You are Here to Risk your Heart: Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe)

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You are Here to Risk your Heart: Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe)
The most prolific Native American writer and one of the most profound, Louise Erdrich is the author of fifteen novels as well as poetry, children’s books, and a memoir of motherhood. Erdrich conjures a magical and malevolent world in novels, set in her native North Dakota. There ancient Ojibwe myths and rituals converge and conflict with austere and sometimes severe Catholicism. The result is a wisdom born of this confluence and realized in poetic imagery that takes us to the edge of language while also being so visceral that we can feel the hunger in our stomachs and the cold in our bones. Join us to explore the mythical worlds of Louise Erdrich and to explore the wisdom of her vision.
About the Speaker:
Greg Salyer, Ph.D. is the President of the Philosophical Research Society. For twenty-five years, he has been an administrator and scholar in higher education institutions, but his highest calling has always been that of teacher. Trained in interdisciplinary studies, Dr. Salyer moves through the disciplines of literature, philosophy, and religious studies looking for and helping his students find practical and profound wisdom in the stories, texts, and ideas created all over the world and throughout history.
About the Series: Voices of Wisdom from Native Cultures
The continent of what would become North America was rich with languages, religions, governments, and infrastructure. It was also rich with wisdom, a wisdom that remains despite hundreds of years of genocide, exile, and cultural appropriation. Tribes and nations that were not outright destroyed by colonialism remained and continued their traditions with creative integrations with Christianity and underground sacred experiences. Eventually, they also began to write of their new experiences in “America” as “Indians” within the context of their tribal native wisdom. The result was a chorus of profound voices that provide the continuation of their own traditions in a hostile environment, a powerful critique of colonial ideologies based in respect for all life, and unique understandings of all humans and our place in the world. Join us as we listen carefully to some of these voices through their works and to how language and landscape combine to create a unique indigenous wisdom.