Aboriginal Oral Traditions by Renee Hulan

Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Global Public Health.The European Society of Cardiology Series.Oxford Commentaries on International Law.Indigenous literatures invite readers and critics to center in Indigeneity, to build good relations, to engage beyond the text, and to attend to Indigenous storyways-ways of knowing, being, and doing through story.

While critics new to the field may find it an adjustment to step into the responsibility-for instance, to land, community, and Peoplehood-that these literatures call for, the returns are great, as engaging with Indigenous literatures opens up space for relationship, self-reflexivity, and appreciation for exceptional literary artistry. Indigenous literatures span diverse nations across vast territories and materialize in every genre. Indigenous literatures are also impressive in their artistry in conveying the brilliance of Indigenous Peoples in expressing Indigenous voices and stories in connecting pasts, presents, and futures and in imagining better ways to enact relationality with other people and with other-than-human relatives. Texts are crucially tied to contexts therefore, engaging with Indigenous literatures requires readers to pursue and step into that beauty and complexity. An educational dimension also exists for Indigenous literatures, in that they offer opportunities for non-Indigenous readerships-and, indeed, for readers from within Indigenous nations-to learn about Indigenous people and perspectives. As relationships between Indigenous Peoples (Native American, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) and non-Indigenous people continue to be a social, political, and cultural focus in these two nation-states, and as Indigenous Peoples continue to work for self-determination amid colonial systems and structures, literary art plays an important role in representing Indigenous realities and inspiring continuity and change. Having always had a central place within Indigenous communities, where they are interwoven with the significance of people’s lives, Indigenous stories also gained more attention among non-Indigenous readers in the United States and Canada as the 20th century rolled into the 21st. Embodying continuity with traditional oral stories, expanding rapidly with growth in publishing, and traversing a wild range of generic innovation, Indigenous voices ring out powerfully across the literary landscape. Comprising study of texts by Indigenous authors, as well as literary study using Indigenous interpretive methods, Indigenous literary studies is centered on the significance of stories within Indigenous communities. Indigenous literary studies, as a field, is as diverse as Indigenous Peoples.

Aboriginal Oral Traditions by Renee Hulan