Work · Indigenous Philosophies
Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence
Draws on Nishnaabeg stories, language and teachings of elders to describe decolonisation as the rebuilding of Indigenous ways of living rather than as a demand addressed to the state.
Introduction
Simpson published the book in 2011 with Arbeiter Ring in Winnipeg. It develops a theory of decolonisation from within Nishnaabeg thought: from creation and re-creation stories, from the meanings of words in Nishnaabemowin, from treaty relationships and from the teachings of elders, above all Doug Williams. Resurgence here means not a demand addressed to the state but the regeneration of Indigenous ways of living, governing and relating to the land; the story of the turtle’s back, on which the world was re-created after a flood, becomes a model of creative renewal from small acts. Simpson argues that the colonised must first turn towards their own nations and rebuild them. The book was widely read during the Idle No More movement of 2012–13 and became a point of reference for Glen Coulthard’s “Red Skin, White Masks” (2014).
Connections
Taken up in
- As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance2017 · Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
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