Indigenous Literatures and Authors

Keyword Searching in the Catalogue

Keyword searching can be very fruitful.

Search examples:

• aboriginal australians literature
• (indigenous OR aboriginal OR indian) authors 
• (indigenous OR aboriginal OR indian) literature anthology
• indigenous peoples literary collections
• indigenous literature
• inuit poetry
• maori literature
• maori literature criticism
• métis fiction
• native peoples canada drama

Browsing Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Catalogue

Browsing the Library of Congress subject headings index in the catalogue can be effective.
For critical works about specific authors, search by subject by the name in inverted order (last name first). Often there will be a subdivision such as --Criticism and interpretation:

• Johnson, E. Pauline
• King, Thomas, 1943-
• Taylor, Drew Hayden, 1962- -- Criticism and interpretation

For critical works about a specific genre or period of literature, use the name of the genre etc. Look for the subdivisions indicating the ancestry of the authors, such as --Inuit authors, --Indigenous authors, --Metis authors, AND also look for the subdivision --History and criticism:

• Aboriginal Australian literature
• American drama--Indigenous authors [some libraries still use the colonial heading: American drama--Indian authors]
• American literature--Indigenous authors
• American poetry--Indigenous authors
• American prose literature--Indigenous authors
• Australian literature--Aboriginal Australian authors
• Canadian drama--Indigenous authors
• Canadian literature--Indigenous authors
• Canadian literature--Inuit authors
• Canadian literature--Métis authors
• Canadian poetry--Indigenous authors
• French-Canadian literature--Indigenous authors
• Inuit literature--Canada
• Maori literature

For works by or about specific First Nations/Indigenous tribal groups or linguistic groups, use the name of the tribe or linguistic group and look for subdivisions such as --Drama; --Fiction; --Juvenile fiction; --Poetry; --Literary collections: Sample headings are shown; list is no where near exhaustive

• Abenaki Indians--Fiction
• Cree--Drama [some libraries still use the colonial headings beginning with Cree Indians]
• Cree--Juvenile fiction
• Cree--Ontario, Northern--Fiction
• Cree--Poetry
• Dene--Juvenile fiction [some libraries still use the colonial headings beginning with Athapascan Indians]
• Indigenous peoples--North America--Fiction [some libraries still use the colonial headings beginning with Indians of North America]
• Iroquois Indians--Fiction [this heading still needs to be decolonized]
• Micmac Indians--Literary collections [this heading still needs to be decolonized]
• Mohawk Indians--Fiction [this heading still needs to be decolonized]
• Ojibwa--Fiction [some libraries still use the colonial headings beginning with Ojibwa Indians]
• Ojibwa--Juvenile fiction
• Ojibwa--Ontario--Fiction
• Ottawa Indians--Poetry [this heading still needs to be decolonized]
• Siksika Indians--Fiction [this heading still needs to be decolonized]

You can browse by general or more specific topical subject headings as in the following examples:

• Tricksters
• Coyote (Legendary character)

Browsing Canadian Subject Headings in the Catalogue

Canadian Subject Headings (CSH) are widely used in the university's catalogue. These complement and are often more specific than the headings found in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). There are also some important distinctions and explanations. Library and Archives Canada is currently developing new headings that will replace the colonial style of headings.

For Canadian literary terms such as Canadian literature, Canadian fiction, Canadian drama, Canadian literature (English)

CSH uses the subdivision --Native authors, for collective works written in English and/or French by members from all three designated groups of native ancestry: First nations, Métis, and Inuit. Otherwise it uses specific subdivisions such as --Indian authors; --Metis authors; --Inuit authors; --Innu authors. The following examples may be assigned to works that present collections of literary works as well as works about the type of literature written by members of the identified groups. Works of criticism will often have the additional final subdivision --History and criticism.

In this university's library catalogue, we have been updating headings in advance of official changes.

NEW (as tested Jan. 2022) CSH appears to have begun to use the headings such as  First Nations literature (English), Inuit literature (English) and Métis literature (English), terms that we at this University have not adopted. We instead use a partially decolonized heading of the form: Canadian literature (English)--Indigenous authors. CSH does use the types of headings that this library employs when they are further subdivided by the aspect --History and criticism.

Example of headings used in this university catalogue with new Canadian Subject Headings following in []

• Canadian drama (English)--Indigenous authors [CSH now uses First Nations drama (English); for works of criticism, CSH does use Canadian drama (English)--Indigenous authors--History and criticism]
• Canadian drama (English)--Native authors
• Canadian fiction (English)--Indigenous authors [CSH now uses First Nations fiction (English)
• Canadian fiction (English)--Native authors
• Canadian literature--Native authors
• Canadian literature--Native authors--History and criticism
• Canadian literature (English)--Native authors
• Canadian literature (English)--Indigenous authors [CSH now uses First Nations literature (English)]
• Canadian literature (English)--Inuit authors [CSH now uses Inuit literature (English)]
• Canadian literature (French)--Indigenous authors 
• Canadian poetry (English)--Indigenous authors [CSH now uses First Nations poetry (English)]

Items may be catalogued with combination of CSH and LCSH headings so it is wise to try more than one option. Sometimes cataloguers may have assigned headings incorrectly. For example, many works solely about English language Canadian works may be assigned a more general heading such as Canadian literature, when the more specific heading Canadian literature (English). Items catalogued using LCSH however do not use Canadian literature (English), preferring instead to simply use Canadian literature.

For CSH headings about Native peoples in Canada, use headings that begin with Native peoples--Canada only if the work deals with the three groups of peoples of native ancestry collectively: First nations, Métis, and, Inuit. Otherwise use specific headings of the form: Indigenous peoples--Canada, Métis, and, Inuit--Canada.

Example Canadian Subject Headings for literary works:

• Native peoples--Canada--Drama
• Native peoples--Canada--Fiction
• Native peoples--Québec (Province)--Fiction
• Indigenous peoples--Canada--Poetry [some libraries still use the colonial heading Indians of North America--Canada--Poetry]
• Inuit--Canada--Fiction
• Métis--Drama
• Métis--Fiction
• Métis--Poetry

Additional critical works can be found using LCSH and CSH headings of the type:

• Indigenous peoples in literature [some libraries still use the colonial heading Indians in literature]
• Métis in literature
• Native peoples in literature

CSH does not use the terms such as French-Canadian literature. The preference is for terms that use the qualifier (French) as in the examples

• Canadian drama (French)
• Canadian poetry (French)

Identifying Literary Authors of Indigenous Ancestry

Some reference resources may help you identify some core writers. You can find dynamic lists through Wikipedia and searches on the internet. See for example:

• List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
• Category: Native American poets
• Indigenous literature (University of Calgary, Dept. of English)
• Books by Canadian First Nations and Inuit Women (49th shelf.com)
• Aboriginal authors: fiction (University of Saskatchewan) page includes links for authors on non-fiction and of children's literature
• Storytellers Native American Authors Online

Use to find brief background information.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries remain valuable sources of bio-bibliographical information and concise critical commentary on authors and types of literature. Consider keyword searches such as:

• american literature dictionaries
• canadian literature dictionaries
• indigenous peoples north america biography dictionaries

Bibliographies can provide useful citations to articles, books and other resources on a topic. Older resources cited in printed bibliographies may not be indexed in more modern electronic resources.

See for example these subject headings:

• American fiction--Indigenous authors--Bibliography
• Indigenous literature--North America--Bibliography
• Inuit literature--Canada--Bibliography

A bibliography focusing upon Australian Aboriginal, Canadian First Nations, and US-American Native Indian cultures and literatures was prepared by Angeline O'Neill (The University of Notre Dame, Australia) and Albert Braz (University of Alberta, Canada) and published in 2011:

O'Neill, Angeline; and Braz, Albert. "Bibliography of Scholarship on Indigenous Literatures and Cultures." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.2 (2011): <http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1749>

Companions and handbooks to a literature may contain one or more essays or chapters dealing with indigenous topics. Some may include individual entries for specific persons. See for example:

Increasingly, the university library is acquiring books in electronic only formats.  These can be found in the main library catalogue and when using the Search Everything box.  Many of the e-books have virtual call numbers so you can link on the call number field and see both print and electronic books.  This will give you a more accurate understanding of our collection than just browsing the printed books in the library stacks.

Many of the e-books that we have access to can also be found in Scholars Portal Books, along with large numbers of books published prior to 1922 that are presumed to be out of copyright, and other works created using a Creative Commons License that allows free access.

The Internet Archive has many more freely accessible books, videos and sound recordings. It is especially good valuable for works printed in English prior to 1927.  The Hathi Trust Digital Library is another large digitization initiative with a lot of books and magazines that are no longer protected by copyright.

The Toronto Public Library has an excellent collection that supports the study of English literature. Many scholarly works are only available at the Toronto Reference Library located on Yonge Street one block north of Bloor Street. These items generally must be used in the library. Some material is part of the vast circulating collection. Online databases and books are becoming more common.

Literature Criticism Online covers contemporary and classical literature, drama and poetry as well as children's literature.

Literature Resource Center is a database that is also available through TMU.
A TPL account is required for log-in.  All members of the TMU Community are eligible for TPL borrowing privileges.