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Read, Listen, Tell brings together an extraordinary range of Indigenous stories from across Turtle Island (North America). From short fiction to as-told-to narratives, from illustrated stories to personal essays, these stories celebrate the strength of heritage and the liveliness of innovation.
Ranging in tone from humorous to defiant to triumphant, the stories explore core concepts in Indigenous literary expression, such as the relations between land, language, and community, the variety of narrative forms, and the continuities between oral and written forms of expression. Rich in insight and bold in execution, the stories proclaim the diversity, vitality, and depth of Indigenous writing.
Building on two decades of scholarly work to centre Indigenous knowledges and perspectives, the book transforms literary method while respecting and honouring Indigenous histories and peoples of these lands. It includes stories by acclaimed writers such as Sherman Alexie, Simon J. Ortiz, Paula Gunn Allen, and Eden Robinson, as well as a new generation of emergent writers, and writers and storytellers who have often been excluded from the canon, such as French- and Spanish-language Indigenous authors, Indigenous authors from Mexico, Chicana/o authors, Indigenous-language authors, works in translation, and “lost“ or underappreciated texts.
In a place and time when Indigenous people often have to contend with representations that marginalize or devalue their intellectual and cultural heritage, this collection is a testament to Indigenous resilience and creativity. It shows that the ways in which we read, listen, and tell play key roles in how we establish relationships with one another, and how we might share knowledges across cultures, languages, and social spaces.
Sophie McCall is an associate professor in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University, where she teaches Indigenous literatures and contemporary Canadian literature. Her most recent publication, with co-editor, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, is The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (2015).
|Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) ) is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and English at Simon Fraser University. Her research project, The People and the Text, focuses on the understudied archive of Indigenous literary work in Canada, and she has co-edited several anthologies in Indigenous literary studies.
|David Gaertner is a settler scholar of German descent and an instructor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program at the University of British Columbia, where he specializes in digital storytelling. He is also a co-editor of Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island.|Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill is a Metis writer and artist from Vancouver, BC, which lies on unceded Coast Salish territory. Hill's practice investigates struggles over land use and occupation, as well as black markets and unofficial economies.
Table of Contents
I. “The Truth About Stories Is… Stories Are All That We Are
1) Dawn Dumont (Plains Cree, 1978 - ), “The Way of the Sword” (2011)
2) Craig Womack (Cherokee, 1960 - ), “King of the Tie-snakes” (2001)
3) E. Pauline Johnson (Mohawk, 1861-1913), “As It Was in the Beginning” (1899)
4) Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo / Sioux, 1939-2008), “Deer Woman” (1991)
5) Thomas King, (Cherokee, 1943 - ), “’You’ll Never Believe What Happened’ Is Always a Great Way to Start” (2003)
II. Land, Homeland, Territory
6) Kimberly Blaeser (Chippewa, 1955 - ), “Like Some Old Story” (1991)
7) Thomas King (Cherokee, 1943 - ), “Borders” (1993)
8) M. E. Wakamatsu (Yaqui, 1953 - ), “Rita Hayworth Mexicana” (2002)
9) Warren Cariou (Métis, 1966 - ), “An Athabasca Story” (2012)
10) Gord Hill (Kwakwaka’wakw, 1968 - ), “The ‘Oka Crisis,’” from The Five Hundred Years of Resistance Comic Book (2010)
11) Lee Maracle (Stó:lo, 1950 - ), “Goodbye, Snauq” (2004)
III. “Reinventing the Enemy’s Language”
12) Sixto Canul (Maya, 1948 -), “The Son Who Came Back from the United States” (1992, 2001)
13) Gloria Anzaldúa (Chicana, 1942-2004), “Ghost Trap” (1992)
14) Joel Torres Sánchez (Purépecha, 1950-), “I’m Not a Witch, I’m a Healer!” (1997, tr. 2007)
15) Diane Glancy (Cherokee, 1941 - ), “Aunt Parnetta’s Electric Blisters” (1990)
16) Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan, 1948 - ), “Land Speaking” (1998)
IV. Cree Knowledge Embedded in Stories
17) Tomson Highway (Cree, 1951 - ), Chapter 14 from Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998)
18) Steven Keewatin Sanderson (Cree, 1976 - ), Excerpt from Darkness Calls (2004)
19) Solomon Ratt (Cree, 1954 - ), “I’m Not an Indian” (2007)
20) Paul Seesequasis (Cree, 1958 - ), “Republic of Tricksterism” (1998)
20) Lisa Bird Wilson (Cree-Métis), “Delivery” (2013)
21) Louise Bernice Halfe (Cree, 1953 - ), “Rolling Head’s Grave Yard” (2006)
22) Harold Cardinal (Cree, 1945-2005), fExcerpt from “Einew Kis-Kee-Tum-Awin (Indigenous People’s Knowledge)” (2005)
V. “Each Word Has a Story of its Own”: Story Arcs and Story Cycles
24) Alexina Kublu (Inuit, 1954 - ), “Uinigumasuittuq / She Who Never Wants to Get Married” (1999)
25) Alootook Ipellie (Inuit, 1951-2007), “Summit with Sedna, the Mother of Sea Beasts” (1993)
26) Susan Power (Standing Rock Sioux, 1961 - ), “Beaded Soles” (1997, 2004)
27) Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) (Sioux, 1876-1938), “The Devil” (1921)
28) Tania Willard, (Secwepemc, 1976 - ), “Coyote and the People Killer” (2004)
29) Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo, 1948 - ), “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective” (1981, 1996)
VI. Community, Self, Transformation
30) Sherman Alexie (Spokane / Coeur d’Alene, 1966 - ), “The Toughest Indian in the World” (2000)
31) Isaías Hernández Isidro (Chontal, 1966 - ), “The Secret of the Zutz’baläm”(1997, tr. 2004)
32) Richard Van Camp (Dogrib [Tlicho], 1971 - ), “Devotion” (2012)
33) Sylvain Rivard (Abenaki, 1966 - ), “Grandma and the Wentigo” (2000, tr. 2017)
34) Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Haida, 1954 - ), Excerpt from Red: A Haida Manga (2009)
35) Ellen Rice White (Snuneymuxw, 1922 - ), “The Boys Who Became a Killer Whale” (2006)
VII. Shifting Perspectives
37) Sandra Cisneros (Chicana, 1954 - ), “Never Marry a Mexican” (1992)
38) Gordon Robinson (Haisla, 1918-1999), “Weegit Discovers Halibut Hooks” (1956)
39) Joe Panipakuttuk (Inuit, 1914-1970), “The Many Lives of Anakajuttuq” (1969)
40) Walter K. Scott (Mohawk, 1985 - ), Excerpt from Wendy (2014)
41) Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo, 1948 -), “Lullaby” (1974, 1981)
42) Jo-Ann Episkenew (Métis, 1952-2016), “Notes on Leslie Marmon Silko’s ‘Lullaby’: Socially Responsible Criticism” (2002, 2017)
VIII. Indigenous Fantasy and SF
44) Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee, 1975 - ), “Tatterborn” (2017)
45) Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo, 1941 - ), “Men on the Moon” (1978, 1999)
46) Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet, 1972 - ), “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit” (2010)
47) Eden Robinson (Haisla / Heiltsuk, 1968 - ), “Terminal Avenue” (2004)
48) Allison Hedge Coke (Cherokee / Huron 1958 - ), “On Drowning Pond” (2010)
49) L. Catherine Cornum (Diné, 1989 - ), “The Space NDN’s Star Map” (2015, 2017)