Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies: Conversations from Earth to Cosmos

271 Pages·2016·3.25 MB·English

Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies
This book addresses the intersections between the interdisciplinary realms
of ecocriticism and Indigenous and Native American studies and between
academic theory and pragmatic eco-activism conducted by multi-ethnic and
Indigenous communities. It illuminates the multilayered, polyvocal ways in
which artistic expressions render ecological connections, drawing on schol-
ars who work in collaboration with Indigenous artists from all walks of life
and in all fields—including film, literature, performance, and other forms of
multimedia—to expand existing conversations. Both local and global in its
focus, the volume includes essays from multi-ethnic and Indigenous commu-
nities across the world, visiting topics such as Navajo opera, the histories of
Sámi film production, South Indian tribal storied practices, Māori art instal-
lations, Native American and First Nations science fiction literature and
film, Amazonian poetry, and many others. Highlighting trans- Indigenous
sensibilities that speak to worldwide crises of environmental politics and
action against marginalization, the collection alerts readers to movements
of community resilience and resistance, cosmological thinking about
inter- and intra-generational multispecies relations, and understandings of
Indigenous aesthetics and material ecologies. It engages with emerging envi-
ronmental concepts such as multispecies ethnography, cosmopolitics, and
trans- Indigeneity, as well as with new areas of ecocritical research such as
material ecocriticism, biosemiotics, and media studies. In its breadth and
scope, this book promises new directions for ecocritical thought and envi-
ronmental humanities practice, providing thought-provoking insight into
what it means to be human in a locally situated, globally networked, and
cosmologically complex world.
Salma Monani is Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies Depart-
ment at Gettysburg College, USA.
Joni Adamson is Professor of Environmental Humanities, Department of
English, and Senior Sustainability Scholar, Global Institute of Sustainability,
Arizona State University, USA.
Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.
60 Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture
The Americas
Edited by Justin D Edwards and Sandra Guardini Vasconcelos
61 The Contemporaneity of Modernism
Literature, Media, Culture
Edited by Michael D’Arcy and Mathias Nilges
62 The Comic Imagination in Modern African Literature and Cinema
A Poetics of Laughter
Maik Nwosu
63 Transnational Narratives from the Caribbean
Diasporic Literature and the Human Experience
Elvira Pulitano
64 Cartographies of Exile
A New Spatial Literacy
Edited by Karen Elizabeth Bishop
65 The Contemporary Literature-Music Relationship
Intermedia, Voice, Technology, Cross-Cultural Exchange
Hazel Smith
66 Post-Conflict Literature
Human Rights, Peace, Justice
Edited by Chris Andrews and Matt McGuire
67 Landscape, Seascape, and the Eco-Spatial Imagination
Edited by Simon C. Estok, I-Chun Wang, and Jonathan White
68 Auto/Biography across the Americas
Transnational Themes in Life Writing
Edited by Ricia Anne Chansky
69 Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies
Conversations from Earth to Cosmos
Edited by Salma Monani and Joni Adamson
Ecocriticism and Indigenous
Studies
Conversations from Earth to Cosmos
Edited by Salma Monani
and Joni Adamson
First published 2017
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Adamson, Joni, 1958– editor. | Monani, Salma editor.
Title: Ecocriticism and indigenous studies: conversations from earth to
cosmos / edited by Joni Adamson and Salma Monani.
Description: New York; London: Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge
interdisciplinary perspectives on literature; 69 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013296
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental protection and motion pictures. |
Indigenous peoples and mass media. | Ecology in motion pictures. | Indians
of North America in motion pictures. | Documentary films—History and
criticism. | Performing arts—Environmental aspects. | Indigenous
peoples—Intellectual life. | Indigenous peoples—Ecology. | Ecocriticism.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.E78 E36 2016 | DDC 809/.9336—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013296
ISBN: 978-1-138-90297-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69719-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Salma: To those who told me my first stories and to hoopoe
birds, elephant gods, Babugoosha the ant, and other beings
who peopled such story worlds.
Joni: To the brilliant Barbara A. Babcock, who initiated me
into the world of the liminal, the betwixt and between, and
revealed to me the reasons why bears are good to think.
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Contents
List of Figures ix
Foreword xiii
SIMoN J. oRTIz
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction: Cosmovisions, Ecocriticism, and Indigenous Studies 1
JoNI AdAMSoN ANd SALMA MoNANI
PART I
Resilience
1 Negotiating the ontological Gap: Place, Performance,
and Media Art Practices in Aotearoa/New zealand 23
JANINE RANdERSoN ANd AMANdA YATES
2 Science Fiction, Westerns, and the Vital Cosmo-ethics of
The 6th World 44
SALMA MoNANI
3 Long Environmentalism: After the Listening Session 62
SuBhANkAR BANERJEE
4 Grounded in Spiritual Geography: Restoring Naabaahii
in Enemy Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio 82
LAuRA TohE
PART II
Resistance
5 dancing at the End of the World: The Poetics of the Body
in Indigenous Protest 101
JANET FISkIo
viii Contents
6 New Media, Activism, and Indigenous Environmental
Governance: Politics and the Minnesota-Wisconsin Wolf hunt 119
CLINT CARRoLL ANd ANGELICA LAWSoN
7 Cyclical Conceptualizations of Time: Ecocritical
Perspectives on Sámi Film Culture 136
PIETARI kääPä
8 Resistance and hope in Mohawk Cinema: Iroquois
Cosmologies and histories 154
ShELLEY NIRo ANd SALMA MoNANI
PART III
Multispecies Relations
9 A Network of Networks: Multispecies Stories and
Cosmopolitical Activism in Solar Storms and People
of a Feather 171
kAThRYN YALAN ChANG
10 tinai-documentation as Ecocultural Ethnography:
My Experience with the Mudugar 188
RAYSoN k. ALEx
11 The Tangibility of Maize: Indigenous Literature, Bioart, and
Violence in Mexico 204
ABIGAIL PéREz AGuILERA
12 Why Bears, Yakumama (Mother of All Water Beings), and
other Transformational Beings Are (Still) Good to Think 223
JoNI AdAMSoN ANd JuAN CARLoS GALEANo,
WITh ILLuSTRATIoNS BY SoLMI ANGARITA
List of Contributors 241
Index 247
List of Figures
1.1 Natalie Robertson. Installation detail. Three-screen
video installation, Uncle Tasman—The Trembling
Current that Scars the Earth (2008). In the exhibition,
He Korowai o Wai Rotorua Museum. 2008. Source: Courtesy
of Natalie Robertson. 24
1.2 Video still from Shannon Te Ao, Untitled (after Rākaihautū)
(2012a). The performer Te Ao in Waimea estuary, Whakatū
(Nelson) at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. Te Ao
is filmed by cinematographer Iain Frengley. Source: Courtesy
of Shannon Te Ao. 24
1.3 Amanda Yates. Pop-up Garden / Māra Iti (2012), Wellington.
Source: Courtesy of Amanda Yates. 25
1.4 Natalie Robertson. Still image of Pūtauaki mountain,
from the video installation Uncle Tasman—The Trembling
Current that Scars the Earth (2008). Source: Courtesy of
Natalie Robertson. 29
1.5 Natalie Robertson. Installation detail of Pūtauaki mountain
and Whakaari fumarole. Uncle Tasman—The Trembling
Current that Scars the Earth (2008), Toi Rerehiko Moving
Image Centre, Auckland. Source: Courtesy of Natalie
Robertson. 29
1.6 Video still from Untitled (after Rākaihautū) (2012a). Te Ao
in Waimea estuary, Whakatū (Nelson) at the top of New
Zealand’s South Island. Te Ao is filmed by cinematographer
Iain Frengley. Source: Courtesy of Shannon Te Ao. 33
1.7 Amanda Yates. Pop-up Garden / Māra Iti (2012), Wellington.
Source: Courtesy of Amanda Yates. 37
2.1 Still from The 6th World (2012). Opening sequence with
corn foregrounding Monument Valley’s red rocks.
Source: Courtesy of Nanobah Becker. 50
2.2 Still from The 6th World (2012). Opening sequence
depicting a Navajo spirit-being associated with corn.
Source: Courtesy of Nanobah Becker. 51
3.1 Scanning for animals from a Gwich’in hunting/fishing camp,
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Arctic Village, Alaska.
August 2002. Source: Courtesy of Subhankar Banerjee. 66