Indigenous Erotica from Manitoba - New Book

June 29, 2011

From Katherena Vermette, 27 June 2011:

http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/scene/books/2011/06/27/manitoba-writers-explore-topic-of-indigenous-erotica-in-self-published-book/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=221264937894434

"xxx ndn: love and lust in ndn country" launches Wednesday, June 29th at the Windsor Hotel [Winnipeg], 8 p.m.

"Come by Wednesday night and see what a bunch of ndns can do with a clever turn of phrase or two and a suggestively positioned microphone!" - Katherena Vermette

xxx ndn: love and lust in ndn country is the latest and greatest from the Aboriginal Writers' Collective of Manitoba. Three years in the making (don't get me started on that story), xxx ndn includes new work from not only our membership, but also friends from across the country including, Lee Maracle, Garry Gottfriedson and Joanne Arnott.

And, if you can't tell by the title, it's erotica, shhhhhh!

I know, you're feeling shy. That's ok, you'll get over it. Let me tell you, I wasn't so sure at first either. When this idea came up, I was skeptical. Well, honestly, I was sheepish. Sex? I thought. That's not very literary.

That, and I'm pruidish by nature, Mennonite on my mom's side, Catholic on my dad's, I had to literally overcome centuries of sexual repression before I could even think of getting my freak on paper. But, that's why it's important. It's a reclamation, like land, like our bodies in general, it's taking back something that we were never supposed to be ashamed of.

The inspiration behind xxx ndn comes from a recent but powerful tradition in contemporary Canadian Indigenous Literature where authors have taken sexuality to task and reclaimed their sovereign right to get their freak on.

Traditionally we are a bawdy people, our oral stories are full of the expressions of lovemaking, and all that is funny and beautiful about it. These ideas, like much of our culture, are now being emancipated.

And political action has never be so much fun!