Name: Gelaine Trinidad's review of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
Item: A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
Rating: 4
Author: Gelaine Trinidad

Alicia Elliott

A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America from award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott. In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrifcation, writing and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political--from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities. With deep consideration and searing prose, Elliott provides a candid look at our past, an illuminating portrait of our present and a powerful tool for a better future.

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Filipa Carvalho

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL • CBC • CHATELAINE • QUILL & QUIRE • THE HILL TIMES • POP MATTERS A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America from award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott. In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrifcation, writing and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political—from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities. With deep consideration and searing prose, Elliott provides a candid look at our past, an illuminating portrait of our present and a powerful tool for a better future.

Gelaine Trinidad

these essays are really good ... highly recommend.

Fraser Simons

I found this to be very insightful. Elliot comes at the issues from different viewpoints. The intricate dichotomy of passing for white, nutrition, self-love, beauty standards, art—especially photography, which was my favourite chapter in the book. 

This is a great companion to The Inconvenient Indian because while the problems remain the same shifting the lens to that of a younger woman immediately reveals many more ways in which Western culture has caused harm and been continually abusive to First Nations peoples. 

The ways in which this abuse plays out that Elliot has noticed are more intersectional and nuanced than other writing I’ve encountered on the subject.

Elizabeth Hisserich

I found this very insightful and well written. I found some of the essays at the beginning of the book more captivating than some of the later ones. 

A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America from an award-winning Haudenosaunee writer The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated to "a mind spread out on the ground." In this urgent and visceral work, Alicia Elliott explores how apt a description that is for the ongoing effects of personal, intergenerational, and colonial traumas she and so many Native people have experienced. Elliott's deeply personal writing details a life spent between Indigenous and white communities, a divide reflected in her own family, and engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, art, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, and representation. Throughout, she makes thrilling connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political. A national bestseller in Canada, this updated and expanded American edition helps us better understand legacy, oppression, and racism throughout North America, and offers us a profound new way to decolonize our minds.

Filipa Carvalho &
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott

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Filipa Carvalho &A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott

Reviews

Join the club

Filipa Carvalho &
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott