Enduring Critical Poses

Book excerpt: A celebration of Anishinaabe intellectual tradition. Enduring Critical Poses examines the stories, poems, plays, and histories centered in the Great Lakes region of North America, where the Anishinaabeg live in a space Basil Johnston referred to as "Maazikamikwe," a maternal earth. The Anishinaabeg are a confederacy of many communities, including the Odawa, Saulteaux, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oji-Cree, and Algonquin peoples, who share cultural practices and related languages. Bringing together senior scholars and new voices on the Anishinaabe intellectual landscape, this volume specifically explores Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi culture, language, and literary heritage. Through a tribal-centric framework, the contributors connect various branches of Native American literary studies and celebrate Anishinaabe narrative diversity to offer a single, overarching story of Anishinaabe survival and endurance. Gordon Henry Jr. is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota and Professor of American Indian Literature, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies at Michigan State University. His books include Afterlives of Indigenous Archives: Essays in Honor of the Occom Circle (coedited with Ivy Schweitzer) and The Light People. Margaret Noodin is Professor of English and American Indian Studies and Director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Her books include Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature. David Stirrup is Professor of American Literature and Indigenous Studies at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. His books include Picturing Worlds: Visuality and Visual Sovereignty in Contemporary Anishinaabe Literature.