Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition

Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition critiques ways of approaching Indigenous texts that are informed by the Western academic tradition and offers instead a new way of theorizing Indigenous literature based on the Indigenous practice of life writing.


Since the 1970s non-Indigenous scholars have perpetrated the notion that Indigenous people were disinclined to talk about their lives and underscored the assumption that autobiography is a European invention. Deanna Reder challenges such long held assumptions by calling attention to longstanding autobiographical practices that are engrained in Cree and Métis, or nêhiyawak, culture and examining a series of examples of Indigenous life writing. Blended with family stories and drawing on original historical research, Reder examines censored and suppressed writing by nêhiyawak intellectuals such as Maria Campbell, Edward Ahenakew, and James Brady. Grounded in nêhiyawak ontologies and epistemologies that consider life stories to be an intergenerational conduit to pass on knowledge about a shared world, this study encourages a widespread re-evaluation of past and present engagement with Indigenous storytelling forms across scholarly disciplines
"This fierce, timely, visionary book lives up to the 'obligations of stories' to which Reder commits. Reder is one of the most generous, brilliant scholars in her field, whose kindness and sharp wit radiate from each page. Bringing together essential texts in nêhiyaw intellectual tradition over a span of two hundred years, Reder doesn't forget to place her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother within this constellation of storymakers. These writers and tellers of âcimisowina, or personal stories, have motivated Reder's own lifelong work of words and inspired practice of 'autobiography as methodology.'" -Sophie McCall, Simon Fraser University, co-editor, Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island "By contextualizing these nuanced acts of interpretation within the rich storytelling traditions of her own Cree-Métis relations, Deanna Reder presents a mode of reading that is vitally important: reading through wâkhtiwin. The result is a grounded, relational, and ethically engaged form of criticism that provides a new path toward understanding classic works of Cree and Métis autobiography. With its attention to critical responsibilities and to the connectedness that stories generate, this work provides an important model for all students and scholars of Indigenous literature." -Warren Cariou, University of Manitoba, editor, mahikan ka onot: The Poetry of Duncan Mercredi
Discusses Indigenous intellectual traditions; Cree and Métis literature; Indigenous writing and the Canadian publishing industry; destructive editing practices; autobiography as theoretical practice

Examines Maria Campbell's Halfbreed as an example of censored Indigenous writing; Edward Ahenakew's Black Hawk and James Brady's archive as examples of lack of opportunity historically in the Canadian publishing industry

Claims autobiography as an Indigenous tradition rather than modeled on a European one; it models a blend of autobiographical writing and archival research as method. Table of Contents


Glossary: Cree terms


Introduction: She Told Us Stories Constantly: Autobiography as Theoretical Practice


1. âcimisowina: Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition


2. kiskêyihtamowin: Seekers of Knowledge, Cree Intergenerational Inquiry


3. Interrelatedness and Obligation: wâhkowtowin in Maria Campbell's âcimisowin


4. Edward Ahenakew's Intertwined Unpublished Life-Inspired Stories: aniskwâcimopicikêwin in Black Hawk and Old Keyam


5. Contradiction and kisteanemétowin in Edward Ahenakew's "Old Keyam"


6. Traces of âcimisowina left behind: James Brady and Absolom Halkett


Epilogue


Bibliography