Indigenous Textual Cultures: Reading and Writing in the Age of Global Empire
Durham; London: Duke University Press (2020), 357 pp.
Contains bibliogr. pp. 315-343, index
ISBN 978-1-4780-1234-4 (ebook); 978-1-4780-1081-4 (pbk);
"As modern European empires expanded, written language was critical to articulations of imperial authority and justifications of conquest. For imperial administrators and thinkers, the non-literacy of “native” societies demonstrated their primitiveness and inability to change. Yet as the contributors to Indigenous Textual Cultures make clear through cases from the Pacific Islands, Australasia, North America, and Africa, indigenous communities were highly adaptive and created novel, dynamic literary practices that preserved indigenous knowledge traditions. The contributors illustrate how modern literacy operated alongside orality rather than replacing it. Reconstructing multiple traditions of indigenous literacy and textual production, the contributors focus attention on the often hidden, forgotten, neglected, and marginalized cultural innovators who read, wrote, and used texts in endlessly creative ways. This volume demonstrates how the work of these innovators played pivotal roles in reimagining indigenous epistemologies, challenging colonial domination, and envisioning radical new futures." (Publisher description)
Introduction. Indigenous Textual Cultures, the Politics of Difference, and the Dynamism of Practice / Tony Ballantyne and Lachy Paterson, 1
PART I. ARCHIVES AND DEBATES
1 Ka Waihona Palapala Maneleo: Research in a Time of Plenty. Colonialism and the Hawaiian-Language Archives / Noelani Arista, 31
2 Kanak Writings and Written Tradition in the Archive of New Caledonia's 1917 War / Alban Bensa and Adrian Muckle, 60
3 Maori Lteracy Practices in Colonial New Zealand / Lachy Paterson, 80
PART II. ORALITY AND TEXTS
4 "Don't Destroy the Writing": Time-and Space-Based Communication and the Colonial Strategy of Mimicry in Nineteenth-Century Salish-Missionary Relations on Canada's Pacific Coast / Keith Thor Carlson, 101
5 Talking Traditions: Orality, Ecology, and Spirituality in Mangaia's Textual Culture [Cook Islands] / Michael P. J. Reilly, 131
6 Polynesian Family Manuscripts (Puta Tuana) from the Society and Austral Islands: Interior History, Formal Logic, and Social Uses / Bruno Saura, 154
PART III. READERS
7 Print Media, the Swahili Language, and Textual Cultures in Twentieth-Century Tanzania, ca. 1923–1939 / Emma Hunter, 175
8 Going Off Script: Aboriginal Rejection and Repurposing of English Literacies / Laura Radmaker, 195
9 "Read It, Don't Smoke It!": Developing and Maintaining Literacy in Papua New Guinea / Evelyn Ellerman, 216
PART IV. WRITERS
10 Colonial Copyright, Customs, and Indigenous Textualities: Literary Authority and Textual Citizenship / Isabel Hofmeyr, 245
11 He Pukapuka Tataku i nga Mahi a Te Rauparaha Nui: Reading Te Rauparaha through Time / Arini Loader, 263
12 Writing and Beyond in Indigenous North America: The Occom Network / Ivy Schweitzer, 289
PART I. ARCHIVES AND DEBATES
1 Ka Waihona Palapala Maneleo: Research in a Time of Plenty. Colonialism and the Hawaiian-Language Archives / Noelani Arista, 31
2 Kanak Writings and Written Tradition in the Archive of New Caledonia's 1917 War / Alban Bensa and Adrian Muckle, 60
3 Maori Lteracy Practices in Colonial New Zealand / Lachy Paterson, 80
PART II. ORALITY AND TEXTS
4 "Don't Destroy the Writing": Time-and Space-Based Communication and the Colonial Strategy of Mimicry in Nineteenth-Century Salish-Missionary Relations on Canada's Pacific Coast / Keith Thor Carlson, 101
5 Talking Traditions: Orality, Ecology, and Spirituality in Mangaia's Textual Culture [Cook Islands] / Michael P. J. Reilly, 131
6 Polynesian Family Manuscripts (Puta Tuana) from the Society and Austral Islands: Interior History, Formal Logic, and Social Uses / Bruno Saura, 154
PART III. READERS
7 Print Media, the Swahili Language, and Textual Cultures in Twentieth-Century Tanzania, ca. 1923–1939 / Emma Hunter, 175
8 Going Off Script: Aboriginal Rejection and Repurposing of English Literacies / Laura Radmaker, 195
9 "Read It, Don't Smoke It!": Developing and Maintaining Literacy in Papua New Guinea / Evelyn Ellerman, 216
PART IV. WRITERS
10 Colonial Copyright, Customs, and Indigenous Textualities: Literary Authority and Textual Citizenship / Isabel Hofmeyr, 245
11 He Pukapuka Tataku i nga Mahi a Te Rauparaha Nui: Reading Te Rauparaha through Time / Arini Loader, 263
12 Writing and Beyond in Indigenous North America: The Occom Network / Ivy Schweitzer, 289
