Indigenous Literatures and Authors

Welcome to this research guide for Indigenous Literature resources and resources relating to Indigenous Authors at TMU Libraries. Explore this site for contextual readings, resources, and tips for getting the most our of your research process. Try to make this guide part of all of your research processes this semester. Please do not hesitate to reach out for assistance on your research projects, after you have attempted your searches on our catalogue and in our databases. Course-specific items may be available in the menu.

E. Pauline Johnson photograph circa 1895 by Cochran from Library and Archives Canada, Online MIKAN no. 3194762. 

If we begin with a definition of indigenous peoples as the original or natural inhabitants of a country or region, one may describe indigenous literature as literature produced by original or native peoples and their descendants. Literature can take many forms: poetry, drama, fiction and creative nonfiction. Memoirs and autobiographical writings are of particular importance as a form of nonfiction that can provide cultural context for the interpretation and understanding of indigenous literature.

This research guide is non-exhaustive, but attempts to incorporate examples of Indigenous literature and the works of Indigenous Authors from nations located in what settlers have named Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. TMU is located in the in the 'Dish With One Spoon Territory’. The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect. This guide is built with this respect in mind.

Terminology

Language evolves. The tools that libraries use to describe, classify and index material also evolve but rarely manage to reflect the most current terms or ways of thinking about a subject. Terms acceptable to one person or group may be offensive to another. Terms may be assigned specific parameters by legal definition or in thesauri that guide usage in a particular tool such as prescribed list of subject headings for cataloguing purposes, notably Canadian Subject Headings (CSH) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). All attempts to classify knowledge and assign descriptors are subject to world views of their creators, and in the case of subject headings, often reflected what today is recognized as colonial views. Library and Archives Canada proposed changing some subject headings for Aboriginal peoples in Canada in 2007 and was unable to find a consensus. This was explained in a brief posting, now inaccessible, called "Update on subject headings for Aboriginal peoples in Canada." By 2019, following more widespread consultations, Library and Archives Canada announced in the briefing Canadian Subject Headings for Indigenous Peoples that they would stop using the LCSH headings "Indians of North America." 

For a brief overview on the evolving nature of terminology, consult the Terminology page from the University of British Columbia's Indigenous Foundations website.

In this guide, I will suggest ways to find information using terminology employed in the tools currently in use in Canadian academic libraries. I will endeavour to employ terms now in use by this university library, while also noting variant decisions and archaic terms that may still be in use by other library systems. Researchers should be aware that despite library efforts to adhere to standard terms, sometimes it is necessary to embrace better language that respects indigenous peoples instead of relying on colonialist language. When searching other libraries, archives, museums, historical databases and full text resources written in earlier years, the language used still reflect the norms of the day. Keep this in mind when searching across multiple finding tools.

As of 2016, the Ontario Human Rights Commission prefers to use indigenous peoples to describe peoples in Ontario, including status, non-status, First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. The Faculty Association at this university is considering the term indigenous as its preferred choice but discussion is ongoing. The Government of Canada in 2022 has two departments: Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) that replaced the Ministry of Indigenous and Northern Affairs; these bodies use the terms First Nations, Inuit and Métis to describe three categories of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The federal government has statutes that apply many different terms as illustrated by the following examples: Indian Act, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Act, and, First Nations Land Management Act. Additionally, the federal government distinguishes between "Status Indians" and "Non-status Indians." 

TMU's Role

Given the failure of the cataloguing agencies including Library and Archives Canada, and Library of Congress, to address the need to bring subject terminology into modern usage that respects Indigenous Peoples including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, many libraries, archives and museums are exploring and implementing new headings. This University Library has undertaken a wide-ranging effort, working with other cultural institutions, to replace all headings of the sort "Indians of North America". This is part of our response to the calls for action from the Truth and Reconciliations Commission of Canada (2015). This is one small part of the efforts to decolonize institutions.