Open Collections

Campbell, Nicola I.

University of British Columbia

Indigenous writers today are the living legacy of our elders and ancestors who survived Indian residential schools and colonization and share stories about collective anguish—yet our continual retelling of our most shattered selves is a form of narrative violence that validates erroneous truths. This research initiates a conversation that moves beyond a deficit model and identifies how Indigenous writers and scholars are employing creative and cultural practices to re-imagine our past and present. The research considers Indigenous literary nationalism and Indigenous poetics, looking at the functions of narratives and orality in produced, performance and text-based works. It explores ethical approaches and cultural practices undertaken by storytellers—and informed by the writings of scholars—steeped in protocols and ancestral teachings. I consider works of Canadian Indigenous writers with a significant debt to writers from British Columbia, especially Interior Salish narratives as shared by Mourning Dove Christine Quintasket, Jeannette Armstrong, Bill Cohen, Helen Haig-Brown and Kevin Loring. The research establishes that stories create dynamic maps to the past, present, and the inter-relations between. It finds that, as Indigenous storytellers, we are responsible for strategically sharing stories because of the medicine they carry. Close engagement with Nłéʔkepmx and Syílx traditional and contemporary narratives leads to recognition that our nations, languages, and ancestors play roles in telling our stories, as does the processing of grief and its movement into renewal. The outcome of this research is to spotlight creative and critical storytelling practices among contemporary Indigenous writers and scholars who are actively re-imaging our Indigeneity and re-claiming our cultural pedagogies and epistemologies. The paper weaves a web of principles for ethical Indigenous storytelling steeped in methods and protocols that strategically position a literature that creates an empowered version of Indigenous people and tells stories that, firstly, inspire healing and transformation, and secondly, share a more balanced narrative of Indigenous persistence and renewal in response to past and ongoing colonialism. The dissertation brings a new understanding about the Indigenizing imagination and respective positioning of Indigenous writers in creative narrative. Into the future, it points to opportunities for Indigenous writers to employ courageous acts of decolonization through creative and critical practice.

Text

2022-12-13

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83419

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/