Ottawa: Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club is back with another story from Turtle Island. This month, the featured title is Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Ottawa Public Library and series partner, the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre, invite you May 19 at 7 pm EDT to enjoy a live discussion with the author about this Globe and Mail 2020 Best Book of the Year title, described as “a rare parcel of beauty and power, at once a creator and destroyer of forms” and “willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial myth-making".
In Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, Mashkawaji (they/them) lies frozen in the ice, recalling a long-ago-time of hopeless connection, to now find freedom and solace in isolated suspension. They introduce us to the seven main characters: Akiwenzii, the old man who represents the narrator's will; Ninaatig, the maple tree who represents their lungs; Mindimooyenh, the old woman who represents their conscience; Sabe, the giant who represents their marrow; Adik, the caribou who represents their nervous system; Asin, the human who represents their eyes and ears; and Lucy, the human who represents their brain. Each character attempts to commune with the manufactured urban-settler world with its plastics and logos. And as each character searches out the natural world, they discover those pockets that still exist are owned, contained, counted, and consumed. Cut off from nature, the characters are cut off from their natural selves.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. A member of the Alderville First Nation, she is the author of five previous books and has also released two music albums. Simpson holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and teaches at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh.
Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club series is a partnership between the National Arts Centre’s Indigenous Theatre and Ottawa Public Library (OPL). Reflection questions will be shared on NAC's Facebook Event page. You can borrow the book from the OPL and then join the discussion and share your thoughts about the book throughout the month!
With thanks to sponsors:
Indigenous Programming (NAC): The Slaight Family Foundation, TD Ready Commitment
Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (OPL)