Review: Nitisanak by Lindsay Nixon

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Nitisanak Review:

By: Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith

Nitisanak is a ground breaking memoir that explores love in its many intricate and difficult ways. It explores queer love, prairie punk scenes, toxic masculinities, the feminine divine and so much more.

Author, Lindsay Nixon asks “Is there really such thing as NDN love, as trauma bb love, as love for the unloved? Nixon brings awareness to the issues that have tainted NDN love, not only for those from the prairies but NDNs everywhere- colonialism and genocide that ripped children from their homes in the middle of the night and made them prisoners to a world they didn’t know.  She states that many NDN’s were alone, frightened, hungry and cold. That there were those who died trying to come home, and those who no longer knew tenderness recoiled at its touch.

She brings up that love is hard because of what we have all lost through intergenerational trauma, the loss to connection to land, colonialist capitalism, and how cynicism has set in. These aspects of ourselves have made us question not only ourselves but those around us. Nixon also weaves grief and loss into her stories and how that has impacted her, but makes her audience question themselves through her stories- is love attainable and if it is- what intricacies are involved in obtaining the love that we so often search for in our lives.