what is a nation
not defined by a boundary?
how does resistance look
in the context of “family
gathered together” (Finley, 2011)
within indigeneity? (Goeman, 2009)
how do survivors sound
empowered and embodying? (Deer, 2015; Million, 2009)

just gotta take the time
to realize 4 yourself (Belin, On Relocation)
and just breathe (Goeman, 2009)
all that you want to find is
already inside of who you be (Melodie, We Are Dancing For You)

inside of memory
is a place liminal (Dion & Salamanca, 2018; Cachola, 2014)
and archives do inform
who does and does not know
its more settler nonsense
we gotta hold accountable (Alexander & Mohanty, 2010; Fraser & Todd, 2016)
knowledge is desire-imbued
spatial and temporal (Erai, 2011)

just gotta take the time
to realize 4 yourself (Belin, On Relocation)
and just breathe (Goeman, 2009)
all that you wanna find is
already inside of who you be (Melodie, We Are Dancing For You)

illumination
bright as the stars above
across time and space
a hologram woven of
so many interventions
and narratives of being (Million, 2014)
you couldn’t count the ways
without erasing specificity

just gotta take the time
to realize 4 yourself (Belin, On Relocation)
and just breathe (Goeman, 2009)
all that you wanna find is
already inside of who you be (Melodie, We Are Dancing For You)

sovereignty thru art (Driskill, 2010)
survivance in your heartbeat (Tuck, 2009)
a struggle we are all a part (Driskill, 2010)
of, “it reaches so far”. (Baldy, 2018)

References

Alexander, M. Jacqui & Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. (2010). Cartographies of Knowledge and Power: Transnational Feminism as Radical Praxis. pp. 23-45. Retrieved from: https://serendipstudio.org/oneworld/system/files/AlexanderMohantyCartographies.pdf

Baldy, Cutcha Risling. 2018 We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Cachola, E. C. (2014). Archives of transformation: A case study of the international women’s network against militarism’s archival system. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.du.idm.oclc.org/docview/1871568288?accountid=14608

Deer, Sarah. 2015 The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 

Dion, S. D., & Salamanca, A. (2018). ENUNCIATION: URBAN INDIGENOUS BEING, DIGITAL STORYTELLING AND INDIGENOUS FILM AESTHETICS. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 38(1), 183-207. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/docview/2178546186?accountid=14506

Erai, Michelle. 2011. “A Queer Caste: Mixing Race and Sexuality in Colonial New Zealand”. Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature. University of Arizona Press. Tucson. 66-80

Finely, Chris. 2011. Decolonizing the Queer Native Body (and Recovering the Native Bull-Dyke): Bringing ‘Sexy Back’ and Out of the Native Studies’ Closet In Queer Indigenous Studies. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Fraser, C. & Todd, Z. (2016). Decolonial Sensibilities: Indigenous Research and Engaging with Archives in Contemporary Colonial Canada. L’internationale. Retrieved from http://www.internationaleonline.org/research/decolonising_practices/54_decolonial_sensibilities_indigenous_research_and_engaging_with_archives_in_contemporary_colonial_canada

Goeman, Mishuana. 2009. Notes Toward a Native Feminism’s Spatial Practice. Wicazo Sa Review, 24(2):169-187.

Million, Dian. 2009. Felt Theory: An Indigenous Feminist Approach to Affect and History. Wicazo Sa Review, 24(2):53-76.

Million, Dian. 2014 An Introduction to Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights In Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Tuck, Eve. 2009 Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities. Harvard Educational Review 79(3):409-427.