Title:
Bawaajigan : stories of power
Publication Date:
2019
Publication Information:
Holstein, Ontario : Exile Editions, 2019.
Physical Description:
xiii, 254 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
ISBN:
9781550968415
Abstract:
"Dreams play a powerful role in Indigenous culture, serving as warning, insight, guidance, solace, or hope. Bawaajigan - an Anishinaabemowin word for dream or vision - is a collection of powerful literary short fiction by Indigenous writers from across Turtle Island. Stories about the connection between the spirit world and everyday life and the rest of the cosmos; urban-fantasy and high-fantasy worlds; alternative histories, and alternative realities; brushes with the supernatural, the prophetic, the hallucinatory, and the surreal. Among these themes we find stories ranging from the gritty, the gothic, the comedic, and the heart-wrenchingly tragic: a tale about the state of sleep-deprivation that conjures an uncertainty as to where dreams end and reality begins; the ominous tension of television static that conjures a certainty of something terrible about to happen; encounters with spirit guides, and spirit enemies; confrontations with ghosts haunting residential school hallways, and ghosts looking on from the afterlife; and with concepts based on Ouija boards, bead-dreamers, Haudenosaunee wizards, talking eagles, giant snakes, sacred white buffalo calves, spider's silk, a burnt and blood-stained diary, longings for what could-have-been, worm holes fallen through reality, poppy-induced deliriums, imaginary friends, and knowledge revealed. Unifying everything: these are stories about the strength and power of dreams."-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
Ipapaino : White Buffalo Womyn / Katie-Jo Rabbit -- Bead dreamer / Autumn Bernhardt -- Flight / Brittany Johnson -- The truth between us / Richard van Camp -- How Mosquito got his name / Gord Grisenthwaite -- Ptarmigan / Joanne Arnott -- Missing / Delani Valin -- Medicine walk / Cathy Smith -- Jumpers on both bridges / David Geary -- Melinda Irene and Madame Bouve / Yugcetun Anderson -- Ghost walk / Gerald Silliker Pisim Maskwa -- Ahnunggokwan / Karen Lee White -- Where they dwell / Sara General -- Silk / Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler -- The death of him came to me in my dreams / Francine Cunningham -- Dream medicine / Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith -- The room was crowded / Lee Maracle -- Sword of antlers / Richard van Camp -- We are the Earth's dreaming / Wendy Bone.
Language:
English