Autobiography As Indigenous Intellectual Tradition

Reviews / Votes

"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 nehiyaw 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 acimisowina, 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-Metis relations, Deanna Reder presents a mode of reading that is vitally important: reading through wakohtiwin. The result is a grounded, relational, and ethically engaged form of criticism that provides a new path toward understanding classic works of Cree and Metis 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