Masculindians: Conversations about Indigenous Manhood

by Sam McKegney (Editor)

Overview

Between October 2010 and August 2013, Sam McKegney conducted interviews with leading Indigenous artists, critics, activists, and elders on the subject of Indigenous manhood. In offices, kitchens, and coffee shops, and once in a car driving down the 401, McKegney and his participants tackled crucial questions about masculine self-worth and how to foster balanced and empowered gender relations. Masculindians captures twenty-two of these conversations in a volume that is intensely personal, yet speaks across generations, geography, and gender boundaries. As varied as their speakers, the discussions range from culture, history, and world view to gender theory, artistic representations, and activist interventions. They speak of possibility and strength, of beauty and vulnerability. They speak of sensuality, eroticism, and warriorhood, and of the corrosive influence of shame, racism, and violence. Firmly grounding Indigenous continuance in sacred landscapes, interpersonal reciprocity, and relations with other-than-human kin, these conversations honor and embolden the generative potential of healthy Indigenous masculinities.

Contributors: Taiaiake Alfred, Kim Anderson, Joanne Arnott, Joseph Boyden, Alison Calder, Warren Cariou, Jessica Danforth, Louise Halfe, Tomson Highway, Daniel Heath Justice, Janice C. Hill Kanonhsyonni, Lee Maracle, Neal McLeod, Daniel David Moses, Gregory Scofield, Thomas Kimeksum Thrasher, and Richard Van Camp.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611861297
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Series:	American Indian Studies
Edition description:	1
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sam McKegney is Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, author of Magic Weapons: Aboriginal Writers Remaking Community after Residential School, and numerous articles on Indigenous and Canadian literatures.

Table of Contents

‘Into the full grace of the blood in men’—An Introduction by Sam McKegney PART I: Wisdom Where Are the Men?—Janice C. Hill Kanonhsyonni Repairing the Circle—Tomson Highway This is a Vision—Lee Maracle Young Men of Good Will—Basil H. Johnston A Calm Sensuality—Louise Bernice Halfe Carrying the Burden of Peace—Daniel David Moses A Man Beside My Father—Thomas Kimeksum Thrasher PART II: Knowledge Reimagining Warriorhood—Taiaiake Alfred Remembering the Sacredness of Men—Kimberly Anderson Embodied Masculinity and Sport—Brendan Hokowhitu Talking Story, Remaking Community—Ty P. Kāwika Tengan Changing the Script—Warren Cariou & Alison Calder Fighting Shame through Love—Daniel Heath Justice PART III: Imagination Deeper than a Blood Tie—Adrian Stimson & Terrance Houle Manhood through Vulnerability—Joseph Boyden Reclaiming Protectorship—Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm Into the Tribe of Man—Richard Van Camp Intimate like Muscle and Bone—Joanne Arnott Tending the Fire—Neal McLeod A Liberation through Claiming—Gregory Scofield ‘After and Towards’—A Dialogue on the Future of Indigenous Masculinities Studies with Niigaanwewidam Sinclair & Sam McKegney

What People are Saying About This

Allison Hargreaves

“As the first of its kind, this collection of conversations about Indigenous masculinity offers an invaluable contribution to the fields of Indigenous Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Indigenous Literature and Cultural Studies, Settler Colonial Studies, and beyond.”

Christopher B Teuton

"A rich, complex series of discussions of one of the most pressing subjects of Indigenous decolonization today… McKegney’s twenty-two in-depth conversations with Indigenous artists, activists, and intellectuals both inside the academy and in community are each tremendously useful in helping readers understand what is at stake in the ways we define Indigenous masculinities, celebrate them, critique them, construct them within our families and in our communities, and live them as men."

Editorial Reviews

Distills the acumen of the scholars, journalists, playwrights, authors, poets, mothers, fathers, and sons who sat with him and identified, and commiserated on, the paradigms of maleness and manliness.

Eldon Yellowhorn

A strong beginning to the work of critical studies of Indigenous masculinities.

John Gamber

Masculindians is not a book about tragic masculinities. Rather, the contributors share compelling stories of beautiful and healthy masculinities disrupted by colonization. Their stories speak of resilience and resistance and resurgence.”

P. Kelly Mitton

"McKegney interviews male and female educators, artists (including writers such Joseph Boyden, Lee Maracle and Tomson Highway), scholars, social workers, elders, and others who attest to the myriad conceptions of indigenous manhood that range from the affirmingly spiritual to the purposefully vulnerable. [...] Many a fascinating discussion about modern indigenous identities."

From the Publisher

"A valuable contribution to Indigenous masculinity studies. Very few texts focus on Indigenous manhood and masculinities, and this book provides an opportunity to expand this area of study and to engage in conversations on Indigenous community and Native nation building."

Wicazo Sa Review - Lloyd L. Lee

"Masculindians is a collection of twenty-three conversations with Indigenous women and men from throughout North America and Oceania, Two-Spirit and straight people, as well as artists and scholars who talked about, among other things, Indigenous masculinity. The chapters are more than conversations. They are artifacts from which we can later draw meaning in order to reimagine Indigenous masculinity's pluralisms, possibilities, and potentials."

Native American and Indigenous Studies - Kyle T. Mays