Dialogues of Meaning making part 3: Letter to Nealob

In early April I received a handwritten letter from Nealob in the mail. I spend a sunny Sunday afternoon reading her letter in my backyard and crafting my own handwritten response. I’ve recorded myself reading the letter aloud, and have provided a transcript below. The letter shares my reflections on how autoethnography can help advance decolonization through feminist decolonial praxis of faithful witnessing (Lugones, 2003).

In the photos above I am holding Nealob’s handwritten letter. I am also showing parts of her letter up close, showing where I have underlined or circled words that resonate with me.

I concluded my letter to Nealob by mentioning that I had included some poetry from an by gzhibaeassigae jen meunier (2019) about breath as methodology. I have shared those images below.

Works Cited

Adams, T.E.; Holman Jones, S. & Ellis, C. (2021). Introduction – Making sense and taking action: Creating a caring community of Autoethnographers. In Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (Eds). Handbook of Autoethnography. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429431760.  

Anzaldúa, G.E. (1999) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco : Aunt Lute Books

Mignolo, W. D. & Tlostanova, M. V. (2006) Theorizing from the Borders: Shifting to Geo- and Body-Politics of Knowledge. European Journal of Social Theory, 9 (2): 205–221.

Coulthard, G. (2014). Red skin, white masks: The politics of colonial recognition. University of Minnesota Press.

Fukushima, A. I. (2023). A Multiplicity of Selves-in-Coalition: A Decolonial Feminist Witnessing Through Autoethnography. Feminist Formations, 35(1), 134–150. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2023.a902071.  

gzhibaeassigae jen meunier. (2019). Breath as research: Finding cracks in the wall. In Wilson, S. & Breen, A. (Eds). Research and Reconciliation : Unsettling Ways of Knowing Through Indigenous Relationships. Canadian Scholars.  

Hunt/Tłaliłila’ogwa, S. & Simpson, L.B. (2023). In Stark, H. K., Craft, A., & Aikau, H. K. (Eds.). (2023). Indigenous resurgence in an age of reconciliation. University of Toronto Press. 

Lugones, M. 2003. Peregrinajes/pilgrimages: Theorizing coalitions against multiple oppressions. Rowman and Littlefield.

Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Duke University Press. 

Simpson, L.B. (2018). As we have always been: Indigenous freedom through radical resistance. University of Minnesota Press.

Tuck, E. & Yang, W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. 1-­‐40.