Kahnawà:ke Mohawk writer, researcher, and activist Taiaiake Alfred has been at the forefront of the Indigenous sovereignty movement in Canada for the past three decades. During his academic career, he founded Concordia’s Centre for Native Education and the University of Victoria’s Indigenous Governance Program. Since 2019, he has worked directly with Indigenous communities around the world on pressing issues such as nationhood, cultural revitalization, and environmental restoration. Alfred’s latest book, It’s All About the Land, published in September by Aevo, an imprint of the University of Toronto Press, is a collection of his key talks and interviews about Indigenous resurgence.
Who is the intended audience for It’s All About the Land?
Anyone who is concerned with Indigenous issues and who wants to understand the history and contemporary impact of the injustices that have been perpetrated against our nations and our lands in the interests of colonialism and capitalism will be interested in this book. This is not a book riddled with academic jargon or lost in the haze of theory. It speaks to anyone who wants to understand government and corporate agendas, and why governmental solutions to the problems besetting Indigenous communities are designed to fail. This book reframes the “Indian Problem,” rooting itself in an Indigenous perspective, and lays out pathways toward justice and empowerment for Indigenous peoples that will actually work.
Your book is a call for more Indigenous activism. What was the appeal of publishing with an academic press like UTP?
We did speak with a radical press in the U.K. about doing the book, but they concluded that it was too Canadian in content. And my previous experiences with commercial houses in Canada were negative—I was once told straight-up by a major Canadian publisher that they put out books for white women aged 35–55, and if that demographic couldn’t connect with what I was saying they couldn’t publish my book! My last book, Wasáse, was published by Broadview Press, which was subsequently bought by UTP. This time around, from when I first contacted our editor, Daniel Quinlan, everyone at UTP has been very supportive and great to work with. For me, ultimately, it was about being part of a team.
Most of your launches and readings are happening on Indigenous reserves. What’s behind this decision to veer away from bookstores and libraries?
It is walking the talk and proving who really matters to me. This book first and foremost speaks to First Nations people. It is from us and about us, and it is based on public talks and conversations. Face-to-face sharing of ideas and knowledge is at the heart of the book, and I couldn’t see any other way to do it justice than to use the tour as an opportunity to continue that engagement with First Nations people on their own intellectual and physical turf.
You are primarily relying on non-traditional channels to sell books. Has this been challenging to organize?
Organizing the logistics of a book tour involves a lot of legwork. I’m fortunate because I can build on experience and connections from my community work. For me, one of the biggest challenges is estimating and having enough stock to meet the demand, which is pretty high at these events, and arranging to get copies and selling them myself. Advice: make connections at the community level and download the Square app! The joy is real and comes from the engagement with people who truly care about my ideas, and the chance I get to continue to learn from them.
What does it mean to you that the main general store in Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, the Iron Horse, will carry It’s All About the Land?
I’m happy and proud that the owner chose to stock and sell the book, as it means that she supports me and the message I am trying to get out into the world. In First Nations communities there isn’t always a dedicated bookstore, so you often see craft stores selling books. But these stores tend to stock coffee table art books, “Indian lore,” or new age mystical books that play into the “noble savage” image of our people that tourists are looking for when they come to our communities—not philosophy and critical thinking on colonialism! So I guess that this is breaking new ground.
How do you feel about the prospect of white tourists picking up the book as a cultural artifact or souvenir?
Well, the cover photo is badass, so I suppose there may be some people who buy it just for the “authentic” look and never open it up and actually read it. Eventually, though, somebody sometime will take it off the shelf and end up engaging with what I have to say. It’s so tough to get white people to care about First Nations issues or to want to engage in a serious discussion about the impacts of colonialism on our people. I think that as an Onkwehonwe philosopher my job is to provoke engagement and advance the resurgence of Indigenous nationhood, by any means necessary, as they say, even using the lure of a pretty cover.
