As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance

by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Winner: Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Best Subsequent Book 2017
Honorable Mention: Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award 2017


Across North America, Indigenous acts of resistance have in recent years opposed the removal of federal protections for forests and waterways in Indigenous lands, halted the expansion of tar sands extraction and the pipeline construction at Standing Rock, and demanded justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. In As We Have Always Done, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson locates Indigenous political resurgence as a practice rooted in uniquely Indigenous theorizing, writing, organizing, and thinking.

Indigenous resistance is a radical rejection of contemporary colonialism focused around the refusal of the dispossession of both Indigenous bodies and land. Simpson makes clear that its goal can no longer be cultural resurgence as a mechanism for inclusion in a multicultural mosaic. Instead, she calls for unapologetic, place-based Indigenous alternatives to the destructive logics of the settler colonial state, including heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, Politics, History, Social Justice, Race, Philosophy

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2017

About the author

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.

Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada and the United States and has twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba, and teaches at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh.

Leanne is the author of six previous books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was long listed for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. Her latest book, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2017, and was awarded Best Subsequent Book by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Her new novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies is was release this fall by the House of Anansi Press.

Leanne is also a musician combining poetry, storytelling, song-writing and performance in collaboration with musicians to create unique spoken songs and soundscapes. Leanne's third record, The Theory of Ice will be released in 2021.


Leanne is a member of Alderville First Nation.

Reviews

[Camille McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really well-grounded book about Indigenous freedom and what the author calls "radical resurgence." I appreciated that it is written by and for Indigenous people and takes the path of resistance through refusal, building strong relationships, and looking inward rather than toward acceptance from the occupying Canadian state. Simpson is respectfully critical of other methods of resistance and I especially resonated with her criticism of social media movements and their weaknesses. It was invaluable to me to read a book on these issues written by someone deeply immersed in Indigenous life and I learned so much about another way of relating to the world rather than the western ideas of extraction, seeing nature as resources, and heteropatriarchy. Simpson goes into why land is important but also the harm caused by heteropatriarchy and how it was used as a tactic to break down Indigenous resistance and nations. I think all have a lot to learn from this book.
I also appreciated her criticism of academia and how academia has been harmful to Indigenous life. The one thing I disliked about this book was that it was written in a very technical way at times, using a lot of terms that were unfamiliar, which unfortunately I also have a problem with, and I recognize this as the effect of being in a technical field where you must prove your intelligence at every moment by using dense language that is often difficult to comprehend. This is a problem I have with academia in general, particularly in my own field of science, where papers are written in a way that is purposely difficult to read and understand just so that the content sounds complicated and the paper will be taken seriously. I don't think this was her intention but it is a style of writing that is very difficult to break out of, especially if you read a lot of scientific research papers. She also brings up towards the beginning how her time in academia and in graduate studies imposed on how she perceived the world and was something she had to work to unlearn.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Indigenous freedom, as well as anyone interested in the link between colonialism and the heteropatriarchy.

[Strega Di Gatti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't explain the thesis of this book better than Betasamosake Simpson does in her own words. I had to stop myself from highlighting half of As We Have Always Done. The past and present violence done to indigenous people is being done in the name of extraction. Extraction requires dispossession.

"Progressive" Canadians only continue to serve settler aims when we ignore land back movements while appearing to embrace indigenous cultures in activist spaces.

A quote I will keep returning to whenever I hear discussions about inclusivity divorced from political action:

"Language, cultural expression, and even spirituality don't (necessarily) pose an unmanageable threat to settler colonialism, but because cultural resurgence can rather effortlessly be co-opted by liberal recognition. Indigenous peoples require a land base and therefore require a central and hard critique of the forces that propel dispossession."

Liberal recognition loves to co-opt cultural expression. Think of the Irish who are praised for preserving Gaeilge until it appeared on signs in Belfast and in songs by Kneecap and became politically threatening. Or Palestinian-Canadian musician Nemahsis recruited by the music industry for her popularity on TikTok then dropped by her label for pro-Palestinian activism. All struggles are connected.

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:

Kinetics, the act of doing, isn’t just praxis; it also generates and animates theory within Indigenous contexts, and it is the crucial intellectual mode for generating knowledge. Theory and praxis, story and practice are interdependent, cogenerators of knowledge. Practices are politics. Processes are governance. Doing produces more knowledge. The idea is repeated over and over again in Nishnaabeg story and for me ultimately come from the Seven Fires creation story as told to me by spiritual leader Edna Manitowabi and recorded in Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back. Through this story, she taught me that knowledge or existence itself is a function of intellectual thought, emotional knowledge, and kinetics or movement. Gzhwe Manidoo (The Creator, the one who loves us unconditionally) didn’t research about creating the world or think about creating the world. Gzhwe Manidoo created the world by struggling, failing, and by trying again and again in some of our stories. Mistakes produce knowledge. Failure produces knowledge because engagement in the process changes the actors embedded in process and aligns bodies with the implicate order. The only thing that doesn’t produce knowledge is thinking in and of itself, because it is data created in dislocation and isolation and without movement.

[Annie MacKillican · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a joy to read. I loved reading about Simpson’s experience of resurgence on land that I will occupy shortly; it taught me how to be respectful and to pursue resurgence and resistance on Michi Saagig territory particularly. I also loved seeing the name of the late Alex McKay pop up; a great professor deserved a spot in this great book.

This made me glad I get to read more of Simpson’s work for school this upcoming year.

[Kab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most resonating works I've ever read, forging resistance against the entwined forces of colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, with a radical resurgence centred on living relationships with the land; engaging with stories; constellating with communities that do not replicate anti-Blackness, transphobia, anti-queerness; embracing the foundational Nishnaabeg ethics of consent, noninterference, respect for self-determination, and diversity.

"Heteropatriarchy isn’t just about exclusion of certain Indigenous bodies, it is about the destruction of the intimate relationships that make up our nations, and the fundamental systems of ethics based on values of individual sovereignty and self-determination. The more destruction our intimate relationships carry, the more destruction our political systems carry, and the less we are able to defend and protect our lands, and the easier it is to dispossess."

"…the opposite of dispossession is not possession, it is deep, reciprocal, consensual attachment. Indigenous bodies don’t relate to the land by possessing or owning it or having control over it. We relate to land through connection—generative, affirmative, complex, overlapping, and nonlinear relationship."

[Ishita · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and important theoretical framework for decolonization.

Simpson centers Indigenous feminist and queer thought with land-based methodologies, laws and knowledge systems to propose radical resurgence as a grounding normative framework for Indigenous mobilization. Her writing is compelling and persuasive, and inspiring in the vision it presents of a resistance that has the courage to operate within a worldview and knowledge system seen as alternative to the dominant paradigm — a return to ways of knowing, being and communing that remain true to the values and teachings of Indigenous nations in Canada.

[Theo James · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a non-Indigenous person living in Ontario, Canada I read this book as part of a broader effort to better understand the true history of colonialism and to learn more about the experiences of Indigenous people; as such, I don’t really feel that I am in any position to provide a critique of this book. However, I enjoyed it immensely and learned a great deal from it and I wanted to capture some of what I learned here for future reflection.

In terms of history, this book is a must read for all Canadians. I learned a great deal about the history of colonialism in Ontario and the way Indigenous peoples have been resisting it for 400 years. Specifically, I learned how deeply and explicitly heteropatriarchy was engrained in the colonial project. For example, the fact that some of the first anti-sex work legislation in Canada was in the Indian Act in the 1870s to control and regulate Indigenous women’s sexualities. Not only were Indigenous women held responsible for their own sexual behavior, but they were also made responsible for their husbands’ sexual improprieties as the Indian agents would send them letters telling them to be “better wives” if their husbands were seen to be behaving inappropriately. I had no idea that Indigenous women’s sexuality was so explicitly controlled by the state.

The first quote that stuck out to me was “If we want to create a different future, we have to live a different present so that the present can marinate, influence and create different futurities” (p.20). This quote means so much to me because it speaks to an issue I have been struggling with in my own activist communities where there is a great deal of hope for the future, but our own practices don’t seem to align with those hopes. I think the notion that the only way to create a better future is to create a better present really puts the emphasis on practicing our values and demonstrating the kindness and compassion we hope to see in the future.

I absolutely loved the notion of land as pedagogy. I interpreted this to mean that what we learn is about so much more than just the content of the learning, but also about how we learn; learning happens through observation and exploration in the context of genuine curiosity and supportive relationships that encourage and foster that learning. I really appreciated how she emphasized the importance of those supportive networks to one’s learning and the way she framed learning as being relational based on those you are doing the learning with or from.

Similarly, she emphasizes that our learning must be grounded. For her this means grounded in the land and culture of her ancestors, but I felt that this could be applied to non-Indigenous people as well by grounding our learning in our own histories and lived experiences. What I found most compelling about this was that by grounding our understanding (theorizing) of the world, we are tying it back in meaningful ways to our practice and building on what already exists rather than theorizing in ways that are removed from our daily lives and practices.

The notion that we all have the responsibility to self-actualize and to live authentically is very powerful to me. Often, I find that self-actualization is seen as an indulgence or a luxury that only benefits the self and not the collective; however, this book frames it as a responsibility because it is through self-actualization that we can truly contribute to our communities and societies. This comes from an understanding that what we contribute is not just the product of our labour, but our diversity and unique perspectives and the knowledge that can be derived from these unique insights. These contributions enrich our societies and allow us to progress and build better and stronger communities and connections. Thus, it is not a self-indulgence to seek to better understand ourselves, but rather it is our responsibility and it is for the benefit of everyone around us.

The final concept that I wanted to touch on was the notion of “generative refusal.” This, to me, meant that sometimes it is futile to take part in broader systems or structures that have been harmful to us and by refusing to take part we can create our own structures that have the potential to create more positive futurities. As a transgender and queer person, I find this to be a really positive concept because queer people are always refusing to take part in systems that don’t work for us, such as the gender binary, and this refusal has lead us to illuminate spectrums of gender that have been hidden for centuries. The notion of generative refusal provides a vocabulary for practices that marginalized people of all types have been engaging in for a long time.

Overall, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you are interested in Canadian history, Indigenous knowledge/history/resurgence, queer and trans histories, social and political change - this book speaks to all of this an so much more!

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I struggled to get into it but after a while it became easier, as if I were entering into another person's stream of consciousness moving from thought to thought. It was a experience into a world I had little knowledge of. One might call the first few section a little top heavy in terms though but looking back personally I found them to be an important primer to follow the discussion that comprises the rest of the book.

Society gives many of us undeserved and wrongly privileged position and this book has proven invaluable in providing perspective. These communities are strong and resilient, through resistance they will accomplish biiskabiyang. No excuses, no forgiveness is offered to colonialism and the false narratives it has forced upon the oppressed and plied upon future generations of oppressors. Nor should they be given, this work thoroughly illustrates how ruthless colonialism is and it provides a guide for reaffirming and engaging in Indigenous resurgence.

Honestly though in the end I do not feel I am qualified to make a call on this book's content. As an outsider to the Indigenous community I will say I greatly admire the ideas contained within this book. I wholehearted recommend this book be read by everyone who can get their hands on it.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

paradigm-shifting and filled with so much knowledge and wisdom. while this is written by an indigenous person for indigenous audiences, this book personally helped me think through what it means, as the son of two immigrants, to be "visiting" this land, and the obligations that come with that to work against dispossession and the logic of settler colonialism.

I am still processing and sifting through all the lessons learned from this book because there are a lot.

[arabella :)]

Revolutionary. No stars because its antithetical to the ideas I took away from this book. I feel a rush of needing to discuss with the author at once! Lots to say...

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not often I find myself captivated, almost cover to cover, in a book, but this did precisely that. Simpson builds on an idea developed (as in named) in Glen Sean Coulthard’s essential Red Skin, White Masks to unpack and elaborate the notion of ‘grounded normativity’. The power of the case is that she does not do this as an abstract, or even generically grounded, piece of political theorising, but as Nishnaabeg practice; what’s more, it is not a generic Nishnaabeg practice, but specific to Mischi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, that part of the Nishnaabeg nation whose lands lie along the northern edge of what we call Lake Ontario. That is to say the power, and therefore the transferability of this idea lies in its specificity – and that makes it all the more exciting.

She builds the case in three stages. In the first she sets up the idea of Radical Resurgence, outlining it as an elaboration of Coulthard’s argument that an Indigenous politics based in a demand for recognition and acknowledgement is destined to fail to break the bounds of coloniality. Instead, Simpson proposes, the politics begin in sovereignty, not of Nishnaabeg as a nation state, but as a way of being that she locates in kwe which she makes clear cannot simply be understood as ‘woman’ because it embodies a range of gendered ways that binary classification systems (including those of ‘colonial rationality’ – my term) cannot accommodate. It’s here that she plays out the core tactic, the practice of refusal, of ‘retreat’, of fugitivity (she uses refusal throughout). This Nishanaabeg approach is located also into two other characteristics – internationalism, exemplified by several foundational narratives, including of Nanabush’s explorations of the world, and of the Nishnaabeg treaty with the Deer Nation prompted by the deer’s sense that they were not respected by overhunting, and in anticapitalism, inherent in a non-accumulative, collectivist way of life.

She then shifts focus to the characteristics of this national struggle, and the need to ensure that women, children, and 2SQ (2-Spirit-Queer) people are at its core. This section is vital and exciting, and an important assertion of one of the all-too-often overlooked aspects of histories of colonialism. That is to say, she builds the link between assertions of a heteropatriarchal gender order and the imposition of a colonial state appropriating Indigenous land, because this order breaks the bonds of equality and the character of the intimate relationships that sustained the power of Indigenous nations. This aspect of the programme makes it both intimate – it becomes about body sovereignty, essential if we are to talk liberation – and radical, because it deals with the essential way of being, embodiment. Throughout this aspect of the case Simpson also repeatedly stresses the significance of a gendered continuum rather than a binary as vital to the overcoming of the colonial heteropatriarchal order.

It is at this point that she returns to the land, to this grounded normativity, to identify this land as teacher and as pedagogy, so that being grounded means knowing how to live, to maintain balance, with the land and all it contains – and not from or off it in a way that accumulates and extracts. This is not a quest for a return to the circumstances of old, of some fantasy of a pre-colonial utopia, but for a return to a way of old that persists, more often than not despite the colonial state. Interestingly it is here that Simpson returns to a notion of recognition as an aspect of allyship – so it is not a politics of recognition by the state, but of alliance, of comradeship with other Indigenous peoples and peoples of colour in what she calls constellations of resistance.

Simpson’s vison of what a post- or more properly de-colonial world looks like is inspiring and invigorating, not because she has planned or mapped a future but because she has outlined the character of the relationships we should work in and with to get to that no-longer-colonial condition. What is even more impressive is the multi-vocality of the book. There is very little if anything about my outlook on the world that aligns with the Nishnaabeg way Simpson draws on – my ways of seeing and being are too firmly based in modernity and European modes of rationality, even as I find approaches such as relationality and reciprocity extremely appealing, my fundamentally Euro-modern ways of making sense of the world are firmly wired in.

That said, I can recognise the elements of case she makes that are likely to resonate and articulate to the kinds of Indigenous ways of knowing she is working in and with, so I am aware that readers more grounded similar systems of thought will see and engage things I miss, or do not fully grasp. Even so, I can read and recognise elements of my (broadly defined here) ontological outlook – of ontology and epistemology, of political practice, theory, and praxis. There is no doubt that this is a case based firmly in Nishnaabeg ways, but it actively engages a very much wider readership: Simpson’s craft as a writer is impressive as she builds an approach that emphasises approaches located in diversities of outlook and practice and rejects the fetishization of already existing theory and prescriptive models.

As a form of politics this is intellectually invigorating; as a mode of analysis and writing it is inspiring and exciting. Simpson builds on story and place, on a Mischi Saagiig Nishnaabeg grounded normativity to suggest a way of struggle based in a refusal to be restricted by the rules and expectations of coloniality. I’ll be coming back to this, time and again.

[jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this book through a class on social ontology where we studied one of it's chapters, and it quite literally might be the single best part of taking that class for me. While I was certainly not Simpson's intended audience, I still found her writing as well as the content of the book itself to be incredibly inspiring and motivating.

I'm gonna try to keep this review short, and not because I don't have a lot to say, but because I don't really feel it's my place to offer a lot of thoughts about this book (other than that I think anyone reading this should also go read it). Simpson makes it (oftentimes explicitly) clear that this book is primarily written to and for indigenous audiences, as a response and addition to a rich history of indigenous thought, scholarship, and activism. So as a non-indigenous reader with no connection to or knowledge of said history, it should be pretty obvious that I have no ground to stand on in making some "technical" critique about really any aspect of the book. Even the writing style is something I don't feel I should really touch on; there's a point in the book where Simpson describes how her writing style itself is a reflection of indigenous, and more specifically, Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg aesthetic principles, and it's a really impactful and eye opening section of the book that certainly made for one of my favorite moments.

I think what's much more indicative of why I personally loved this book and found it so valuable is how CHALLENGING I found it as a non-indigenous reader. I don't mean that in the sense of it being hard to understand, although it absolutely is a complex book that deserves several re-reads. Rather, it was challenging in the sense that it actively dismantled several ideas and pre-concieved notions I had about the nature and ethics of political activism, both generally and specifically in regards to indigenous people in Canada. The book very effectively highlights specific examples of the state controlling/benefitting from the narrative around what needs to be done in support of Canadian indigenous communities to protect their own interests, rather than letting those communities speak for themselves. Simpson's work here roundly rejects such a settler colonialist system and provides what I think anyone can appreciate as an important and prime example of meaningful political thought, organization, and resistence that can extend beyond the scope of the specific political project that Simpson is concerned with.

TL;DR - A thoroughly impactful and thought-challenging book that I really am genuinely thankful to have had the chance to read. Also, I think I lied about my review being short? I said it would be and then I wrote two whole paragraphs... But also sometimes I write literal essays so maybe in the context of me doing a review this is short?

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Leanne Simpson work. A dense but compelling read. Her arguments are well-presented if sometimes verbose.
I saw Simpson speak back in the spring, after having already been introduced to her through this book. She is a marvellous speaker and a fascinating academic. I will continue to explore her work for more insight into Indigenous resistance and resurgence.

[vic · Rating 5 out of 5]

clearly just bangs like what else can i say

[Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

[5 stars] Writing on Indigenous culture, organizing, and political theory and practice from a historical and contemporary Nishnaabeg perspective. I learned a lot, especially around land- and place-based praxis and analysis and Canada’s treatment of Indigenous communities and people. It was a longer read with some doubling back, both because of new language and concepts and because abstract theory can sometimes be challenging for me, but worth the added time and effort. I enjoyed reading Simpson’s thoughts through the race + gender lens she applied throughout; the chapters on bodily sovereignty, queerness, and anti-capitalism were particularly excellent. Recommended for those interested in learning more about the harms and trauma of settler colonialism and the possibilities and power of Indigenous thought and resistance.

Goodreads Challenge: 3/60
Reading Women Challenge: about the natural world
Popsugar Reading Challenge: by an Indigenous author
Nonfiction Reading Challenge: about Indigenous culture(s)

[Elma · Rating 5 out of 5]

So so so smart. I learned so much and still feel like I would get more each time if I read it ten more times. I wish I could get each of my family members to read this with care and attention - imagine the dinner table we’d have then! This would be a great resource for anyone in organizing, for those who feel pushed towards a “constellation of coresistance” - although I should mention it’s written for (almost to?) Indigenous readers. Super grateful to Deenaalee Hodgdon of On The Land for imploring more folks to read it (and UNDRIP) and to Moe & Joe for being my study and digest buddies. And to the diggers book group for reminding me what’s on my bedside table! Look forward to reading the new one with Robin Maynard.

[Ryan G-M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! A pathway to liberation! By far the best book I’ve read this year. Instead of seeking success, recognition, or reform for oppressed peoples, this book demands freedom (the abolition of colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, etc.) and says we must reach out and grab it for ourselves, without letting any neoliberal politics of legality, recognition, or grief defang our imaginations.

[Benjie Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing in all the right ways, and lit a fire underneath me

[lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled a lot with this book, in a good way. I love the idea of completely rejecting (or refusing, as Leanne Betasamosake Simpson says) colonialism and white supremacy. However, there was a lot in this book I had some issues with, many of which Betasamosake Simpson acknowledges, such as the fact that she is presenting these ideas of anti-colonialism through a colonialism model: an academic book, written by a Ph. D, writing down ideas and proclamations about how to live the way our ancestors lived. Some of this issue I have is that Nishnaabe culture is so different from Pueblo and Tohono O'odham cultures, where things are never written down, or overly analyzed. Some of this issue is that I often feel dismissed by Indigenous people in a wider community because I don't have any fancy degrees, although I have a lifetime of experience living as an Indigenous woman. I fear Betasamosake Simpson would dismiss me with her degrees and her big words, written in English, the language of the colonizers. And while I think that Betasamosake can speak with great authority on Nishnaabe people, she doesn't speak for the millions of Indigenous people all over the continent, many of whom reject terms like Two-Spirit, or concepts like moving housing on a regular basis.

Still all of these things are good for me to think about. I am becoming more and more aware of how different one Native tribe is from another, and it is always interesting to me to hear how other Indigenous people live their lives, and follow their teachings, and pass the word. I also read Noopaming: the Cure for White Women earlier this year, and I loved it because it is a novel that rejects the colonialist concept of a novel. It was a book written for Native people, by a Native person, and the concepts and ideas expressed within are stories familiar to the Native community, but presented with modern words. I thought it was so brilliant, and I can see where the seeds for that novel began in this book. I think Betasamosake made some great points in this book. The idea of knowledge as an instinct, for example, and of course, the power of stories to relate that knowledge. This book is great jumping off point, a great place to begin discussions on what we want a world without white supremacy to look like.

[pennyg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer/ scholar from Canada writing about colonialism and its wide reaching affect on indigenous peoples and strategies for coping and conquering. She writes specifically of Canadians but the same could be written of any group or peoples displaced or discriminated through colonialism and systemic racism.

This is a thoughtful, important and scholarly examination, challenging not only the colonizing government and its agents but indigenous elders and even herself. She speaks of the importance of inclusion of other minorities and speaks particularly brilliantly on gender, body autonomy for and violence against women and 2SQ people.

I read this slowly, over 2 months and I'll probably reread at some point. I will admit, at times I found the writing challenging, dense and scholarly. But I realized it was not the author's responsibility to make me comfortable or to make this an easy read or to meet my expectations in any way. I think this is an extremely important, invaluable piece of writing on colonialism and indigenous activism and should be read by all. " I'm not the intended audience " is an excuse. If you are human, you are the intended audience.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a core here of real value, specifically when Simpson focuses on Nishnaabeg traditions and practices as a foundation for resistance to settler colonialism and heteropatriachy. But I simply burned out with the ratio of critical Latinate abstract language to specific cases and applications. It felt to me like a near contradiction to her argument, focusing the language on "speaking truth to power." The problem is that "power" isn't reading the book and the more we're asked to place our heads in the theoretical space--which I found over many years in an African American Studies Department simply sucks you deeper into the world of the tar baby--the less energy we have to foucs on what needs to be done to achieve what she convincingly calls racial resistance. It simply felt like a book for the academy positioning itself as a rejection. Having said that, the sections that focus on Nishaabeg culture as a resource are worth the time. If the critical theoretical language doesn't bother you, give it another star.

[Madi M · Rating 5 out of 5]

In reading this book I learned so much about Indigeneity and how Indigenous people live their lives, as well as the specific oppression they face. I feel as though their oppression and the mechanisms that are used by settlers is expertly hidden by colonialism. That being said, Simpson used incredible and moving stories from both her personal experiences and those that are part of the Indigenous fabric of life to speak hope and love into resistance movements and encouraging them to come back to their Indigenous practices.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved this book. it’s a wonderful mix of depressing and hopeful, reality and actionable ways to change it. several chapters in the middle detail the role of hetero patriarchy as a tool by the settler colonial machine to rob indigenous peoples of their land & resources, and subsequently their bodies.

a very important read for anyone living on stolen land. felt especially relevant to me as someone whose undergrad discipline heavily relies on language data from indigenous communities, which has long been a parasitic relationship

4.5⭐️

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up on the border of BC/Alberta among Blackfoot, Akisq'nuk/Ktunaxa, and Shuswap and then moved to the coast for university among Haida and Salish, so before reading this I was painfully unaware of First Nations from *other* parts of Canada. Leanne Betamosake Simpson is very passionate and writes in a very informative way, although she makes it very clear that this book is not for me, a non-Indigenous person. It is a little repetitive though, which decreased my enjoyment of the read. There is also a large focus on Two Spirit/Queer and the heteropatriarchy which I had a hard time with.
Overall, this is a non-fiction book that all should read to inform themselves of the state of affairs of Indigenous in Canada from Own Voices.

[Lucía · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing look into Indigenous resurgence and resistance. Very illuminating for Western postcolonial scholars in the ways it decenters settler-colonizer action in the process of decolonization (this should be obvious, but believe me, it is not).
I felt particularly inspired by her notions of grounding and relationality.

[Rachel Maybee]

A really interesting read that had me taking my time in order to really process the presented ideas. I think there's nothing more valuable than encountering completely new perspectives because they help reshape the perceived boundaries of the world. In this book, I found a way of living and a theory of living that I'd never heard before, and I loved that.

I feel less limited than I did before reading this, and I'm also left with a lot to think about in relation to other theories I've learned in different fields.

[Mary Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible. Everyone should read it.

[Rebecca Meyrink · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really amazing book on indigenous resistance and freedom. I learned a lot. Although this book is written for Indigenous people it made me think deeply and critically on what it means to live on occupied land. I will continue to be thinking about this book for a long time.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Maddox O'Rourke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lucid, multilayered exploration of indigenous resurgence from Simpson's perspective as Kwe, as Nishnaabe, as a scholar and indigenous thinker. She beautifully intertwines Nishnaabe knowledge and norms with analysis and story to show that her nation and Indigenous peoples around the world will continue to resist, as they have always done. But please, read it! The experience of reading the book is greater than just reading about her theories of grounded normatively or generative refusal; the actual way she articulates her ideas is imbued with Nishnaabewin in a special way that no one else can capture, unless perhaps you are also Nishnaabe.