(Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm

by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Dallas Hunt (Editor)

Overview

(Re)Generation contains selected poetry by Anishinaabe writer Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm exploring a range of issues: from violence against Indigenous women and lands to Indigenous erotica and the joyous intimate encounters between bodies. From her earliest work in my heart is a stray bullet and Bloodriver Woman, through her spoken word works standing ground and A Constellation of Bones, Akiwenzie-Damm's poetry demonstrates how to represent Indigenous peoples in their full complexity, especially as it pertains to bodily pleasure, love, and loss.

Akiwenzie-Damm's afterword speaks to the relations and obligations Indigenous peoples have to one another and their other-than-human kin, as she reflects on the resilient work that Indigenous creative work has done and continues to do in spite of colonial violence. She stakes a claim for the necessity of poetry in the face of ongoing colonialism, not only in the present but in the future and for the generations to come. The introduction by Dallas Hunt locates Akiwenzie-Damm within the field of Indigenous literature and meditates on her influence on the field of Indigenous erotica.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm writes in service of Indigenous brilliance, love, intimacy, and joy, and speaks with an unwavering voice, one that, to paraphrase Akiwenzie-Damm herself, "shakes the earth."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771124713
Publisher:	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Series:	Laurier Poetry
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. Kateri is a poet, writer, spoken word artist, Indigenous arts advocate, publisher, and educator. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, teaching creative writing, Indigenous literatures, and oral traditions in the English Department. She is the founder and publisher of Kegedonce Press, Ontario's longest-running Indigenous literary publisher. Her publications encompass fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, libretti, a graphic novel, spoken word CDs, and two collections of poetry.|Dallas Hunt is Cree and a member of Wapsewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. His first children's book, Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock, was published through Highwater Press in 2018. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Indigenous Literature at the University of British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Foreword Tunis MacDonald vii

Biographical Note ix

Introduction: Dallas Hunt xi

From Without Reservation

Fish head soup 1

A sweet taste of plum 2

Love letter, not sent 3

From standing ground

This earth a burial ground 4

Native sexuality 101 6

A song the bones sing 7

My wild horses 8

Dry season 10

The feast 11

Slash n burn 12

From Canadian Literature

Driving to santa fe 14

From Trout 8

Fishing lines 16

Waabigonii Giizis 19

From Bloodriver Woman

When i thought blood was the voice in my head 20

Vision 21

Frozen breath and knife blades 23

Penance for the dead 24

Last rites 25

From my heart is a stray bullet

Sturgeon 26

To you who would wage war against me 27

Stray bullets (oka re/vision) 29

I lose track of the land 30

Names 31

My grandmothers 32

The book you left: in memory 34

River song 36

Desire 37

I will be 38

Lovers' psalm 39

The resurrection of desire 40

Alternatives: one two three 41

Poem without end #3 43

Kegedonce 45

From Turtle Island to Aotearoa 46

From A Constellation of Bones

Coming Together 50

Unison 51

Across the Universe 53

Previously Unpublished

Boil water advisory 56

Telling story 57

Zombies 58

Afterword: Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm 61

Glossary of Maori Terms 67

Acknowledgements 69