Kiskisitotaso, Don’t Forget Yourself: Indigenous Resurgence in David A. Robertson’s Barren Grounds
Abstract David A. Robertson’s (Norway House Cree) children’s novel The Barren Grounds (2020) intervenes in Canada’s historical and ongoing child welfare systems’ impacts on Indigenous children and youth. This article argues that Indigenous children’s literature could significantly contribute to the ongoing efforts towards reconciliation in Canada. Robertson, as a specific example of this, presents a decolonized version of foster care that is rooted in Indigenous resurgence and grounded normativity. This representation encourages young readers to reconsider entrenched settler-colonial structures that, potentially, advance the projects of reconciliation and decolonization in Canada. Barren Grounds considers alternatives to current foster care structures that are predicated on Indigenous foster children and youth being directly reconnected with Indigenous peoples, lands, and knowledge systems. This reconnection transmits grounded normative ethics and builds Indigenous resurgence—both of which Robertson demonstrates are key in combating settler-induced disconnection and dispossession.
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Wolf, Doris, and Paul DePasquale. “Home and Native Land: A Study of Canadian Aboriginal Picture Books by Aboriginal Authors.” Home Words: Discourses of Children’s Literature in Canada, edited by Mavis Reimer, Wilfred Laurier UP, 2008, pp. 87–106.
Alfred, Taiaiake. It’s All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence. Aevo UTP, 2023.
Atwood, Margaret. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Nan A. Talese, 2011.
Bradford, Clare, et al. New World Orders in Contemporary Children’s Literature: Utopian Transformations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Cammarota, Julio. “Blindsided by the Avatar: White Saviors and Allies Out of Hollywood and in Education.” Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, vol. 33, no. 3, 2011, pp. 242–59. Taylor & Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2011.585287.
Coulthard, Glen Sean. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. U of Minnesota P, 2014.
Coulthard, Glen Sean, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. “Grounded Normativity / Place-Based Solidarity.” American Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 2, June 2016, pp. 249–55. Project Muse, https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2016.0038.
Deszcz-Tryhubczak, Justyna. “Reading About Solidarity and Collective Action: Social Minds in Radical Fantasy Fiction.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 51, 2020, pp. 144–59. Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-018-9379-1.
Fachinger, Petra. “Healing Intergenerational Trauma through Cultural Reclamation in David Alexander Robertson’s Cree-Centric Retelling of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, vol. 14, no. 1, 2022, pp. 49–64. Project Muse, muse.jhu.edu/article/858875.
Hahmann, Tara, et al. “Indigenous Foster Children Living in Private Households: Rates and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Foster Children and their Households.” Statistics Canada, Government of Canada, 18 Apr. 2024, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/41-20-0002/412000022024001-eng.htm. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
Harrison, Peter. “Dispelling Ignorance of Residential Schools.” Response, Responsibility, and Renewal: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Journey, edited by Gregory Youngling, Jonathan Dewer, and Mike De Gagné, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2009, pp .149–62, https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/trc2.pdf.
Jakober, Marie. “The Continuum of Meaning: A Reflection of Speculative Fiction and Society.” The Influence of Imagination: Essays of Science Fiction and Fantasy as Agents of Social Change, edited by Lee Easton and Randy Schroeder, McFarland, 2008, pp. 27–31.
Johnson, Genevieve Fuji. “Grounded Normative Theory.” Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy, edited by Selen A. Ercan et al., Oxford UP, 2022, pp. 52–65.
Jordan-Fenton, Christy, and Margaret-Olemuan Pokiak-Fenton. When I Was Eight. Annick Press, 2013.
Justice, Daniel Heath. Why Indigenous Literatures Matter. Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2018.
Kennedy, Graeme. Finding Home: Ecocritical Approaches to Memory, Story, and Place in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The Night Gardener, and The Barren Grounds. 2023. University of British Columbia, Master’s Thesis. Open Collections, http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86959
Levy, Michael, and Farah Mendlesohn. Children’s Fantasy Literature. Cambridge UP, 2016.
Lewis, C. S. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. William Collins Sons & Co, 1984.
Regan, Paulette. Unsettling the Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada. UBC P, 2010.
Reynolds, Kimberley. Radical Children’s Literature: Future Visions and Aesthetic Transformations in Juvenile Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Robertson, David A. The Barren Grounds. Puffin, 2020.
—. Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory. HarperCollins, 2020.
—. “Wordfest Presents David A. Robertson.” Wordfest, 1 Oct. 2020, https://wordfest.com/2020/event/wordfest-presents-david-a-robertson/. Accessed 1 Aug. 2024.
—. The Stone Child. Puffin, 2022.
Robertson, David A., and Julie Flett. When We Were Alone. HighWater Press, 2016.
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance. U of Minnesota P, 2017.
—. Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence. ARP Books, 2011.
Suhr-Sytsma, Mandy. Self-Determined Stories: The Indigenous Reinvention of Young Adult Literature. Michigan State UP, 2019.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, 2015, https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
—. Canada’s Residential Schools: The Legacy. Vol. 5, National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, 2015, https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/Volume_5_Legacy_English_Web.pdf. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
“Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.” Government of Canada, 28 May 2024, https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525#chp1. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
Ventura, Abbie. “Predicting a Better Situation? Three Young Adult Speculative Fiction Texts and the Possibilities for Social Change.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2011, pp. 89–103. Project Muse, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chq.2011.0006.
Vermette, Katherena, and Irene Kuziw. Amik Loves School: A Story of Wisdom. HighWater Press, 2015.
Wiltse, Lynne. “After They Gave the Order: Students Respond to Canadian Indian Residential Schools Literature for Social Justice.” Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, vol. 59, no. 3, 2021, pp. 15-26. Project Muse, https://doi.org/10.1353/bkb.2021.0041.
Wolf, Doris, and Paul DePasquale. “Home and Native Land: A Study of Canadian Aboriginal Picture Books by Aboriginal Authors.” Home Words: Discourses of Children’s Literature in Canada, edited by Mavis Reimer, Wilfred Laurier UP, 2008, pp. 87–106.
Samuelson, A.-J. (2025). Kiskisitotaso, Don’t Forget Yourself: Indigenous Resurgence in David A. Robertson’s Barren Grounds. Canada and Beyond: A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies, 14, 7–25. https://doi.org/10.14201/candb.v14i7-25
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