叠测听Jenny L. Davis听(MLing'07, PhD'13)
(鈥嶶niversity of Arizona Press, 80 pages; 2022)
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Trickster Academy听is a collection of poems that explore being Native in Academia鈥攆rom land acknowledgement statements, to mascots, to the histories of using Native American remains in anthropology. Jenny L. Davis鈥� collection brings humor and uncomfortable realities together in order to challenge the academy and discuss the experience of being Indigenous in university classrooms and campuses. Organized around the premise of the Trickster Academy鈥� a university space run by, and meant for training, Tricksters鈥� this collection moves between the personal dynamics of a Two-Spirit/queer Indigenous woman in spaces where there are few, if any, others and a Trickster鈥檚 critique of those same spaces.
Trickster Academy听is playful at times, yet more complicated and salient issues are at the heart of these poems. Davis鈥櫶�Trickster Academy听deeply challenges the institutions that still hold Indigenous remains in their archives and storage rooms, and the insincerities of the academy when it comes to acknowledging Indigenous peoples. The realities that the poems in听Trickster Academy听address are not only relevant to people in academic positions. From leaving home, to being the only Indian in the room, to having to deal with the constant pressures to being a 鈥榬eal Indian鈥�, these poems illuminate the shared experiences of Indians across many regions, and all of us who live amongst Tricksters.