Climate Movement Monday: Indigenous Peoples’ Day reading list

/ Tracy Abell

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which I share info in support of frontline communities that are enduring the greatest impact of the climate crisis. Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day and I’d like to honor them by acknowledging the disproportionate climate effects indigenous people face as a result of colonialism. A recent seven-year study found “As a result of the near-total loss of their tribal lands, [ ], Indigenous people are forced to live in areas that are, on average, more exposed to climate change hazards like extreme heat and decreased precipitation.” 

So, thanks to an email from bookshop.org  that put many of these titles on my radar, here’s a list of newly released books written by Indigenous authors. I hope you’ll check them out.

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science
by Jessica Hernandez, PhD.
“In Fresh Banana Leaves, Jessica Hernandez weaves personal, historical, and environmental narratives to offer us a passionate and powerful call to increase our awareness and to take responsibility for caring for Mother Earth.” A must-read for anyone interested in Indigenous environmental perspectives.”

 

No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay
by Julian Aguon (introduction by Arundhati Roy)
Part memoir, part manifesto, Chamorro climate activist Julian Aguon’s No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is a collection of essays on resistance, resilience, and collective power in the age of climate disaster; and a call for justice—for everyone, but in particular, for Indigenous peoples.

 

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future
by Patty Krawec, Nick Estes (Foreward)
Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won’t just send them all home. Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer.

And here’s one last title that’s next on my TBR pile:

Night of the Living Rez
by Morgan Talty
In a brash, irreverent story collection, “Night of the Living Rez,” Morgan Talty illuminates life and death on the Penobscot Indian Nation reservation.

 

 

Thank you for reading and I wish you all a good week.
Solidarity! ✊🏽

12 thoughts on “Climate Movement Monday: Indigenous Peoples’ Day reading list”

  1. Thanks for the book recommendations. This is the second time I’ve come across that “Fresh Banana Leaves”. Will have to check it out.

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  4. I’ve started Fresh Banana Leaves, so far it is not what I’d hoped for, but I will keep reading in hopes that maybe the later chapters have what I am looking for. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m saying I might not be the right audience for it. I have a lot of indigenous friends and I’m well aware of what settler colonialism has stolen and destroyed.

    I have Night of the Living Rez too and I’m really looking forward to it!

    (Both of these authors are local to me.)

    As a side note: I knew Sherman Alexie somewhat well when we were younger, and he was first published. (Acquaintances that ran in the same circles, not close friends.) It’s deeply saddening and frustrating for the whole community that he let his fame get the better of him and used it to make unwanted sexual advances towards some women. He has apologized, but that alone is not enough, especially when a whole a Rez once held him high as their shining star. Maybe he could find redemption through new writing and not get lost in the illusions of fame this time?) I don’t know, it makes me want to cry to think of it all.

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