Bledstein 1

Max Bledstein

3082596

English 7140

Professor Diana Brydon

March 5, 2017

Intergenerational Resurgence: Postmemory and Biskaabiiyang in Leanne Simpsons Dancing on

the Turtles Back

In The Generation of Postmemory,: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust,

Marianne Hirsch puts out a call which Leanne Simpsons Dancing on Our Turtles Back answers

resoundingly. As Hirsch first explains in her 1992 essay, Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning, and

Postmemory, the concept of postmemory refers to the trauma of earlier generations

experienced by later generations, as exemplified by the children and grandchildren of Holocaust

survivors feeling residual trauma from the Holocaust through photographs of their elders (8).

Later revisions of the concept, namely Hirschs aforementioned monograph, question how the

term can be broadened and used to encourage activism (6). With Biskaabiiyang, a Nishnaabeg

verb meaning to look back, Simpson demonstrates how different generations can share trauma,

but also culture, values, and tools for survival (Simpson 49). I will argue that the impact of

Biskaabiiyang on attitudes towards stories, life, and creation provides a model for using

intergenerational trauma and teachings as means for collective resurgence, thereby responding to

Hirschs question about how to use postmemory for political engagement.

Although postmemory provides a model for the relationships between generations, even

Hirsch appears to understand the concepts potential shortcomings. Hirsch describes postmemory

as the relationship that the generation after bears to the personal, collective, and cultural
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trauma of those who came beforeto experiences they remember only by means of the stories,

images, and behaviours among which they grew up (Generation 5). Postmemory links

generations through trauma, since the descendants of those who experience traumatic events

firsthand have their own experiences of that trauma. Going beyond merely chronicling this

phenomenon, Hirsch says of her book, In attempting to look back to the past in order to move

forward toward the future, it asks how memory studies, and the work of postmemory, might

constitute a platform of activist and interventionist cultural and political engagement

(Generation 6). Although The Generation of Postmemory begins asking this question, Hirsch

does not provide a definitive answer about the potential relationship between postmemory and

activism.

By contrast, Simpsons explanation of Biskaabiiyang goes beyond postmemory to

provide further possibilities for the relationships between generations. According to Simpson,

Biskaabiiyang means, to pick up the things we were forced to leave behind, whether they are

songs, dances, values, or philosophies, and bring them into existence in the future (50). Thus,

younger generations can access the cultural artifacts and ideas of their ancestors. In spite of the

destructiveness of modern colonialism, Biskaabiiyang allows Simpson and her tribe to figure

out how to live as Nishnaabeg in the contemporary world andbuild a Nishnaabeg renaissance

(51). The renaissance must be communal, as the Nishnaabeg need to support each other in this

process and work together to stitch lifeways back together (51). Across generations, they learn

from one another and cooperate to resurge and revitalize their culture. Ultimately, Biskaabiiyang

means re-creating the cultural and political flourishment of the past to support the well-being of

our contemporary citizens (51). Previous generations of Nishnaabeg thereby fortify the
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struggles and joys of living members of the tribe. Through Biskaabiiyang, contemporary

Nishnaabeg call on the wisdom, strength, and creativity of their ancestors.

Whereas postmemory explains intergenerational trauma, Biskaabiiyang accounts for

trauma as well as lessons, stories, and values that can be passed down. Wendy Djinn Geniusz

explains the multifaceted nature of Biskaabiiyang: For generations Anishinaabe and all native

peoples have been bombarded by negative stereotypes about our cultures and ourselves When

using Biskaabiiyang methodologies, an individual must recognize and deal with this negative

kind of thinking before conducting research (9-10). While Simpson concentrates more on the

cultural joys shared through Biskaabiiyang, Geniusz, in a manner comparable to Hirsch,

highlights the pains of racism passed down through generations. But like Simpson, Geniusz also

states that Biskaabiiyang will be beneficial to the continuation of anishinaabe-gikendaasowin

[defined as knowledge, information, and the synthesis of personal teachings] and anishnaabe-

izhitwaawin [defined as anishnaabe culture, teachings, customs, history] (10-11). Thus,

Biskaabiiyang allows for the sharing of not only the pain of colonial oppression, but the values

and creations of previous generations. Contemporary Nishnaabeg access the trauma of

postmemory as well as their ancestors tools for revitalization and resurgence. Through

Biskaabiiyang, intergenerational connections can be used for Indigenous activism.

Biskabiiyang also explains how the creations of Simpsons ancestors influence the values

of her and her contemporaries. Simpson reflects on how previous generations of Nishnaabeg

created circumstances to commune with the implicate order, and also created the new

generation of Nishnaabeg, based on bringing out their personal gifts and creativity (92). As a

result, she defines pre-colonial Indigenous groups as societies of presence, because their

creation required a higher degree of presence than modern colonial existence (92). Within
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contemporary colonial life, people seek understanding through culture and technology, but

Indigenous groups create their own understandings (93). Thus, the creations of Simpson and

other contemporary Indigenous people allow them to disconnect ever so slightly from the

dominant economic system and connect to a way of being based on doing, rather than blind

consumption (93).As opposed to life led solely through the consumptive processes of modern

existence, engaging in the creative processes of prior generations connects past and present.

The importance of creation, as taught by Simpsons ancestors, influences the Nishnaabeg

treatments of both the earth and young women. The way of being based on doing incorporates

a reverential treatment for the environment, including an understanding of the sacredness of the

water that sustains us, the air that we breathe, and the fire within us (36). This understanding

must be passed onto future generations of women, since their relationship with the land is the

umbilical bond to all of Creation (37). Accordingly, the young women will model themselves

after this Earth (37). As Simpson explains, the education and treatment of one generation

reverberates through later generations. Thus, future Nishnaabeg women will be invariably

connected with their ancestors. This connection also informs her decision to wear a skirt to a

ceremony, in spite of her frustration with the rigidity of gender norms. Simpson writes, I

thought about the coming generations. I thought about my four-year-old daughter

Minowewebeneshiihn, and then I made my decision (61). Through the use of Biskaabiiyang,

Simpson appreciates the implications of her choice for future Nishnaabeg women, and thereby

opts to don the skirt.

Just as the treatment of current generations affects future ones, stories can also have

reverberations far beyond their immediate context. Such reverberations particularly occur with

Dibaajimowan, which Simpson defines as personal stories, teachings, ordinary stories,

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narratives and histories (46). She likens Dibaajimowan to the stories our Ancestors cast in the

lake, echoing or reverberating out through time and space into the present (103). As a result of

these echoes, Simpson says of her great-great-great-grandmother, The stories I have of her

influence my life. The telling of these stories in Nishnaabeg contextsmeaning oral contexts

where contemporary Nishnaabeg cultural practices are the normis an act of Nishnaabeg

presence (103-4).Through her connection to her ancestors, particularly as embodied in oral

storytelling, Simpsons great-great-great grandmother influences her daily experience. Although

Simpson lives in the modern world, she uses the teachings and values of the past.

As a result, stories and other Nishnaabeg traditions get passed down through generations

to become tools for Indigenous resistance and resurgence. Simpson writes of her ancestors,

They resisted by taking the seeds of our culture and political systems and packing them away,

so that one day another generation of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg might be able to plant them

(15). Simpson and her contemporaries then have the opportunity to use these seeds for modern

day resistance. Their resistance is an imperative coming from older generations, as Simpson

explains: Our responsibilities for resurgence pre-existed before we were present on the earth. In

our greatest period of destruction, our Grandparents resisted by planting the seeds of resurgence

(66). The Nishnaabeg thereby inherit from their ancestors not just the tools for cultural

revitalization, but the responsibility to use them. In the worldview Simpson articulates,

resurgence in the modern day comes both from current generations and older ones.

Simpson also notes that resistance must proceed with the spirit of Biskaabiiyang to be

useful as political action, thereby demonstrating a model for activism through intergenerational

connections in the manner Hirsch seeks. Without Biskaabiiyang, activist movements risk losing

sight of the traditions behind them: When resistance is defined solely as large-scale political
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mobilization, we miss much of what has kept our languages, cultures, and systems of governance

alive. We have those things today because our Ancestors often acted within the family unit to

physically survive (Simpson 16). Simpson thus shows, as per Hirsch, how an acknowledgement

of the history shared between generations might constitute a platform of activist and

interventionist cultural and political engagement (Generation 6). Contemporary Indigenous

resistance takes inspiration and motivations from the behaviour of older generations. As Simpson

concludes, Bringing the old into the new is our way forward (148-9). Through Biskaabiiyang,

political movements draw on the wealth of ancestral knowledge, shared between generations, to

fight present day battles.

Works Cited

Geniusz, Wendy Djinn. Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe

Teachings. Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, 2009.

Hirsch, Marianne. Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning, and Post-Memory. Discourse, vol. 15,

no. 2, 1992, pp. 329. JSTOR [JSTOR], Accessed 5 Mar. 2017.

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-. The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture after the Holocaust. New York,

NY, Columbia University Press, 2012.

Simpson, Leanne. Dancing on Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation,

Resurgence and a New Emergence. Winnipeg, Arbeiter Ring Pub., 2011.