FINDING INDIGENOUS DISCOURSE SURVIVANCE AND SENDING IT FORWARD

Abstract

This research is an interdisciplinary study of rhetorical analyses of three textual forms made by Indigenous women local to the Saskatchewan parkland. My purpose was to identify the survivance of a tribally specific cultural rhetoric (meaning-making practices) in contemporary local Indigenous works. The rhetorical analyses were grounded in Cree, Métis and Saulteaux intellectual traditions accessible to me through observation, experience, and published literature. The Indigenous research methodology was guided by the principles inherent in the concepts of bimaadiziwin, (an Anishinaabe philosophy of being alive well), and wahkohtowin, (a Cree overarching law of respect and belonging), and n’kiinigaanaa, (an Anishinaabe principle of relating to all of creation in equality, and harmony). The data that emerged from my rhetorical analyses were consistent elements of meaning-making practices. I considered the question, “How do I translate this information to knowledge transfer to be useful in preparing pre-service teachers to teach Indigenous content and perspectives?” I sought an answer by referencing the data to the academic literature in literary criticism, literacy, sociolinguistics, narrative, and rhetoric. From the aggregate I adapted the rhetorical situation to represent a model of a local Indigenous rhetorical discourse to explain the elements of an Indigenous rhetorical situation. This model describes the creative expression and critical interpretation of meaning-making practices that are grounded in the principles, protocols, values, and beliefs of a northern plains Algonquian (Cree, Métis and Saulteaux) world view. The implications of the research are presented as potential benefit to teachers and students of Indigenous literatures and rhetorics.