Skip to main content

Book Review: The Sky Watched


 

Professor emerita Linda LeGarde Grover

Professor emerita Linda LeGarde Grover shares a collection of poems through The Sky Watched, reflecting the Ojibwe community worldview, history, and path forward. Ancient stories of creation and reinvention converge with the long-forgotten suffering of children and grandmothers amid the Indian boarding school era. The poems in Ojibwe and English are structured in four parts, aligning with the sacredness of the number four in the Ojibwe belief system. They tell of wondrous realizations and harsh truths garnered through small moments of kindness and comfort in the most unexpected ways.

The first set of poems in The Sky Watched focuses on Indigenous legends and myths of old, drawing ancestral wisdom. Poems depicting separation, isolation, sorrow, and loss in Indian boarding schools are the hardest to read. Children were demanded to “forget the language of their grandparents,” and they often considered “so many ways to die.” Escape was futile, even with the certainty of death. Hope and resistance grace the rest of the poems, assuring readers that the voices and spirit of the Ojibwe have endured.

Survival and resistance assured the continuation of the everlasting Ojibwe story. //The Sky Watched// is truly a gift of collective memory through generations broken by genocide and colonization. Poetry is the medium most suitable for speaking truth and bearing witness to suffering, naming the unspeakable psychological, emotional, and physical abuse experienced by Indigenous children. Family is central to Grover’s extraordinary flair for expressing the unimaginable prospect of reclaiming joy and hope to overcome intergenerational trauma. 



Buy from University of Minnesota Press

Popular posts from this blog

Lucky Tomorrow: Stories

Deborah Jiang-Stein's debut collection of short stories explores the lives of people who are often overlooked. From flower street vendors to families torn apart by ambition, to a woman on death row awaiting redemption amidst a tumult of memories, Jiang-Stein vividly depicts their struggles. Each story is set in various cities where she has lived: Seattle, Minneapolis, and Tokyo. While these settings differ, they share a common indifference toward human suffering. In "Lucky Tomorrow, " each vignette offers a glimpse into harsh realities that are often difficult to confront, yet are grounded in the lived experiences of those frequently unseen and cast aside. The stories convey powerful themes of longing and fleeting hopes for fresh starts that may never arrive. Although the themes are specific to the characters, they resonate with the universal human experience. As an activist and advocate, Jiang-Stein has made a significant impact through her extensive work with women...

Memento - Embracing the Darkness

Dennis "Dizzy" Doan Stories about overcoming and persevering through family dysfunction, poverty, and mental health challenges offer hope and the promise of better days. Dennis “Dizzy” Doan’s memoir Memento: Embracing the Darkness is one such story, with the added complexity of being raised in an immigrant Vietnamese family. Doan’s parents dealt with the mental and emotional aftermath of war, which forcibly uprooted them from their homeland. In the United States, they struggled to create a safe and stable life for their two sons. Doan shares his journey of finding himself, his craft, and eventually a successful tattoo business in Southern California despite personal strife and run-ins with the law. Doan is best known for developing the aesthetic language to combat anti-Asian hate that erupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. His art series titled “Model Minority” went viral, sparking conversation about Asian American identities and harmful stereotypes. In Memento, Doan showcase...

Medicine Wheel for the Planet

Jennifer Grenz, PhD       Working toward ecological healing requires awareness of how Indigenous ancestral knowledge and living ways can complement Western scientific approaches to environmental restoration and protection practices. Dr. Jennifer Grenz (Nlaxa’pamux mixed ancestry) worked for more than two decades as a field researcher and practitioner for environmental nonprofit organizations, where she worked with different levels of government, including First Nations in Canada. "Medicine Wheel for the Planet" compiles Grenz’s most potent realizations about the lack of forward movement in addressing an impending ecological catastrophe.  A warming climate impacts not only human lives but also the natural balance that relies on reciprocal relationships rooted in deep connections to the land. She uses the metaphor of the four directions of the Indigenous “medicine wheel” to invite openness to Indigenous teachings, letting go of colonial narratives, merging lessons f...