Login
Create Account
Canadian Store (CAD)
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars.
 |
Unsettling SpiritA Journey into Decolonization |
eBook Available
An unflinching examination of settler identity and its relationship to Christianity based on encounters with Indigenous traditions.
What does it mean to be a white settler on land taken from peoples who have lived there since time immemorial? In the context of reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence, Unsettling Spirit provides a personal perspective on decolonization, informed by Indigenous traditions and lifeways, and the need to examine one's complicity with colonial structures.
Applying autoethnography grounded in Indigenous and feminist methodologies, Denise Nadeau weaves together stories and reflections on how to live with integrity on stolen and occupied land. The author chronicles her early and brief experience of "Native mission" in the late 1980s and early 1990s in northern Canada and Chiapas, Mexico, and the gradual recognition that she had internalized colonialist concepts of the "good Christian" and the Great White Helper. Drawing on somatic psychotherapy, Nadeau addresses contemporary manifestations of helping and the politics of trauma. She uncovers her ancestors' settler background and the responsibilities that come with facing this history. Caught between two traditions - born and raised Catholic but challenged by Indigenous ways of life - the author traces her engagement with Indigenous values and how relationships inform her ongoing journey. A foreword by Cree-Métis author Deanna Reder places the work in a broader context of Indigenous scholarship.
Incorporating insights from Indigenous ethical and legal frameworks, Unsettling Spirit offers an accessible reflection on possibilities for settler decolonization as well as for decolonizing Christian and interfaith practice.
Applying autoethnography grounded in Indigenous and feminist methodologies, Denise Nadeau weaves together stories and reflections on how to live with integrity on stolen and occupied land. The author chronicles her early and brief experience of "Native mission" in the late 1980s and early 1990s in northern Canada and Chiapas, Mexico, and the gradual recognition that she had internalized colonialist concepts of the "good Christian" and the Great White Helper. Drawing on somatic psychotherapy, Nadeau addresses contemporary manifestations of helping and the politics of trauma. She uncovers her ancestors' settler background and the responsibilities that come with facing this history. Caught between two traditions - born and raised Catholic but challenged by Indigenous ways of life - the author traces her engagement with Indigenous values and how relationships inform her ongoing journey. A foreword by Cree-Métis author Deanna Reder places the work in a broader context of Indigenous scholarship.
Incorporating insights from Indigenous ethical and legal frameworks, Unsettling Spirit offers an accessible reflection on possibilities for settler decolonization as well as for decolonizing Christian and interfaith practice.
Details
360 Pages, 6 x 9
4 photos, 4 maps
ISBN 9780228001577
April 2020
Formats: Cloth, eBook
"Nadeau turns her spiritual quest into a public pedagogical goal, engaging her activist and embodied experience with unrelenting courage through dialogue with a solid array of interdisciplinary research." Marilyn Legge, Emmanuel College of Victoria University
"Complex, engaging, and thought-provoking, Unsettling Spirit is a sophisticated story of an unfinished journey into decolonization." Michel Andraos, Catholic Theological Union
"Through stories with embodied practice and relationships with indigenous communities, Denise Nadeau brings light to the complexity and joys involved in shifting ways of being in respectful relationships with the earth and all living beings. Unsettling Spirit is a valuable read and resource for white settlers trying to engage meaningfully with decolonization." Juli Rees, director of education and human rights, Hospital Employees' Union
"I was both thrilled and unsettled to find such an honest account of another white woman settler's efforts to excavate her own relationship to colonial history, Indigenous ways of knowing. and political struggles. Unsettling Spirit reminded me once again that decolonization is a life-time endeavour filled with difficult conversations, beautiful encounters, humble moments, and new understandings of spirit. Denise Nadeau gives us the courage to be there, in the discomfort and openness, that is an inevitable part of any reconciliation process." Deborah Barndt, professor emerita, York University
"Denise Nadeau is fierce in Unsettling Spirit. Her pilgrimage through her faith journey shows the way to decolonizing with deep honesty and truth, laying a path for anyone brave enough to do the work that needs to be done." Marjorie Beaucage, Métis artist and community educator
"Unsettling Spirit offers tremendous insights into what embodied and on-the-ground work looks like for those committed to decolonization. Building on years of feminist practice and relational learning with Indigenous women, Nadeau provides an honest reckoning of her personal and ongoing pathway. This book is just what we need as settlers increasingly look for ways to address racial injustice and reconciliation." Kim Anderson, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Relationships , University of Guelph
"Complex, engaging, and thought-provoking, Unsettling Spirit is a sophisticated story of an unfinished journey into decolonization." Michel Andraos, Catholic Theological Union
"Through stories with embodied practice and relationships with indigenous communities, Denise Nadeau brings light to the complexity and joys involved in shifting ways of being in respectful relationships with the earth and all living beings. Unsettling Spirit is a valuable read and resource for white settlers trying to engage meaningfully with decolonization." Juli Rees, director of education and human rights, Hospital Employees' Union
"I was both thrilled and unsettled to find such an honest account of another white woman settler's efforts to excavate her own relationship to colonial history, Indigenous ways of knowing. and political struggles. Unsettling Spirit reminded me once again that decolonization is a life-time endeavour filled with difficult conversations, beautiful encounters, humble moments, and new understandings of spirit. Denise Nadeau gives us the courage to be there, in the discomfort and openness, that is an inevitable part of any reconciliation process." Deborah Barndt, professor emerita, York University
"Denise Nadeau is fierce in Unsettling Spirit. Her pilgrimage through her faith journey shows the way to decolonizing with deep honesty and truth, laying a path for anyone brave enough to do the work that needs to be done." Marjorie Beaucage, Métis artist and community educator
"Unsettling Spirit offers tremendous insights into what embodied and on-the-ground work looks like for those committed to decolonization. Building on years of feminist practice and relational learning with Indigenous women, Nadeau provides an honest reckoning of her personal and ongoing pathway. This book is just what we need as settlers increasingly look for ways to address racial injustice and reconciliation." Kim Anderson, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Relationships , University of Guelph
Denise M. Nadeau is affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University.
Figures / vii
A Note on Copyright and Intellectual Property / ix
Foreword / xi
Acknowledgments / xv
Introduction / 3
PART ONE Mission Impossible
1 Missionary Musings / 17
2 The Denendeh Seminar / 29
3 Shifting Missions / 40
PART TWO The Great White Helper
4 From Taking Space to Making Space / 57
5 Healing and the Politics of Trauma / 69
6 Decolonizing the Great White Helper and Reconciliation / 86
PART THREE Going Home: Gespe’gewa’gi
7 Blood / 101
8 Unmapping / 120
9 Decolonizing Rivers / 141
PART FOUR Making Relations
10 Moccasins / 153
11 Walking with Our Sisters / 164
12 A Water Journey: Indigenous Water Laws / 173
13 Ceremony / 187
14 Reciprocity / 206
15 Living Treaty / 218
PART FIVE Unsettling Spirit
16 Lejac Residential School and Rose Prince / 231
17 Can You Hear the Drum? Indigenous Christianities / 241
18 Returning to the Heart / 251
Afterword / 263
Notes / 271
Bibliography / 295
Index / 323
A Note on Copyright and Intellectual Property / ix
Foreword / xi
Acknowledgments / xv
Introduction / 3
PART ONE Mission Impossible
1 Missionary Musings / 17
2 The Denendeh Seminar / 29
3 Shifting Missions / 40
PART TWO The Great White Helper
4 From Taking Space to Making Space / 57
5 Healing and the Politics of Trauma / 69
6 Decolonizing the Great White Helper and Reconciliation / 86
PART THREE Going Home: Gespe’gewa’gi
7 Blood / 101
8 Unmapping / 120
9 Decolonizing Rivers / 141
PART FOUR Making Relations
10 Moccasins / 153
11 Walking with Our Sisters / 164
12 A Water Journey: Indigenous Water Laws / 173
13 Ceremony / 187
14 Reciprocity / 206
15 Living Treaty / 218
PART FIVE Unsettling Spirit
16 Lejac Residential School and Rose Prince / 231
17 Can You Hear the Drum? Indigenous Christianities / 241
18 Returning to the Heart / 251
Afterword / 263
Notes / 271
Bibliography / 295
Index / 323
Winner
Book Prize
Canadian Society for the Study of Religion
2021
Book Prize
Canadian Society for the Study of Religion
2021
