Description
This insightful volume delves into land-based DinE and Dene imaginaries as embodied in stories-oral, literary, and visual. Like the dynamism and kinetic facets of hOzhO ,* Restoring Relations Through Stories takes us through many landscapes, places, and sites. Renae Watchman introduces the book with an overview of stories that bring TsE Bit'a'I, or Shiprock Peak, the sentinel located in what is currently the state of New Mexico, to life. The book then introduces the dynamic field of Indigenous film through a close analysis of two distinct DinE-directed feature-length films, and ends by introducing Dene literatures.
While the DinE (those from the four sacred mountains in DinEtah in the southwestern United States) are not now politically and economically cohesive with the Dene (who are in Denendeh in Canada), they are ancestral and linguistic relatives. In this book, Watchman turns to literary and visual texts to explore how relations are restored through stories, showing how literary linkages from land-based stories affirm DinE and Dene kinship. She explores the power of story to forge ancestral and kinship ties between the DinE and Dene across time and space through re-storying of relations.
*A complex DinE worldview and philosophy that cannot be defined with one word in the English language. HOzhO means to continually strive for harmony, beauty, balance, peace, and happiness, but most importantly the DinE have a right to it.
About the Author
Renae Watchman (DinE and Tsalagi) is Bitter Water, born for Towering House, Bird Clan (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), and Red Running Through the Water. She is an associate professor of Indigenous studies at McMaster University and the co-editor of Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses.
Reviews
"Watchman shows how the old stories, maintained over centuries . . . tie together the DinE and Dene through ancestral and linguistic connections. The works that are surveyed herein reinforce the import of remembering, retelling, and revising the old stories so that they are germane today."-Luci Tapahonso, from the foreword
"Restoring Relations Through Stories shows how land-based storying among DinE and Dene peoples is strong and continues in the twenty-first century and beyond. It demonstrates how Indigenous peoples continue to remain connected to the land and sustain distinctive ways of life through their narratives, lands, and filmmaking."-Lloyd Lee, author of DinE Identity in a Twenty-First Century World
"Renae Watchman's Restoring Relations Through Stories introduces readers to the powerful force of 'Hane'tonomy' and the work of DinE creatives who refuse misappropriated and inauthentic views by advancing decisive versions of their world. Hane'tonomy provides us all with a new framework for understanding complex works such as Sydney Freeland's Drunktown's Finest, Blackhorse Lowe's 5th World, or Hollywood's deracinating obsession with the Navajo Nation and Shiprock as a backdrop. It moves toward a meaningful, though potentially daunting, provocation in forging new connections through restorying with ancestral kin of the DinE in present-day Canada."-Jeff Berglund, co-editor of The DinE Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature
Book Information
ISBN 9780816550340
Author Renae Watchman
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint University of Arizona Press
Publisher University of Arizona Press
Weight(grams) 272g
While the DinE (those from the four sacred mountains in DinEtah in the southwestern United States) are not now politically and economically cohesive with the Dene (who are in Denendeh in Canada), they are ancestral and linguistic relatives. In this book, Watchman turns to literary and visual texts to explore how relations are restored through stories, showing how literary linkages from land-based stories affirm DinE and Dene kinship. She explores the power of story to forge ancestral and kinship ties between the DinE and Dene across time and space through re-storying of relations.
*A complex DinE worldview and philosophy that cannot be defined with one word in the English language. HOzhO means to continually strive for harmony, beauty, balance, peace, and happiness, but most importantly the DinE have a right to it.
About the Author
Renae Watchman (DinE and Tsalagi) is Bitter Water, born for Towering House, Bird Clan (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), and Red Running Through the Water. She is an associate professor of Indigenous studies at McMaster University and the co-editor of Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses.
Reviews
"Watchman shows how the old stories, maintained over centuries . . . tie together the DinE and Dene through ancestral and linguistic connections. The works that are surveyed herein reinforce the import of remembering, retelling, and revising the old stories so that they are germane today."-Luci Tapahonso, from the foreword
"Restoring Relations Through Stories shows how land-based storying among DinE and Dene peoples is strong and continues in the twenty-first century and beyond. It demonstrates how Indigenous peoples continue to remain connected to the land and sustain distinctive ways of life through their narratives, lands, and filmmaking."-Lloyd Lee, author of DinE Identity in a Twenty-First Century World
"Renae Watchman's Restoring Relations Through Stories introduces readers to the powerful force of 'Hane'tonomy' and the work of DinE creatives who refuse misappropriated and inauthentic views by advancing decisive versions of their world. Hane'tonomy provides us all with a new framework for understanding complex works such as Sydney Freeland's Drunktown's Finest, Blackhorse Lowe's 5th World, or Hollywood's deracinating obsession with the Navajo Nation and Shiprock as a backdrop. It moves toward a meaningful, though potentially daunting, provocation in forging new connections through restorying with ancestral kin of the DinE in present-day Canada."-Jeff Berglund, co-editor of The DinE Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature
Book Information
ISBN 9780816550340
Author Renae Watchman
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint University of Arizona Press
Publisher University of Arizona Press
Weight(grams) 272g
