Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing

by Jo-Ann Episkenew

From the earliest settler policies to deal with the “Indian problem,” to contemporary government-run programs ostensibly designed to help Indigenous people, public policy has played a major role in creating the historical trauma that so greatly impacts the lives of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. Taking Back Our Spirits traces the link between Canadian public policies, the injuries they have inflicted on Indigenous people, and Indigenous literature’s ability to heal individuals and communities. Episkenew examines contemporary autobiography, fiction, and drama to reveal how these texts respond to and critique public policy, and how literature functions as “medicine” to help cure the colonial contagion.

Genres: Indigenous

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Jo-Ann Episkenew (1953–18 February 2016) was a Métis woman originally from Manitoba, though she lived in Saskatchewan for much of her life. She held a Masters of Business Administration and a Honours Certificate M.A. from the University of Regina. In 2006 she completed a Ph.D at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany, the first Indigenous Canadian to receive a Ph.D from a German university.

Episkenew worked for the Department of English at the First Nations University of Canada. She also served as the director of the Indigenous People's Health Research Centre at the University of Regina. She was a member of the Chotro International Consultative Group, a group that organizes bi-annual conferences on international Indigenous issues. She was on the Judicial Advisory Committee for Federal Judicial appointments for the Province of Saskatchewan.

Her research included national and international projects in the area of Indigenous literature, Indigenous health and well being relating to the lives of Aboriginal and First Nations people of Canada.

Her book, Taking Back Our Spirits; Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing was published by the University of Manitoba in 2009. It won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Scholarly Writing in 2009; and the Saskatchewan Book Award for First People's Writing in 2010.

The book was reviewed by Cheryl Suzack in University of Toronto Quarterly, who stated that it "analyzes the capacities of Indigenous literatures to "de-educate" both settler-colonial and Indigenous communities from the trappings of colonialism".

Episkenew was awarded the YMCA Regina Women of Distinction Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. She received the Indspire Award for service to education, one of fourteen Indigenous Canadians selected in 2016.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Malou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself agreeing and nodding along with Episkenew all the time. She puts words and eloquence to what I was thinking about without being able to formulate these thoughts. Great writing style to accompany great ideas about Indigenous literatures. Yes to the healing powers of literature and to literature being able to effect change.

(The only things I struggled with are her use of Indigenous literature in the singular and not in the plural and that there is little to no mention of Franco Indigenous literatures)

((My note taking for comps on this book got way out of hand😂))

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent description of an on going travesty. Useful critiques for dismantling the Canadian National Collective Myth. Extensive bibliography.

[Rachel Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, rigorous but approachable. Episkenew works very hard to link theories and policies with real practical issues in a way that clearly shows the stakes and the impacts.