Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories is a remarkable book that has collected 23 remarkable essays about the way Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars and storytellers approach the study of Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) cultural history, worldview, and thinking. The three editors responded to calls for tribally-centered critical approaches in American Indian Studies/Native Studies, this critical anthology focuses on Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe/Chippewa) Studies and the ways in which stories might serve as a center for the field. Contributors include Kimberly Blaeser, John Borrows, Lindsay Keegitah Borrows, Jill Doerfler, Heid E. Erdrich, Matthew L. M. Fletcher, Eva Marie Garroutte, Basil H.Johnston, James Mackay, Edna Manitowabi, Molly McGlennen, Cary Miller, Dylan A. T. Miner, Melissa K. Nelson, Margaret Noori, Brock Pitawanakwat, Thomas Peacock , Julie Pelletier, Keith Richotte Jr., Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, David Stirrup, Gerald Vizenor, and Kathleen Delores Westcott. For the Anishinaabeg people, who span a vast geographic region from the Great Lakes to the Plains and beyond, stories are vessels of knowledge. They are bagijiganan, offerings of the possibilities within Anishinaabeg life. Existing along a broad narrative spectrum, from aadizookaanag (traditional or sacred narratives) to dibaajimowinan (histories and news)—as well as everything in between—storytelling is one of the central practices and methods of individual and community existence. Stories create and understand, survive and endure, revitalize and persist. They honor the past, recognize the present, and provide visions of the future. In remembering, (re)making, and (re)writing stories, Anishinaabeg storytellers have forged a well-traveled path of agency, resistance, and resurgence. The submissions include discussions of a current environmental issue such as climate change, tribal law, wild rice, teaching, visual and performance art, prophecy, ancestry, all seen through the lens of story. A remarkable collection that reflects the current state of Anishinaabeg Studies. Highly recommended.
