Welcome to Contemporary Connections!

On this site, Deanna Reder’s “Awina Maga Kiya (Who is it that you really are)? Cree and Métis Autobiographical Writing” will frame our Intervention Dialogue. This Intervention Dialogue will act as a call to action that aims to inform future studies of Indigenous culture and narratives in Canada.

Deanna Reder is a Cree-Métis professor at Simon Fraser University, originally from Saskatchewan. She is Chair for the Department of Indigenous Studies as well as a faculty member of the Department of English. Reder is one of the Principal Investigators on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded project for 2015-2020 called “The People and the Text: Indigenous Writing in Northern North America up to 1992.” She is also a founding member of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association, serving on it’s council from 2015-2018. As well, she is a co-chair of the Indigenous Voices awards. Reders article,  “Awina Maga Kiya (Who is it that you really are)? Cree and Métis Autobiographical Writing” was published in the 50th Anniversary Interventions Special Issue of Canadian Literature 204 (2010). In this article Reder discusses Cree understandings of language and knowledge, and how these understandings have informed her studies.

Using Reder’s article as a guide, Contemporary Connections supports the growth of Indigenous narratives that are independent from damaging (post)colonial narratives. This site works to identify the importance of doing so and the ways in which we can collectively help this growth occur. By promoting Indigenous voices that acknowledge settler colonialism without becoming burdened by its victimizing narratives, Contemporary Connections hopes to give it’s readers the tools necessary to support Indigenous narratives in their pursuit of autonomy. In this way, Contemporary Connections aims to contribute to the decolonization of Canada. 

Works Cited

“| Class of 2018 – New College Member | Deanna Reder – Simon Fraser University.” YouTube, uploaded by RSC SRC, 22 July 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncSVRTbzDUE&fbclid=IwAR1bJ5e1FmbA6Nk-QYBmaReoYM9zt84N2oyFtT74U4JN4SUFjyVwz8EPt4U.

Indigenous Literary Studies Association. ILSA, 2020, http://www.indigenousliterarystudies.org/. 6 April 2020.

Indigenous Voices Award. 2020, https://indigenousvoicesawards.org/. 6 April 2020.

The People and the Text. Simon Fraser University, 2020, http://thepeopleandthetext.ca/. 6 April 2020.

Reder, Deanna. “Awina Maga Kiya (Who is it that you really are)?: Cree and Métis Autobiographical Writing.” Canadian Literature: 50th Anniversary Interventions, No. 204, Spring 2010, https://canlit.ca/article/awina-maga-kiya-who-is-it-that-you-really-are/. 6 April 2020.

Banner photo by Katarina Smith, taken on the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation.