Discursive Practices: The Formation of a Transnational Indigenous Poetics

Ines Hernandez-Avila
Native American Studies
UC Davis

Lorena Oropeza
History
UC Davis

The conference “Discursive Practices: The Formation of a Transnational Indigenous Poetics,” held at UC Davis on May 2008, brought together scholars and writers from U.S., Canada, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru that engage and/or produce indigenous literary creations. By making indigenous literature central to indigenous peoples concerns, the organizers hoped to dispel the conventional idea that the indigenous experience needs mediation. The conference provided a fertile continuation of dialogue for future scholarship in this area as well as a space for indigenous writers and intellectuals to know each other’s works. To a great degree, indigenous literary projects connect to social movements centered on cultural (re)vindication and human and cultural rights. And yet, the notion of “Writing Indians” continues to be perceived by the public at large as an anomaly. The conference has facilitated the opportunity of dialogue between the indigenous writers of the Americas and has re-established their legitimate leadership as aesthetic creators of their own destiny. The conference was particularly important because it is one of the few occasions that bring together indigenous writers from the North and South. The format allowed for the establishment of an open and productive dialogue between writers of different ethnicities about issues fundamental to their intellectual and creative production.The Conference had a “formal” academic aspect in which some participants were asked to present orally a written paper for 20 minutes in panels/sessions, after which the audience could ask questions. The less formal aspect of our Conference was originated from the round tables that brought together participants in creative areas—poetry, fiction, essays, theater and other stage performances—and in very free form with less time limits enabling participants to offer their creative and intellectual experiences and ideas to other participants and the rest of the audience. Throughout the conference the participants could establish a deep trust, understanding, mutual respect, and, above all, an efficient level of linguistic communication in spite of lacking simultaneous translation services. As it is well known bilingualism Spanish-English is not so common throughout our continent. However, in Latin America indigenous writers tend to write in their own Native language and in Spanish; intellectual bilingualism or multilingualism in a normal condition of indigenous creativity. In the United States, English tends to be the vehicle of indigenous literary expression. The decolonizing process of the indigenous populations in the United States, however, has often caused them to “reinvent the enemy’s language,” as affirmed by Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird, in the search for their own autonomous identity and the intellectual sovereignty even after the loss of their own native languages. This vast debate lends itself, along with other numerous politico-cultural encounters and dis/encounters of Euro-American and indigenous relations, to innovative reflections that are central to indigenous thinking and practice in the Americas.