Editorial

With the publication of Volume 6.2, the editors of Transmotion are thrilled to be able to continue to highlight the diverse range of scholarly and creative work being produced in the field of Indigenous Studies today. The scholarly articles included in this issue engage with older, dare we say "canonical," novels by Gerald Vizenor and Louis Owens, while also holding up exciting new work by Cherie Dimaline in Indigenous YA fiction. We also feature an interview (posthumously published) with poet Janice Gould, a cento (employing the Ishakkoy language) by Jeffrey Darensbourg, and our always robust collection of book reviews.

In "Spiralic Time and Cultural Continuity for Indigenous Sovereignty: Idle No More and The Marrow Thieves," Laura De Vos connects Cherie Dimaline's post-apocalyptic YA novel with the consciousness-raising work of the Idle No More movement. Focusing on the centrality of round dancing to Idle No More participants, De Vos highlights the ways the experience of time central to the movement's activism serves to counteract or respond to the underlying assumptions of a Canadian national temporality of reconciliation that is linear and progressive. Unlike the dominant ideology of the Canadian state, which thinks of historical redress through the process of reconciliation as in and of itself, Idle No More focuses on the spiralic (cyclical, but transformed for the moment rather than mere repetition) resurgence of cultural traditions and ancestral knowledges, an experience of time that is better able to intervene in the work of decolonization. De Vos further argues that Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves (2017) does similar consciousness raising work on radical relationality, charting Indigenous youth's power to build their futures in the now. The novel's organizing principle of spiralic time puts Indigenous youth at the center, a move that helps further highlight the temporal aspect central to the Idle No More movement. Similar to round dancing, The Marrow Thieves offers a counter reality to that of Canadian settler "progress" and "reconciliation." Writing directly to Indigenous youth to invite them to see themselves as part of a continuing spiral of Indigenous presence going back to when time began and continuing into a time when they themselves will be ancestors, Dimaline emphasizes Indigenous youth's central role in resurgence, both within and beyond Idle No More.

Francisco Delgado's article, "Sordid Pasts, Indigenous Futures: Necropolitics and Survivance in Louis Owens' Bone Game" examines the link between racial subjectivity and death continuing a conversation that began with the publication of Achille Mbembe's 2003 article "Necropolitics" and which has been extended into the field of Indigenous studies most notably by Jodi Byrd (Chickasaw). Elaborating on Mbembe's and Byrd's frameworks, Delgado offers a necropolitical reading of Louis Owens' 1994 novel Bone Game, arguing that the book prompts readers to discuss and reconcile the historical relationships between death and subjectivity and, more importantly, explore the possibilities of Indigenous futures and sovereignty. Delgado also draws on other Indigenous scholarship, such as Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's concept of "Indigenous freedom," Vine Deloria Jr.'s critique of anthropology, and Gerald Vizenor's notion of "survivance," in his analysis of the struggles and survivance strategies of Owens' characters, all of whom emphasize Native agency and sovereignty over the predominant, mainstream narrative of Native tragedy. Hogan Schaak's "The Physical Presence of Survivance in The Heirs of Columbus" highlights the importance for critics of recognizing that Vizenor's fiction often represents a space where theoretical concepts developed in his non-fiction essays acquire new layers of sophistication and complexity. Focusing in particular on the concept of "survivance," Schaak argues that Heirs (1991) does not simply deploy Vizenor's pre-existing framework, but surpasses it, crafting and testing a new definition of this key critical term. Schaak maintains that, particularly through the character of Stone Columbus, Vizenor adds a new dimension to survivance, extending the concept beyond its generally agreed upon definition as personal and intellectual liberation from identity constraints to encompass physical and communal healing as well.

We are honored to be able to include Lisa Tatonetti’s interview with Koyoonk’auwi writer and scholar Janice Gould (1949-2019), which was completed shortly before Gould’s death. In “Poetry, Activism, and Queer Indigenous Imaginative Landscapes,” Tatonetti first contextualizes Gould's work and career and then discusses it in three sections: Questions on Seed (2019), Gould's latest poetry collection; Questions on California; and Questions on Queer Indigenous History. The insightful discussion here serves as a fitting tribute to the work of a wonderful writer, whose work deserves continued critical attention. Finally, we also offer an illuminating interview between Transmotion editor, James Mackay, and Ktunaxa poet, Smokii Sumac. Sumac, whose first volume of poetry, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world grew out of the online poetry practice that led to his being awarded the 2017 Indigenous Voices Award, discusses transitioning, Facebook poetry, influences and inspiration, and much more.

Conference: please note the call for papers for the 42^nd annual American Indian Workshop to be held online and in association with Transmotion, July 12-17 2021. The theme is "The Sovereign Erotic". The cfp and further details can be found here: https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/conf

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As a reminder to our readers, Transmotion is open access, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the University of Kent: all content is fully available on the open internet with no paywall or institutional access required, and it always will be. We are published under a Creative Commons 4.0 license, meaning in essence that any articles or reviews may be copied and re-used provided that the source and author is acknowledged. We strongly believe in this model, which makes research and academic insight available and useable for the widest possible community. We also believe in keeping to the highest academic standards: thus all articles are double-blind peer reviewed by at least two reviewers, and each issue approved by an editorial board of senior academics in the field (listed in the Front Matter of the full PDF and in the online "About" section).

David Carlson December 2020

Theodore C. Van Alst

James Mackay

David Stirrup

Bryn Skibo-Birney