In the second annual lecture of the UvA's Research Priority Area (RPA) Decolonial Futures, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson will be speaking on "A Short History of the Blockade". The talk will draw from her book of the same name, where Simpson uses Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg stories, storytelling aesthetics, and practices to explore the generative nature of Indigenous blockades through the future of the beaver- or in Nishnaabemowin, Amik. Moving through genres, shifting through time, amikwag stories become a lens for the life-giving possibilities of dams and the world-building possibilities of blockades, deepening understandings of Indigenous resistance as both a negation and an affirmation.

Dr. Simpson will also be in conversation with Mikki Stelder (Assistant Professor of Global Arts & Politics, Department of Arts and Culture, UvA), in a session moderated by Sanjukta Sunderason (Associate Professor, History of Art, Department of Arts and Culture, UvA).  

Date & Time: 3 December, 15:30-17:30 (talk followed by a reception)
Location: @droog | Staalstraat 7B, 1011 JJ, Amsterdam

Please RSVP using the link below or send an email to: decolonialfutures@uva.nl 

Please note that this talk will be recorded and shared online on the RPA website.  If you have any privacy concerns or prefer not to appear in the recording, please let us know well in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.

About the Speaker: 

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg  musician, writer and academic, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the boundaries between story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.

Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe and has over twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and is a member of Alderville First Nation.

Leanne is the author of eight books, including A Short History of the Blockade and the novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies which was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Dublin Literary Prize. Her collaboration with Robyn Maynard, Rehearsals for Living is a National Best Seller and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Leanne is also a musician. Her latest release Theory of Ice was named to the Polaris Prize short list, and she is the 2021 winner of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn Award. Leanne’s new work, Theory of Water was short-listed for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for non-fiction.