I start most mornings by smudging [for non-Natives: info here]*. I love how the smell lingers on me and in my home and I love that the smell reminds me of Native spaces. It makes me feel safe. The medicines I use were all gifted to me by friends or colleagues, or I have a few special ones that I gathered …
To the man who gave me cancer
CW: Cancer, fertility, blood, surgery I. My cervix and I were closer friends than many. I relied on her to fight my monthly stone man, to help manage my Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder. I knew what she felt like at different points of my cycle. I knew when she was lower and open versus high and closed, I knew what her …
An Apology
Dear Readers, I need to apologize, and genuinely. A few days ago I wrote an entire post about Black Panther that talked about Indigenous Futurisms without talking about Afrofuturism, or, for the most part, acknowledging the characters’ blackness. That was wrong, it was unacceptable, and I know better and should have done better. I’m truly sorry. As a scholar who cares deeply …
On Consenting to Learn in Public
In 2010 when I started Native Appropriations, the internet was a very different place. Twitter was still emerging, blogspot blogs were a robust thing and everyone had one, and I literally had no idea what I was talking about. When I started the blog I knew that cultural appropriation was a thing, I knew that stereotypes were bad, I knew …
Wakanda Forever: Using Indigenous Futurisms to Survive the Present
It started with a tweet. A simple linguistic shift put forward by Damien Lee (@damienlee). Moving from saying Canada or even “…in what is now Canada,” to, “…in what is currently Canada,” in order to “open possibilities for imagining futurities beyond the settler state.” When I write, I avoid the phrase "…in what is now Canada." I use "…in what is …