This session offers scholars of Indigenous literatures from the US and Canada a forum to consider recent theoretical, methodological, and community-engaged practices and frameworks in the study of Indigenous literatures. It frames the session as a call to action--"Indigenous Literatures Now!"--an urgent call to reassess the state of the field on Indigenous literatures, as well as the field's larger contributions to the MLA. To this end, it builds on recent work by scholars such as Daniel Heath Justice, Cherokee ("Why Indigenous Literature Matters"), Mishuana Goeman, Seneca ("Settler Esthetics"), Mark Rifkin ("The Politics of Kinship"), and others to center Indigenous epistemologies and examine recent interventions in the field. How do Indigenous writers and artists create not only a sense of belonging but also a sense of reciprocity and responsibility? How do Indigenous communities envision liberatory futures and alliances? How does multi-lingual representation intervene in expanding the Indigenous literary canon?

This panel proposes several interconnected frameworks for interpreting both contemporary and historical Indigenous literatures in North America. "Collective Pasts and Presents" is the sub-theme bringing these 4 papers together, signaling enduring connections to land, community, and decolonial practices across times and space Gerónimo Sarmiento Cruz proposes “wayreading” as a decolonial practice against US imperialism rooted in Pacific Islander experience, zooming in on the work on Chamorro poet and scholar Craig Santos Perez. Similarly, Morgan Ridgway examines the violence of the settler colonial state in the work of two-spirit African-American and Haudenosaunee (Mohawk/Tuscarora) artist M. Carmen Lane’s debut collection of poetry, Calling Out After Slaughter, showing how Black-Native and queer Native people mark liberatory futures through their desires in the aftermath of terror. Arguing for a liberatory reading practice in his examination of ancestors as knowledge keepers, Abhijit Sarmah attends to representations of ancestors in two contemporary novels, LeAnne Howe’s Miko Kings (2007) and Andrea L. Rogers’ Man Made Monsters (2022), revealing under-examined connections between ancestors and descendants, collective pasts and presents. Looking ahead, Sarah Henzi offers both methodological and practical considerations for ethical translation and reading practices in Canadian Indigenous literatures, arguing that Indigenous literatures have been for too long siloed into the colonial linguistic niches of production. Drawing on her experience of translating Antane Kapesh’s Je suis une maudite sauvagesse and Emanuelle Dufour’s C’est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays!, Henzi offers both methodological and practical considerations for ethical translation and reading practices in Native American and Indigenous literatures. Together, these four papers engage recent theoretical, methodological, and archival practices in the study of Indigenous literatures in the US and Canada.

The session will include brief panelist introductions by the presider, 13-14 -minute presentations by each presenter, which should allow for ample time for discussion of at least 15 minutes.