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33 DANCING BACK STRONG OUR NATIONS possible: “We will remember everything / knowing who we are / We will touch our children / and they will dance and sing.” And it is through dance that our relationships with the more-than-human world and our ancestors is affirmed and our futures made possible: “As eagle turns, sun rises, winds blow, / ancestors be our guides / Into new bloodless tomorrows.” Kenny does not locate “tradition” within a mythic past, but conceives it as a present practice and imagined future, one in which new songs emerge out of the old. RAGE IS NOT SUFFICIENT Like most Indians in academia, my investment in scholarship comes from its possibilities to aid in larger struggles for social justice. During some of the more bizarre, arcane, or disheartening moments within the Ivory Tower, I carry Indiana Miami / Eastern Shawnee scholar-activist Malea Powell’s challenge and reminder with me: “That is, after all, why we do this scholarly thing we do—isn’t it? To change the world? To learn how to solve contemporary problems in productive and generous ways?”31 And, perhaps also like many Indians in academia, I believe that scholarship should not be separated from movements and communities outside of the academy, and that there needs to be continued activism inside and outside of academic circles to ensure that our work is useful to movements for decolonization. Maurice Kenny’s work is vital for its implications for artists, activists, and scholars in practice. As Native artists, we have a specific obligation to aid in the struggles of our communities through our art. At the forefront of our struggles are finding ways to engage responsibly with decolonization, sovereignty, healing , and continuance. Kenny’s work, both examined in this essay and more broadly, offers us a model from which to create art that aids in continuance. Although Kenny uses numerous poetic structures and forms in his work from countless poetic traditions and influences, his use of dance rhythms as the meter of some of the poems opens up interesting poetic possibilities for Native writers. Much has been said about Native poetry being rooted in ceremonial chanting, traditional song, and other oral traditions. As a poet, I get excited about the possibilities of also examining and creating poetry that uses traditional dance and rhythms as metric and tonal structures. Kenny’s poems in Dance Back Strong the Nation engage these traditional strategies, and this practice offers another source to create, and continue Native formal poetry. Kenny’s poetry allows me to imagine poetry that, for instance, follows the rhythmic structures and tonalities of shell shaking and Cherokee stomp dance songs. Native poetry is activism. Native poets are very aware of this, and it is my hope that other Native activists continue to engage with poetry and other arts as powerful tools for social justice. Native poetry also provides 34 QWO-LI DRISKILL critiques and theories for Native activist movements. Part of what we have to learn as activists in Native communities is the centrality of our traditions to activist struggles. Kenny’s poetry reminds Native activists that part of the core work that must be done is active and intentional engagement with our lifeways. Our languages, our songs, our dances, and our arts are central to our resistance. They require active engagement in order to continue. As important as organizations such as the American Indian Movement (AIM) have been to Native struggles, like many nationalist struggles they have tended to disregard feminist and Queer / Two-Spirit concerns, among others, often furthering colonial mindsets in the process. “The Hands of Annie-Mae” is rife with implications for activists. Although this poem was published before trials that revealed AIM’s responsibility for Pictou-Aquash’s murder, it contains a particularly poignant and haunting warning to Native activists. Echoing earlier arguments, the closing phrase of the poem, “rage is not enough / nor revenge satisfactory” opens layered meanings when interpreted with an understanding of AIM’s involvement with the murder. Rage and revenge are insufficient to respond; moreover, they are insufficient tools for activism that, left unchecked or engaged with uncritically, can lead to brutality. Because Pictou-Aquash’s murder took place within a context of patriarchal organizing, and her story has become a symbol for both the resistance of and violence against Native women, Kenny’s closing phrase here becomes a specific warning to male-dominated nationalist movements. There are numerous implications for academics in engaging with Kenny’s work, not the least...

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