Beneath
the Buckskin - Paul Gessell - The Ottawa Citizen -Oct.1,2003
•
EXCERPT
The writing in the anthology is overwhelmingly
contemporary, although some stories and poems are based
on old tales. Ipellie,an Inuit writer based in Ottawa,
is one such spinner of tales, including Summit with
Sedna, the Mother of Sea Beasts, a story about the coupling
of an Inuit shaman and he mythological underwater creature
calle dSedna. Other stories are thoroughly modern, including
Year of the Dog, a hilarious and ribald tale about some
porno addicts in the contemporary Northwest Territories.
The really hot stuff, however, tends to be found in
poems.
• REVIEWS
Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica
Collected
and Edited by Kateri Akiwenzie- Damm
Co
Published by Huia Publishers (NZ) and Kegedonce Press
(Canada)
Reviewed by John McEnteer
"F***!
There are no pictures but words can be sexy too with
unlimited boundaries to stimulate the mind and body.
So let’s set aside my male preconditions of what
I thought Without Reservation Indigenous Erotica was
about and look at the skin which bares itself to be
consumed with pleasure, taste and touch. So what’s
new - brown people have sex too- but the more I got
into this book the more I enjoyed it and my review copy
was splashed with biro (nothing more nor less) scribbles
throughout its 200 odd pages.
Huia Publishers have co-published the
New Zealand version with Kegedonce Press in Canada.
Huia launched the book during Maori writer’s week
to about 70 people at the new and intimate jazz bar
– Happy- in Wellington.
This anthology collected and edited
by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm an Anishnaabe writer of mixed
descent from the Chippewas of Nawash in Ontario, contains
erotic poems and stories by 40 First Nations indigenous
writers from New Zealand, Australia, USA and Canada.
The Maori writers are Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera,
Briar Grace- Smith, Robert Sullivan, and Hone Tuwhare,
Richard Van Camp’s short story
“Year of the Dog“ the recipe for making
men cum only with their nipple, while not entirely earth
shattering, provides an instructional step by step guide
which, if followed, will be exciting.
I found the North American writers pushed
boundaries compared to the Maori writers with the exception
of Hone Tuwhare whose poems made me ache for more. His
poem “When the Karaka Trees Whistled And Said
to Us, Kia kaha!” will cause a flutter in men
who have kneeled between a women’s thighs and
recalled the carefree sweet taste of cunnilingus- its
erotic! One of his other poems “Inconspicuously
Sensual” will similarly encourage smart thinking
about another part the anatomy.
In her powerful yet tragic short story
“Rongomai Does Dallas”, Briar Grace- Smith,
deals with the first time men cry through love lost.
Both the rawness and passion of this story triggered
a personal memory for me about the ability to express
our male emotions through crying.
“Good Dog Bob” , a short
story by Maria Campbell, a Métis author born
in Saskatchewan, is such a belly laugh. Women will see
the humor in this I am sure.
In the Canadian First Nations equilivant
of a waiata entitled “I got them no pussy in a
long time blues” acclaimed Richard Van Camp set
about reconfiguring my usual perceptions of a lament.
Those marae waiata won’t be the same now.
This is the sort of book you can pick
up and dip into. I struggled with Robert Sullivan poems
and found Witi Ihimaera’s political description
in “Dio Mi Potevi” of a worked over Africa
perhaps more appropriate in a different anthology.
Some of the North American writers deal
with mythical subjects and the relationship between
humans and deities such as the bat, The women Who Married
a Goose, the mother of sea beasts or How Uncle Turtle
Tried to Get Married. The Contribution of Hone Tuwhare
in the same vein- Maui Make It With The Death Goddess
-is a fun little quickie of a poem that appealed to
me.
This
anthology is a great read in the warmth of the sun,
encouraging trickles of sweat to flow and your mind
to overdose on the intimacies and loving we yearn for
It is indeed a ripe plum. Pick it, taste it read and
enjoy the pleasure over the summer… its for you."
(Tü
Mai magazine, NZ)
www.tumaimagazine.com
"Without
Reservation: Indigenous Erotica" is a stimulating
and captivating new book about the art of love and loving.
It is bold, touching and revealing-showcasing some of
Turtle Island's most talented indigenous writers.
- Jacinda Mack, Aboriginal Spirit, CHRY 105.5
FM
"So,
what is aboriginal erotica all about? Well, it tends
to be funnier than that produced by European-Canadians,
who seem to take sex far more seriously.... Aboriginal
Erotica is more solidly rooted in the landscape than
is its European-based counterpart and more frequently
includes supernatural characters or events. Food also
plays a large role.... The writing in the anthology
is overwhelmingly contemporary, although some stories
and poems are based on old tales.... The really hot
stuff, however, tends to be found in poems."
- Paul
Gessell, The Ottawa Citizen, October 2003
Review of book: Without Reservation.
Frenchy says, “I am Without Reservations.”
I
don’t think Indians are that shy. In fact, I think
when it comes to sex we all have a pretty good idea
about how to do it, how to talk about it and who to
tell. Which makes me think, “So, why ain’t
there more books written about how we are doing it?”
But then again, that’s just me and I am without
reservations. And books of this nature are probably
harder to write then most. Other than In her I am by
Chrystos, this is the only Indigenous erotica collection
that I know of.
Just
so you know Without Reservation is a book about Indians
(Indigenous people) having sex.
To
which I think “about time”. And I am without
reservations myself so let’s get it on. And, there
is a definite need to be more Indigenous people sharing
their sexual adventure stories and their romantic love
adventures.
Truthfully,
though, not much in this book turned me on (but who
am I to tell you what’s sexy); in fact, some of
the poetry kinda killed the mood.
To
the point where my girlfriend actually asked me to stop
reading it out loud to her, but for Redwire I kept going,
for as long as I could… until she left. Which,
truthfully again, left me quite perturbed, but what
could I do? Later on, I thought that I should have another
chance by myself to test the sexiness of this book but
I just got tired and gave up.
But
for this review, I am just one person and we each have
our own understanding of what it takes to get us off,
and remember poetry is either good, bad or ugly. So,
I would say that there is stuff in this book for everyone.
And perhaps, this book of sexy stories and poems should
be measured in blushes and embarrassments rather than
the words of just one little Horny devil.
PS.
There is one poem that tells you how to get the best
orgasms of my life… phew; there’s a bit
of the hotness in that one. If you’re interested
read the book available from Kegondonce press.
Tania
Willard, Manager
Redwire Native Youth Media Society
www.redwiremag.com
Interview
(in review section, about book)
Why do you think this book is important, to look at
Indigenous erotica.
Richard
VanCamp: I think that aboriginal people are coming out
of a shadow of shame. That shame was caused by residential
schools and the sixties scoop, our mothers generation,
and it’s this generation, my generation of thirty-somethings,
that are really coming into their own power and their
own healing. What I love about this book is it gives
us permission to really celebrate what we have inside
with ourselves and with each other. I do see a lot of
shame within the communities, especially with aboriginal
women, and I think that this book is going to save lives,
I think it’s going to save relationships, and
I think that it’s going to do far more healing
than any of us will ever know because of the bravery
in these pages.
You
know how it is in Indian country: if there’s a
lawyer in a small community, the first lawyer, you go
back to that same community five years later there’s
going to be another one. If there was one Dogrib on
the moon twenty years ago there would be twenty Dogribs
on the moon right now. Once there is one that breaks
trail, they give permission to everybody, and that’s
what I love about this, it’s going to give people
permission to celebrate themselves.
Do
you also see dealing with sexuality as coming full circle.
Indian myths and legends of the past that had sexual
themes:Are those legends coming back to us and are they
healing?
Absolutely,
it’s the most natural thing in the world to be
a sexual being, we are sexual beings, and I think it’s
very easy to blame the church and I can only speak about
the residential schools that came to the South Slave
region and the North Slave region in the Northwest Territories
but what they brought was shame. Shame for ourselves,
shame for each other, shame for desire and our generation,
our second generation of that residential school shadow,
we are coming into our own light and we’re helping
each other in each other’s healing. All Nations
have these [erotic] stories and they have just gone
into hiding. Our new up and comers they are not afraid
to bring those stories forward whereas our older generation
are reluctant to, not all but most.
Tell
me a little about the book, where the idea came from,
how the authors got involved and the courage it took
to put this book out.
Katerie
Akiwenzie-damm: Yeah, well the idea came out of sitting
in a pub or something in Toronto one time and Lee Maracle
and Drew Hayden Taylor were talking about working on
a project on erotica, just making jokes about it, kind
of came up in a humorous way and I laughed along with
everyone else but it kind of planted a seed. It just
wouldn’t go away, it just kind of stayed there
with me and I eventually started looking for erotica,
I started writing erotica and then I realized it was
really hard to find any and so I started to collect
it, and it set me off on this journey where I started
talking to a lot of Indigenous writers and artist, people
that I knew, about erotica and the idea of the anthology
and I started collecting. got really positive responses
from the people I talked to. Some of them had never
really thought about it but as soon as I said it a light
went on. I was very intimidated when I first started
because I thought people are going to think I am just
wacked, you know, they are going to think I am a bit
of a nut, but nobody reacted that way. People get it,
people in the Indigenous community; we all knew right
away, this is something that needs to happen.
It
was a little risky for me putting it out there and being
the person who is going to start talking about this,
and it’s not like nobody else has written erotica,
I mean Chrystos has been writing erotica for years and
other people like Joy Harjo have talked about love and
a little bit about the erotic, but just in little bits
and pieces. So I just kept up with it for years, collecting
little bits and talking to people and the project kept
growing and evolving and changing and I was just telling
somebody that I really felt that the process was so
important.
The
process of talking to people and that awakening that
was going on was at least as important as the book.
I mean, in many ways, it’s probably more important
because I think this is one outcome of that and I hope
there will be many, many more.
I
am really happy about that because when your sexuality,
your erotic voice, that creativity is suppressed and
then repressed, it signifies a break, a shift that Joy
Harjo said, “To be in the erotic is to be alive.”
So it’s a deadening kind of thing and we really
needed to take that back and be willing to talk about
it.
Another
reason is I used to work for Health Canada years ago,
and I was on a committee that was looking at AIDS in
the Aboriginal community, this is back in the late 80’s
and at that time it hadn’t really hit our communities
yet.
I
was in communications but I was hearing about how the
disease goes into a community, how it hits a population
and spreads. And when you applied that to the Aboriginal
population and how our communities are isolated, all
those kind of things, we could see this impending disaster
about to happen.
There
were a lot of communities where people couldn’t
talk about sex; you couldn’t mention body parts
or talk about sex, so how do you prevent this impending
disaster from happening when you can’t talk to
people about it in a way that they can protect themselves
and that also was what had stayed in my mind as well.
This
isn’t just about little psychological things--”oh
we can’t express our sexuality.” It actually
has vital way and it can kill people and it’s
very much genocidal. I wanted something beautiful and
I wanted it to be an antidote to all of that, to the
residential school stuff that was coming out in the
media; and I wanted the positive stuff, the beauty,
the images of Indigenous people loving each other because
I was seeing a lot of images that weren’t loving.
Or those Harlequin romances of the studly aboriginal
warrior dude who kidnaps the white woman or all that
crap. So that’s what got me into doing it and
kept me going for seven years, that’s how long
it took to come to fruition.
I
was excited there were so many aboriginal authors and
there are aboriginal women who have been at the forefront
of this, because often sex is a topic among men and
young men, but it is often missing for women, this positive
sexuality and being able to talk about it.
I
think it’s a lot riskier for Indigenous women
because we have had that stereotype where we are either
the virginal Mother Earth type or the slutty free- for-
all open to everyone that has led to all kinds of abuse
and deaths of Indigenous women. So it is a lot riskier
for Indigenous women to talk about their sexuality.
I do think that these positive images are important
for young people and people outside of the Indigenous
community; it is important for them to see us as whole
people not, as stereotypes; to realize that, yes, we
are sexual beings, loving people and ourselves and we
are not one dimensional stereotypes.
Tania
Willard, Manager
Redwire Native Youth Media Society
www.redwiremag.com
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