First Nations Children's Literature

A Call for Paper Proposals for ACCUTE 2016

Roxanne Harde, University of Alberta
rharde@ualberta.ca

Books for children shape their understanding and expose them to particular explanations about the world. The power and promise of literature for young people lies in its ability to both instruct and delight its audience by teaching them histories (and her-stories), enabling them to hear voices that are too often silenced, entertaining them, and allowing them to find their way to understanding even the most complex situations. In the Native North American context, those situations are often rooted in the long-term effects of colonialism. What happens, then, when we put stories for children and young adults by First Nations people about Native experience, history, and tradition at the center, rather than at the periphery? How can these stories offer children both truth and reconciliation? Do they suggest strategies of decolonization and cultural survivance?

This panel invites proposals for papers that analyze literature for children and young adults written by Indigenous/Native/Aboriginal/First Nations authors. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
• decolonization and survivance
• orality and storytelling
• history and context
• formation of identity
• borders and journeys
• place and the natural world
• spirituality and sacred folkways
• origin stories and the trickster figure
• tribal politics and sovereignty
• community and culture

Please send the following: a 300- to 500-word paper proposal (without personal identifying marks), a 100-word abstract, and a 50-word biographical statement by 15 November 2015.