#Notyourprincess: Voices of Native American Women was so much more than I expected it to be. The art, poetry, and essays were moving and emotional. As expected, a lot of what I read made me angry - that is exactly what I expect personal narratives of injustice to do. I didn't expect to be moved to tears by the strength and pride-of-self that was so eloquently expressed in the book. At just over 100 pages, this was a quick read; however, I will be going back to reexamine that art and poetry in greater depth.

Each piece in here is worth reading. Many of them got me in the gut, and made me gasp. It's amazing how much feeling is packed into each short piece, whether it's a poem, a picture, an essay, a comic strip, or a quote.

There isn't much cohesion to the anthology, but that's okay. I really liked the diversity, both in terms of the medium of the piece as well as the tribal affiliations of the creators.

Live Blogging:

This definition and commentary on "patriarchy" is smile-inducing.

“In Indigenous culture, Indigenous women and girls are sacred, known as life-givers, as independent, as autonomous, as decision-makers.” pg. 26 YAS!

Winona LaDuke’s graphic strips remind me of Thunder Boy, Jr. by Sherman Alexie.

Are there supposed to be this many blank/white pages? Maybe it’s just typical advanced reader’s copy formatting…

There’s art, graphic novel/short story/autobiographical comic strips, poems, quotes/mantras, interview, and personal –nonfiction– essays. The art is gorgeous!

This art is arrestingly beautiful. I love it.

For once, the art speaks to me more than the poetry.

“Why not Indians? ‘You see doctors, lawyers, fireman, everyday people played by people of all different ethnic / groups these days, why not Indians, I mean we don’t talk about “Indian things” all the time, / I mean, so much of our lives are lived like everyday people, why can’t Hollywood reflect that?’“ - Actress DeLanna Studi (Cherokee) >> I think this quote just convinced me to do a purchase request to our nonfiction selector. We don’t seem to have a good track record for our circulation stats for nonfiction or diverse reads, so idk how well #notyourprincess will circ, but if only one or two people check it out and realize that “lightbulb moment” of representation and the self and/or how important diversity is, it will be worth allocating our meager collection development funds towards it.

Lots of author pics, which I normally wouldn’t be a fan of, but it’s so important for girls and teens to /see themselves/ within the pages of a book, that I like the numerous author pics.

“The idea of the relic stereotypical Indian needs to change.” >> recreation of classic portraits of movie stars replaced with contemporary Native American actors *insert heart-eye emoji here*

“This is what we do– we recast wounds in unending light. And so, light, love, and courage are circles we keep coming back to.” - Tanaya Winder (Duckwater Shosone)

“When I Have a Daughter” by Ntawnis Piapot (Piapot Cree Nation) made me shiver in pride and co-identification. <3 I want to be her daughter. I want those things instilled in me, as a daughter.

Wow! I had no idea that that’s how the Standing Rock protests started!

Isabella Fillspipe (Oglala Lakota’s) “Dear Past Self” is definitely something high school and college depressed-me could have appreciated.

“We must and will have women leaders among us.” <3 <3 <3

brb. Filling out a purchase request form now.

A terrific need-to-read book that will open the reader's eyes to the true experience of being an indigenous female.

Think you are already well informed about indigenous issues?

Think you already know all there is to know about women's issues?

THINK AGAIN.

#NOTYOURPRINCESS should be required reading, not just for women and teen girls, but also for both male adults and male young adults.

I rate this book as 5 out of 5 Stars.

Excellent collection and very, VERY needed. A necessary edition to any teen library.

This is a great collection of Indigenous women sharing their thoughts and art in their own preferred medium. A few really stood out to me - Melanie Fey, Shelby Lisk, Patty Stonefish, and most of the illustrators - but that's not to say that the others don't also have impactful and interesting things to say. All in all, I enjoyed the pieces, I just wish they flowed a little more cohesively.

How appropriate is it for me to read this book on Thanksgiving?

This includes writing, poetry, art from dozens of indigenous women. It’s really a beautiful book.

But it is hard as it is beautiful.

It’s about the erasure of indigenous peoples. By colonialization. By genocide. By cultural appropriation. By conflagration with pop culture.

It’s about the difficulty of being an indigenous woman in this culture.

Something I will never understand.

I haven’t seen a definition of Patriarchy as simple as this:

<i>Patriarchy is quite simply the systematic oppression and regulation of women’s bodies, minds, and spirits. Patriarchy sets the markers and outlines the box of what we can and cannot do; say or cannot say; think or cannot think; express or cannot express.</i>

And how was this used against Indigenous women?

<i>Western patriarchy very methodically and strategically sought to oppress Indigenous women and girls and diminish their spaces and places, seeing them as disposable, as “less-than”.</i>

I hope things are changing. I hope that as diversity increases we right the wrongs of the past. Well, some wrongs were so atrocious, they can’t be righted. But we can make the attempt.

I hope this is prophetic:

<i>We must and will have women leaders among us. Native women are going to raise the roof and decry the dirty house which patriarchy and racism have built on our backs.</i>

Creative and thought-provoking. Powerful read and long overdue. .

#NotYourPrincess is another fabulous collection brought to us by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale. The magic of the book is that the many voices are seen and heard through a wide variety of formats with the design of the book framing the pieces beautifully. In most cases artwork compliments the texts and the words provide context for the artwork. There are images on nearly every spread and it’s a magnificent visual experience.

The stories shared both visually and in text reveal what it means to these women to be Native. They share challenges, triumphs, losses, hopes, family ties and so much more. These are stories that acknowledge the pain of the past, but also point to strength, resilience, and hope for the future. In the essay “Reclaiming Indigenous Women’s Rights,” Nahanni Fontaine (Anishinaabe) explains it this way, “When we begin to understand the colonial legacy and its collateral damage to the minds and bodies of Indigenous women, we can begin to forgive, accept, and heal ourselves from the countless hurtful, damaging ways in which this trauma manifests itself.”

These stories do not ignore the past, but they are very much stories of the present and the future. The many voices sound out against the stereotypes that often prevent people from seeing and recognizing Native women. The women ask to be seen as they are – not as they are expected to be. This is especially obvious in “A Conversation with a Massage Thereapist” by Francine Cunningham (Cree/Métis). The questions the massage therapist asks reveal much about biases people can have. The therapist asks, “What are you?” Indigenous and Cree are answers, but they are pretty much discounted as the therapist responds with, “You don’t really look it.” After learning that the person was raised in the city, “Oh, well, I guess you’re not a real one then?” It doesn’t take long to realize this person has completely succumbed to stereotypes. In “The Invisible Indians,” white-faced, red-haired Shelby LIsk (Mohawk) writes about a similar point of view. “They want fantastical stories of the Indians that used to roam this land. They want my culture behind glass in a museum. But they don’t want me. I’m not Indian enough.”

There are also many examples of confident young women who are using their strengths. We see young women like AnnaLee Rain Yellowhammer (Hunkapapa, Standing Rock Sioux) who are demanding to be heard. She’s an activist fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline and has been raising her voice loud and clear in defense of the land, water, and her tribe.

Lisa Charleyboy describes this as a “love letter to all young Indigenous women trying to find their way.” This is an excellent description. Readers will find love and encouragement here on every page.

Recomendation: #NotYourPrincess should be available in all young adult collections. Get it as soon as it’s available.

#NotYourPrincess is a beautiful collection of stories, poems, and artwork that honor and celebrate Indigenous women and their legacy. This collection tackles a lot of issues that indigenous women face- the shame that is forced on these women, the disrespect and dismissal of their history, and the legacy of pain inherited through generations. But we also see these women unburdening themselves - we see them reclaiming their rich history and begin the process of healing and renewing their sense of self. They challenge western beauty standards and the harmful Indian Maiden controlling images that erases their existence in the present, limiting their sociopolitical and economic power. Some of my favorite pieces in the collection were “Reclaiming Indigenous Women’s Rights” by Nahanni Fontaine, Resilient by Sierra Edd, Tagé Cho by Lianne Marie Charlie, “Leaks” by Leanne Simpson, and “We are Not a Costume” by Jessica Deer.

I received a copy of the books from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

With #ownvoices and #weneeddiversebooks rising as major trends in the literary community, I’m starting to fill in the gaps. But I’ve been lax in reading enough about Native Americans and Indigenous Americans by Native Americans and Indigenous Americans.

#NotYourPrincess is a fantastic collection of poetry, prose, and artwork written by and about Native American women and reclaims the conversation. It presents a perspective that many of us know embarrassingly little about. I loved that this book did not focus solely on the U.S. but instead embracing the many tribes and communities residing in Canada too.

My one critique of this book is that I would have preferred a longer volume with additional articles and critical thought pieces from writers and authors. But that being said, if you’re looking to expand beyond Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie, this is a great place to start. I’d recommend picking this one up in print since the artwork is really beautiful.

I love how stunning this book is and how everything draws your attention and captures it to the end, the writings are superb and the stories they each tell even more outstanding. This book is a wonderful book that gives a platform and voice for the Native women.

This is a beautifully written book of poetry, essays and interviews contributed by Indigenous women and girls.

Akin to #BlackGirlMagic, the women and girls in #Notyourprincess have decided that they no longer want to be portrayed as the stereotypical women. These women and girls are doctors, lawyers, inventor and protesters. They are strong, resilient and beautiful. But mostly they are survivors of genocide and abuse. The stories in this book give you a look into their world. The artwork added to assist in the telling of their stories was a wonderful bonus.

Although I'm not a Indigenous woman, I felt a strong connection to every woman in the book. The author and the women in #Notyourprincess want to you know that they will no longer be silent (that they never really were), that they are not your Tiger Lily, that they will not deal with discrimination...they just won't deal with nonsense and I'm excited for them.

Highly recommended.

thank you to the author/publisher for the opportunity to review.

Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming in Indian, #NotYourPrincess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. Sometimes angry, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have been virtually invisible. (via Goodreads)
I received an eARC of #NotYourPrincess from Netgalley, courtesy of Annick Press, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a hard read. I'm adding trigger warnings for mentions of rape, sexual assault, ethnic cleansing, erasure, alcoholism, and more that I'm sure I'm missing. This is a hard book to read, but it was so worth it, in my opinion.

This anthology of poems, art and short stories are made by, about and for Native American women. Since I am not one, there is not a lot that I can discuss, content-wise in this collection. It would be way outside my lane. I will say that you may need to read this over a period of time, because as you can tell by my trigger warnings, it's heavy. However, it was beautiful.

I loved all of the art in this anthology. I loved how this anthology was laid out. I loved the graphic design. I loved the balance between art and written inclusions.

Honestly, there was nothing about this I didn't like! You can pick up a copy on Amazon or Indiebound and support these awesome women.



Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound and Amazon are affiliate links, which means that if you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of it.

A collection of art work and writing from Indigenous women, #Notyourprincess offers a look into the experiences of these women from different tribes: their hardships, their communities, their people.

I liked the portraits that were included in this book. There is a variety of skill and every one had heart from the person behind the pen or the brush. 

The essays that were clear were evocative of the hardships the writer has been through and the strength they've found to continue on in their days. They also gave me, a white person, a better perspective on their circumstances. There's a difference between being told something in a majority white school about what happens to Indigenous people and hearing the stories from the people that went through them, whose ancestors did.

There were poems throughout the book, but the formatting made it difficult to understand them. Lines were off-kilter, credit to the authors and titles were illegible, and even some of the essays had sentences that seemed to be spliced in from other works. It's this reason that I rated #Notyourprincess 3 stars when, if it were formatted properly, it might have garnered a higher rating. Not being able to decipher the words properly really brought down the experience. 

I think this is going to be an important work, once published in its final format with the errors cleared up. The stories will be more clear and when a wider audience reads them, they will be shared by the people that experience them, today and yesterday, and by those that need to understand what it still happening to Indigenous people. Pick this up, if you can, and hear the words from the mouths and pens of the people that wrote them.

“We aren’t historic figures; we are modern women.”

** Trigger warning for allusions to violence against women, suicidal ideation, genocide, and racism and sexism. **

It’s strange to me how people always want me to be an “authentic Indian.” When I say I’m Haudenosaunee, they want me to look a certain way. Act a certain way. They’re disappointed when what they get is . . . just me. White-faced, red-haired. They spent hundreds of years trying to assimilate my ancestors, trying to create Indians who could blend in like me. But now they don’t want me either. I’m not Indian enough. They can’t make up their minds. They want buckskin and war paint, drumming, songs in languages they can’t understand recorded for them, but with English subtitles of course. They want educated, well-spoken, but not too smart. Christian, well-behaved, never questioning. They want to learn the history of the people, but not the ones who are here now, waving signs in their faces, asking them for clean drinking water, asking them why their women are going missing, asking them why their land is being ruined. They want fantastical stories of the Indians that used to roam this land. They want my culture behind glass in a museum. But they don’t want me. I’m not Indian enough.

(“The Invisible Indians,” Shelby Lisk)

###

Because history moves like a fevered heat down through the arteries of generations
Because PTSD to the family tree is like an ax Because colonization is the ghosts of buffalos with broken backs
Because today only burning flags could be found at the ghost dance of my people

(“Stereotype This,” Melanie Fey)

###

I feel like I should begin this review with a word of caution: If you see any complaints about formatting problems ahead of the pub date, disregard them. The Kindle version of this ARC is indeed a hot mess, but this is par for the course when it comes to books with a heavy graphic element. The acsm file, read on Adobe Digital Editions (which I loathe, but happily suffered for this book!), gives a much clearer picture of what the finished, physical copy is meant to look like. And, if Amazon’s listing is any indication, #NOTYOURPRINCESS: VOICES OF NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN will only be released in print.

That said, #NOTYOURPRINCESS is fierce, vibrant, and nicely organized. It feels a lot like an experimental art project, and I mean that in the best way possible. Within these here pages you’ll find an eclectic mix of personal essays, poems, quotes, photographs, line art, watercolors, comics, portraits of activists and athletes, and interviews with Native women. #LittleSalmonWoman (Lianne Charlie) even adopts the format of an Instagram page, while “More Than Meets the Eye” (Kelly Edzerza-Babty and Claire Anderson) profiles ReMatriate, which shares images of modern Native women on social media in order to reclaim their identities and broaden our ideas of what a “real” Native American woman looks like. (The quote in my review’s title comes from Claire Anderson, a founding member of ReMatriate.)

The topics touched upon run the gamut: genocide, colonization, forced assimilation, cultural appropriation, kidnapping, rape, domestic violence, mass incarceration, mental illness, sexuality, addiction, street harassment, homelessness, and intergenerational trauma.

As with most anthologies, #NOTYOURPRINCESS is a bit of a mixed bag; although, as a white woman, I’m 110% positive that Indigenous readers will get more out of it than I did. Much to my surprise – since I don’t always “get” poetry – some of the poems are among my favorites. Helen Knott’s “The Things We Taught Our Daughters” is a searing and heartbreaking indictment of interpersonal violence, rape culture, and the patriarchy, while Melanie Fey tackles intergenerational trauma and contemporary bigotry with equal passion and anguish in “Stereotype This.” (Both of these are examples of the book’s eye-catching design, fwiw.)

I also enjoyed the pieces that mixed visual and written media; e.g, “My Grandmother Sophia” by Saige Mukash and “It Could Have Been Me” by Patty Stonefish. Shelby Lisk’s “The Invisible Indians,” quoted at the top of this review, is a powerful rebuttal to Western notions of what a “real” Indian looks like (and brings to mind the 2016 book, ‘ALL THE READ INDIANS DIED OFF’: AND 20 OTHER MYTHS ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz & Dina Gilio-Whitaker).

My absolute favorite piece is the lone comic in the collection, “A Tale of Two Winonas” by Winona Linn. An f-you to the doomed lovers trope, Linn addresses such heady topics as suicide, rape, forced marriage, colonialism, and racism and misogyny with humor and wit – and all in a mere two pages. I was thrilled to see in the “Contributors” section that Linn is currently in Paris, working on a graphic novel.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I did not mention “Real NDNZ,” Pamela J. Peters’s profile of the Real NDNZ Re-Take Hollywood project. This photo series takes scenes from classic American films and replaces them with images of Native actors – thus highlighting and reimagining the racist stereotyping of classic cinema, while also combating the invisibility of Native actors in modern film. #NOTYOURPRINCESS includes some rather stunning portraits of Shayna Jackson as Audrey Hepburn and Deja Jones as Ava Gardner.

** Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. **

No one likes to be boxed in, to have things assumed about them, to be a fetish for some, to be a sterotype, and that is what this book is trying to break. These are the voices of women and girls of First Nation and Native Peoples.

Some stories are quite sad, others are of being more, of breaking free. These are poems, and essays, and photos, and all sorts of ways that girls and women are speaking out against stereotypes.

Here is part of an poem from Melanie Fey (Diné)

<block quote>Today I couldn't handle the pain of being an American Indian
There's a clawing deep inside
Like a spider in a thirsty drought
And it screams in broken lullaby:
I don't want to be a drunk Indian
I don't want to be the drunk. Indian

TOday a boarding school sat like a lump in my throat
And the ghosts of the dead Indian children
With butchered hair and broken Christian wings
Shatter bottle down on my feet and screamed:
We don't want to be drunk Indians
We don't want to be the drunk Indians.</blockquote>

Or this one by Francine Cunningham (Cree/Métis)
<blockquote>
What are you?
Excuse me?
You don't look all white.
I'm Indigenous
Oh, well what kind of Natiave are you?
Cree
You don't really look it.
I am also Scottish and Métis on my dat's side
Were you raise don a reserve?
No I was raised in the city
Oh well, I guess you're not a real one then.</blockquote>

Highly recommended reading just to hear the voices of the different Native women speaking.



Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

An interesting idea, for sure. I wish my e-ARC was better formatted as I found it difficult to distinguish between the artwork, essays, poems and quotes. Selfishly I was hoping to read something more significant from someone from my own tribe (Tlingit) and while a contribution is there, it wasn't as satisfying as I'd liked. Really enjoyed several of the contributions but on the whole wanted just a little bit more.