Indigenous Narratives of Territory and Creation: Hemispheric Perspectives
April 2020
Description:
This special issue is devoted to studying narratives of creation and territorial origin as they are told and transmitted in Indigenous languages and conflictive settings of the Americas. It advocates for the revitalization and revaluation of Indigenous languages, not merely for linguistic purposes, but also with an epistemological and political emphasis in that these languages are vehicles of different worldviews and forms of knowledge that propose alternatives to Western epistemologies. Symbolic territory and land reclamation are the focus of much Indigenous activism in the Americas. This special issue explores Native narratives that provide legitimacy and a foundation to this political practice. At the same time, it finds the ways in which they are spread continentally, in specific contexts and beyond national histories. This issue comparatively studies narratives of territory and creation of Native communities that were and are today constantly displaced, and seeks to understand the diasporic meaning of these narratives in the context of the struggle for land.