Uumasuusivissuaq: Spirit and Indigenous Writing

Authors

  • Karla Jessen Williamson University of Saskatchwan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2014.v20i2.168

Keywords:

Epistemology, narrative, Inuit worldview, decolonization, praxis

Abstract

The scholarship on Indigenous peoples is deeply steeped in colonization and often assumes a Western perspective. I start this article with my poetry as a female kalaaleq (Inuk from Greenland) poet. I contextualize my writing through discussions on praxis and new knowledge creation through poetry. In this article, I argue for a process of decolonization of written, academic knowledge on Indigenous peoples by inviting Indigenous writers to consider writing in poetry form, which comes from giftedness of inner soul-namely the spirit.

Keywords: epistemology; narrative; Inuit worldview; decolonization; praxis


Author Biography

  • Karla Jessen Williamson, University of Saskatchwan

    Karla Jessen Williamson, a grandmother, a mother, and published poet, has her Ph.D. from University of Aberdeen. She is born ‘kalaaleq’ - an Inuk from Greenland. She received her primary education in Greenland, and attained her high school education in Denmark. Master’s Degree in her third language (English) through the University of Saskatchewan, on Inuit child-rearing practices as these relate to Inuit relationship to the land in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Her Doctoral studies at University of Aberdeen in Scotland involved studying gender relations in post-colonial Greenland Inuit community. The study undertaken is from an egalitarian point-of-view, offering insight on how Inuit organized their knowledge as it relates to Inuit construction of gender.

    Karla has published a book titled Inherit my Heaven (2011), number of articles and book chapters, and she has edited the Journal of Indigenous Studies.

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Published

2014-06-20

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 2 (2014): Autumn 2014 Special Issue: [Practices of Poetic Inquiry] in education

Section

Articles

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