The book selected for this year's Diversity Common Reader Program (DCRP) at Northern Michigan University is As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Held annually since 2013, the DCRP revolves around a nonfiction book of interdisciplinary interest that advances discussions of diversity, inclusion and social justice.
DCRP Committee Chair Kel Sassi said the book “addresses topics that are important to NMU right now, like sustainability, and will help us think about how settler colonialism has affected us and envision a more equitable future.”
Books are distributed free of charge to interested NMU students on a first-come, first-served basis, and faculty are encouraged to incorporate the text into their curricula. Related DCRP events are free and open to the public. Simpson will be on campus to deliver a keynote address pertaining to her book at Northern's UNITED Conference on Monday, March 17.
"I have previously taught from As We Have Always Done,” said Caroline LaPorte, academic department head in the Center for Native American Studies (CNAS). “The opportunity to have the broader NMU campus exposed to this seminal text is a critical opportunity–and it is an opportunity that calls us all to account for how we relate to each other, how we benefit from and operationalize harmful settler systems, and the ways in which Indigenous people are continuously forced to resist dispossession by the state. But more importantly, this text also invites us to embrace Anishinaabe thought for the political and intellectual force that it has always been."
One of the grand challenges in NMU's new strategic plan is “supporting our people.” Within that is a call to nurture Indigenous perspectives, programs and peoples to honor, learn from and partner with the tribal communities that have thrived in the region for many generations. April Lindala, Center for Native American Studies professor and DCRP committee member, said Simpson's book is a critical and timely vehicle for convening conversations to intersect disciplines and build solidarity across communities.
“Her words weave memory, storytelling and philosophy to expand upon what she calls the Indigenous Resurgence Project,” Lindala added. “She centers Indigenous elders, artists and scholars to reinforce her theoretical approach of doing and process. She leans on ways of knowing from multiple tribes, but continually centers back to her Ojibwe ancestry to strengthen her propositions and arguments. Students and faculty from many departments will be interested in not only what she talks about, but how her Indigeneity informs what she presents to audiences.”
According to the book description, As We Have Always Done locates Indigenous political resurgence as a practice rooted in uniquely Indigenous theorizing, writing, organizing and thinking. It makes clear that the goal of Indigenous resistance can no longer be cultural resurgence as a mechanism for inclusion in a multicultural mosaic, calling for unapologetic, place-based Indigenous alternatives to the destructive logics of the settler colonial state.
"This book provides a framework for necessary critical thinking and feeling,” said Tyler Detloff, director of the CNAS. “Powerful storytelling and fearless awareness of the power of language allows Simpson to examine power structures, critique the status quo, and embody a voice that promises that healing communities (human and more-than-human) is not only possible, but necessary and essential. Her book reminds the reader that Nishnaabeg people will continue to do as we have always done."
“Humans have an extensive library of ancestral information to pull from to build worlds,” said student Vera Ergeson, Forest County Potawatomi and double major in art and design and Native American studies. “Above all, the book–for me–has been an invitation to trust that my creativity is my ancestral intelligence making a way to strengthen a sense of self and my community. We, as students, and the community at large are so deeply deserving of practicing our human right to exist in reciprocity with the land and one another, as we have always done.”
Find more information on NMU's Diversity Common Reader Program and related events here. Learn more about Simpson and her works here.
Prepared by student writer Brynn Turnquist and news director Kristi Evans.
