Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
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Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Anishinaabe writer
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is an Anishinaabe writer of mixedblood from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation. She has lived and worked at Neyaashiinigmiing, Cape Croker Reserve on the Saugeen Peninsula in southwestern Ontario since 1994. "I know I belong here and regardless of where else I might live, this will always be my home. This is where I live and write and remember who I am," she says.
When Kateri is not writing she keeps busy with her consulting company DammWrite! Consulting and Communications, working with First Nations groups and projects. She is also the Managing Editor of Kegedonce Press, a small publishing company she set up in 1993 to publish and promote the work of Indigenous writers, artists and others in the publishing field. In 1999 Kegedonce released looking into the eyes of my forgotten dreams by Joseph A. Dandurand In 1999 she established NiSHin Productions, an Indigenous performing arts production company. In 2000, Kateri, through NiSHin Productions, tour coordinated and tour managed national tours of Aotearoa for two Native theatre companies from Canada. Later in the year NiSHin Productions co-produced the Canadian tour of Purapurawhetu, a play by acclaimed Maori writer Briar Grace-Smith, with Taki Rua Productions of Wellington, New Zealand. In 1996 kateri taught creative writing courses to university students at the En'owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, British Columbia. She is currently working on a spoken word CD and a collection of poetry. Kateri is also working on publishing arrangements for an international collection of erotica by Indigenous writers and artists. She recently completed work as the editor of a collection of fiction by Indigenous writers from Canada, the United States, Australia and Aotearoa. This book has been co-published by Kegedonce Press and Jukurrpa Books, an imprint of IAD Press an Aboriginal publisher based in Alice Springs, Australia. Kateri's other interests include getting her motorcycle license, rowing, learning about filmmaking, tracking, learning the Anishnaabe language, studying dreams, traditional gathering and harvesting, and going to the gym.
Kateri's writing has been published in various anthologies, journals, and magazines in Canada, the U.S., Aotearoa, Australia, and Germany. She has given readings at events and venues across Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Aotearoa and on national radio in Canada and Aotearoa. Readings have been broadcast nationally in Canada on WTN. Spoken word pieces of her poetry have been recorded and distributed on various audio-cassette compilations. Solo and collaborative pieces of her work have been shown in exhibits at art galleries in British Columbia. Among the journals in which her work has been published are trout, a south pacific journal of the arts (see below), The New Quarterly, Winter 2000, University of Waterloo, and Rampike Literary & Arts Magazine, (V. 8, No. 2, V. 10 No. 1 and the 20th Anniversary Edition, 1999).
In 2004, Kateri released a spoken word CD with a group of Indigenous collaborators including Te Kupu , Koru, Joy Harjo, Marcos Arcentales, John Thorp, Lucho Abanto, Rhys B., and Raven Polson-Lahache. In 2005, she released Without Reservation: Indigenous erotica, a collection of literary erotica by some of the most celebrated Indigenous writers in the world. She is currently working on a collection of poetry, a collaborative performance piece with her friend Himiona Grace, a multi-talented, multidisciplinary artist known for his stunning photography, music, and cinematography. Kateri has recently completed a collection of short stories, and "A Constellation of Bones," a performance piece combining poetry, music, and dance. Her collaborators were acclaimed Mohawk choreographer and dancer Santee Smith and award-winning hip hop artist, producer, and filmmaker Te Kupu.
Kateri states, "I am passionate about my work and about Indigenousliterature internationally, particularly First Nations literatures, both written and spoken, Maori literature, and erotica."
Kateri was responsible for coordinating the conferences, To See Proudly: Advancing Indigenous Arts Beyond the Millennium with the Canada Council for the Arts, "Beyond Survival: the waking dreamer ends the silence" and she initiated and coordinated the inaugural "Honouring Words" Indigenous authors tour.
Awards
Kateri's press, Kegedonce Press, was named Publisher of the Year (outside US) for 2001 by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.
In 1996, Kateri was the recipient of a Literary Arts Development Writers Grant from the Canada Council. In 1998 she received an Ontario Arts Council, Writers' Reserve Grant for a poetry manuscript. She has since received numerous other grants, including a Spoken Word grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
In 1992, she held a Graduate Studies Research Scholarship at the University of Ottawa. She held the Lucille Herbert Memorial Scholarship and was a member of the Dean's Honour Roll at York University.
In addition Kateri has been a Board Member of the Native Council of Canada, a Founding Member/Interim Vice President, Aboriginal Youth Council of Canada, a member of the Joint National Committee on Aboriginal AIDS Education and Awareness and of the Native Advisory Council of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers Workshop. She has also been a Trustee of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation Board of Education, an Interim Board Member of the National Aboriginal Youth Business Council, a Planning Committee Member of the Aboriginal Publishers Conference, and an Interim Executive Committee Member of the Circle of Aboriginal Publishers.
Writing Available Online
Check Kateri's MySpace site for regularly updated spoken word trax.
one day from trout
fishing lines from trout
Waabigonii Giizis from trout
rainstorm in volcano: eight poems for rain from trout
daughter of Pele from trout
lehua flower from trout
bitter root from trout
Native Sexuality 101 on CBC Radio One (audio)
Kateri reading from My Heart is a Stray Bullet (audio)
Books by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica, as contributor and editor, Kegedonce Press/Huia Books.
"skins: contemporary Indigenous writing," as a co-editor, Kegedonce Press/Jukurrpa Books
My heart is a stray bullet, Kegedonce Press.
bloodriver woman, Absinthe, Calgary.
Anthologies
Prairie Fire: a Canadian Magazine of New Writing, Vol. 21 No. 4, 2001, edited by Ashok Mathur.
Canadian Literature #167, Winter 2000, Vancouver: UBC Press.
Crisp Blue Edges: Indigenous Creative Non-fiction. Rasunah Marsden (Editor), Theytus Books.
Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Josie Douglas (Editors), Kegedonce Press.
Through the Eye of the Deer: An Anthology of Native American Woman Writers,Carolyn Dunn & Carol Comfort (Editors), Aunt Lute Books.
Prayers for a Thousand Years, Blessings and Expressions of Hope for the New Millennium, Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon (Editors), Harper San Francisco. 1999.
Canadian Literature #155, Winter 1997, Vancouver: UBC Press.
An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English, Daniel David Moses & Terry Goldie (Editors), Oxford University Press.
67 Nations, Geary Hobson (Editor), Oklahoma State University Press.
Stories Migrating Home: Anishnaabe Prose, Kimberly Blaeser (Editor), Loonfeather Press: Wisconsin
Passeport: La Poesie Moderne de Langue Anglaise au Canada, Endre Farkas (Editor) , J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing (Winnipeg) and Ecrits des Forges Poesie (Trois-Rivieres)
Gatherings, Volume IX, Beyond Victimization: Forging a Path to Celebration, Greg Young-Ing (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books.
Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian Writing, William H. New (Editor), University of Toronto Press.
the Indian Summer issue of phati'tude
Returning the Gift: Poetry and Prose from the First North American Native Writers' Festival, University of Arizona Press.
Gatherings, Volume VII, Standing Ground: Strength and Solidarity Amidst Dissolving Boundaries, (Co-Editor of this volume with Jeannette Armstrong) Penticton: Theytus Books
Oxford Companion to Canadian Native Literature in English, Revised Edition, Daniel David Moses & Terry Goldie, (Editors), Toronto: Oxford University Press
Sweetgrass Surrounds Her, Beth Brant (Editor), Toronto: Native Women in the Arts
Let the Drums Be Your Heart, Joel Maki (Editor), Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre
Widerstand schreiben, Audrey Huntley (Editor), Germany: Unrast
He Wai, Trixie Te Arama Menzies (Editor), Auckland: Waiata Koa
Images: Canada Through Literature, John Borovilos (Editor), Scarborough: Prentice Hall Ginn Canada
Entering the War Zone: A Mohawk Perspective on Resisting Invasion, Donna Goodleaf, Penticton: Theytus Books
Flying Bookies: 6th International Feminist Book Fair Anthology, Melbourne: IFBF
The Colour of Resistance: A Contemporary Collection of Writing by Aboriginal Women, Toronto: Sister Vision Press
Gatherings, Vol VI, Metamorphosis: Manifesting and Respecting Diversity in Our Transformation, Linda Jaine & Don Fiddler (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books
Gatherings, Vol V, Celebrating the Circle: Recognizing Women and Children in Restoring the Balance, Beth Cuthand & William George (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books
Gatherings, Vol III, Mother Earth Perspectives: Preservation Through Words, Greg Young-Ing (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books
Gatherings, Vol II, Two Faces: Unmasking the Faces of Our Divided Nations, Greg Young-Ing (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books
Gatherings, Vol I , Greg Young-Ing (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books
Voices From Home, Anne Acco (Editor), Ottawa: Agawa Press
Glide Path Destinations, S.D. Robinson (Editor), Scarborough: Prentice-Hall Canada
Seventh Generation Contemporary Native Writing, Heather Hodgson (Editor), Penticton:Theytus Books
Essays and Interviews
Fierce Aboriginal Vibe, an interview in Guerilla, March 2004
"Without Reservation: Erotica Indigenous Style", Journal of Canadian Studies, 35, No. 3, "Locating Canadian Cultures in the Twenty-First Century", 2000. (Trent University, Peterborough)
"We Belong to This Land: A View of `Cultural Difference' ". Journal of Canadian Studies, 31, No. 3, "Pulling Together Canadian Literary Pluralities", 1996. (Trent University, Peterborough)
"Says Who: Colonialism, Identity and Defining Indigenous Literature", in Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations Analysis of Literature, Jeannette Armstrong (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books.
"Dispelling and Telling: Speaking Native Realities in Maria Campbell's Halfbreed and Beatrice Culleton's In Search of April Raintree, in Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations Analysis of Literature, Jeannette Armstrong (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books.
Textbooks
Grade 7 Language Arts Anthology, Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada, Inc.
Audio Recordings
standing ground, nishin productions, 2004.
"a song the bones sing" on "Roots and Rights" compilation CD, Spirit Magazine, 2004.
My Heart is a Stray Bullet & Endless Circles on The 7th Fire: Well, What Does it Take, Technabe Sound, 1991
Your Silence Will Not Protect You, Maya Music, 1989
Free Yourself, Free Us All, Maya Music, 1988
See Also
Kegedonce Press, Kateri's press
A short biography from the Internet Public Library's Native American Authors Project
This page is part of the Storytellers: Native American Authors Online project.
