Aambe Maajaadaa! Community organizing in Indigenous Communities and Leanne Simpson's Dancing on our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence

Abstract

When I was asked to develop a community organizing course for the Aboriginal Emphasis Initiative in the social service worker program at Fleming College, I began running through the list of great books, articles, and other resources I’ve used or seen in the last few years on this topic. Although I do have a background in social work, I have also had the opportunity to study and work in the fields of law and Indigenous governance; and so, I look to all of these areas when considering the most current and relevant information on any topic. In the process, I quickly realized the kinds of divisions that still happen between disciplines that tend to limit the dialogue in any field before the conversation has even started. In response, I’d like to open the horizon a little and offer a book review of a new work that would normally be classified as “Native Studies” but which I have found to be an incredible contribution to the field of community development and organizing in its focus on Indigenous ways of thinking, knowing and how that relates to organizing and mobilizing in Indigenous communities.