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Why Indigenous Literatures Matter Spiral-Bound | May 27, 2017

Daniel Heath Justice

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Asserts the vital significance of literary expression to the political, creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous peoples. Challenges readers to critically consider & rethink assumptions about Indigenous literature, history, and politics, never forgetting the emotional connections of our shared humanity & the transformative power of story.

Winner, PROSE Awards 2019
Short-listed, ACQL Gabrielle Roy Prize for Literary Criticism 2018
Winner, NAISA Award Best Subsequent Book 2018


Part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural history, and part literary polemic, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter asserts the vital significance of literary expression to the political, creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous peoples today.

In considering the connections between literature and lived experience, this book contemplates four key questions at the heart of Indigenous kinship traditions: How do we learn to be human? How do we become good relatives? How do we become good ancestors? How do we learn to live together? Blending personal narrative and broader historical and cultural analysis with close readings of key creative and critical texts, Justice argues that Indigenous writers engage with these questions in part to challenge settler-colonial policies and practices that have targeted Indigenous connections to land, history, family, and self. More importantly, Indigenous writers imaginatively engage the many ways that communities and individuals have sought to nurture these relationships and project them into the future.

This provocative volume challenges readers to critically consider and rethink their assumptions about Indigenous literature, history, and politics while never forgetting the emotional connections of our shared humanity and the power of story to effect personal and social change. Written with a generalist reader firmly in mind but addressing issues of interest to specialists in the field, this book welcomes new audiences to Indigenous literary studies while offering more seasoned readers a renewed appreciation for these transformative literary traditions.

Selected as an Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Community Read by the Association of University Presses.

Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 306 pages
ISBN-10: 1771121769
Item Weight: 0.6 lbs
Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8.0 inches

This book simultaneously affirms Indigenous writing, introduces Indigenous readers to the canon of Indigenous writing, and teaches non-Indigenous folks how to read our literatures. That’s impressive, and it’s done in a beautiful, intimate and at times playful way. Why Indigenous Literatures Matter was an honor to read. It is instructional without instructing, grounded, confident, affirming, generous, brilliant, clear and joyful.

–Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of As We Have Always Done and This Accident of Being Lost

Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation) is Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture at the University of British Columbia. A widely published scholar in Indigenous literary studies, he is the co-editor of the groundbreaking Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature (2014) and author of a Cherokee literary history, a cultural history of badgers, and an Indigenous epic fantasy series.