Overview

For some outdoor enthusiasts, the word “wilderness” means “free of people”. This book shows that many beloved stories of outdoor adventure forget that people have lived in and with the natural spaces of North America since long before Europeans arrived. When we read Western narratives in partnership with Indigenous authored narratives, a new paradigm of human-nature relations begins to emerge. Divided into three sections, the book creates a conversation between texts by non-Indigenous and Indigenous writers. Nature adventure stories by non-Indigenous writers can re-colonize space and perceptions of space whereas narratives from Indigenous writers demonstrate that “nature” (or land) is neither empty nor ownable—not an object but rather a relation. The first section, “Growing,” delves into literature for children and young adults about adventures in outdoor spaces. “Moving” explores the joy and struggle of outdoor athleticism, and “Dwelling,” examines stories of “being in place” to seek out how relationship with land is defined. As Cree writer Harold Johnson has pointed out, stories define our inner worlds and then also come to define the outer world around us. This book brings together two very different approaches to nature writing to initiate a dialogue between Western and Indigenous literary responses to experiencing land. Ultimately, Decolonizing Wilderness Adventure Narratives aims to reorient the stories of the land (including its peoples) from one of ownership to one of respectful relationship.

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9781771127073

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Reviews

This book is a nuanced and deeply generous act of attention, focusing on our relationships to land and the ways they are mediated and perpetuated through story. With critical reinterpretations of settler-authored texts as well as brilliant appreciations of work by Anishinaabe and other Indigenous writers, Gyllian Phillips shows us a new way to do decolonial criticism. The way these stories speak to each other here, through the author's grounded and hospitable approach, is both fascinating and extremely important for the future of these territories. --Warren Cariou, University of Manitoba

Author Information

Gyllian Phillips is a Professor in the English Studies program at Nipissing University, in North Bay, Ontario. Her current research interests centre on ecocriticism with a decolonial focus. A recent publication is ""Getting Away From It All, or Breathing it All In: Decolonizing Wilderness Adventure Stories"" in the collection Not Hockey, (2023).

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