Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is an acclaimed poet, writer, and musician from Alderville First Nation in Ontario. Her work, A Short History of the Blockade from the CLC Kreisel Lecture Series, is one of storytelling magic. Her work as a scholar is apparent from the sections of essay-style writing, but it is brought to life more through poetic prose. Most enlightening and meaningful of all are the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg Stories, pedagogies, and understandings intertwined throughout based on amik, the beaver. Through these complex works, Simpson provides an awakening of understanding as to the larger meaning and impacts of Indigenous resistance through blockades throughout history. Simpson writes, "Blockades are both a refusal and affirmation. An affirmation of a different political economy. A world built upon a different set of relationships and ethics. An affirmation of life."

Other End Matter: Notes
Contributor Affiliation: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg)
Bibliography: No
Index: No

Source: Books BC - Indigenous Books for Schools

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. Leanne's books are regularly used in courses across Canada and the United States including Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, The Gift Is in the Making, Lighting the Eighth Fire (editor), This Is An Honour Song (editor with Kiera Ladner) and The Winter We Danced: Voice from the Past, the Future and the Idle No More Movement (Kino-nda-niimi editorial collective). Her paper "Land As Pedagogy" was awarded the Most thought-provoking 2014 article in Native American and Indigenous Studies. Her latest book, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance is being published by the University of Minnesota Press in the fall of 2017. As a writer, Leanne was named the inaugural RBC Charles Taylor Emerging writer by Thomas King. She has published extensive fiction and poetry in both book and magazine form. Her second book of short stories and poetry, This Accident of Being Lost is a follow up to the acclaimed Islands of Decolonial Love and was published by the House of Anansi Press in Spring 2017. Leanne is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg and a member of Alderville First Nation.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's profile page

“Simpson, a celebrated Indigenous storyteller, artist, and scholar, offers four Nishnaabeg stories from the wisdom of the beaver nation and the foundational teachings of their blockades (dams) as an established practice of world-building resistance. Together, the stories are also a commentary on current issues of social media, lateral violence, binary thinking, and surveillance that house the potential to hinder the generative, relational, and reciprocal nature of Indigenous resistance.” Morgan Mowatt, University of Toronto Quarterly, August 2023 [doi: 10.3138/utq.92.3.hr.018]