers, his focus is the bigger context, as shown by his title. The chapters each examine one of four guiding questions: How do we learn to be human? How do we behave as good relatives? How do we become good ancestors? How do we learn to live together? His thoughtful examination of these questions not only gave me specific new insights but also deepened my understanding of what might be called indigenous worldviews, as well as making me aware of many new indigenous writers.

[Adrik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A passionate manifesto concerning Indigenous literature throughout the world. Daniel Heath Justice focuses on North America but shows that indigenous authors are writing around the globe. His main points circle around the idea of relationships and show how Indigenous authors regularly reflect on our place in the world and the responsibilities and obligations we have towards ourselves and others. Here he enters into a definition into person hood and successfully demonstrates that it goes both beyond the human and beyond the living. A very worthwhile read which should inspire all of us to pick up some more books/poetry/plays.

[Han Reardon-Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This incredible book goes well beyond a celebration of Indigenous literatures, exploring the role of story in whatever world and community we live in, and the vital importance of moving from "stories that harm" (like pretty much all the dominant narratives about Indigeneity under colonial-settler regimes) and towards "stories that heal," told in the voices of Indigenous writers. Often this healing is not to do with easefulness or escapism, but rather with truth-telling, honesty, relationality, situatedness, queerness, and Survivance (Vizenor).

Highly recommended in both written and audiobook forms. The appendix/notes also contain invaluable resources for any keen readers of literature and scholars of all kinds (especially for those, like myself, who are non-Indigenous settlers thinking-with what it means to live and work on Stolen Land). Daniel Heath Justice is a beautiful writer, scholar, and speaker - a special treat to hear it in the author's own voice.

[Igpy Kin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amount of time it took me to finish this is a reflection of a lot of conflict going on in my life this summer, and not at all reflective of the accessibility of the book; it is hard to find books that survey vast bodies of literature that are at all enjoyable to read, let alone ones that are written beautifully. This book was an absolute pleasure to read, and its many recommendations and reflections sent me spiralling that much deeper into the bottomless abyss of my Goodreads "Want to Read" pile.

[Kelsey Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kinship tells us “to be a human is to be a good relative” and that “kinship makes people of us through responsibilities to one another” (Heath Justice 43). I was encouraged by Daniel Heath Justice’s words surrounding Ella Cara Deloria’s Waterlily and the representation of kinship–”what might have been, and, perhaps, what could be again…as these practices are learned” (47).

My copy has so many highlighted quotes + annotations. This is a book I want to return to.

The four guiding questions found on page 28 are a framework I will continue to explore:
How do we learn to be human?
How do we behave as good relatives?
How do we become good ancestors?
How do we live together?