I Did Something Stupid When I was a Teenager

Bodily Possession, Walking Corpses, a Dog’s Sixth Sense, and Anishinaabe Land-Based Recovery.

Abstract

First Nations, Metis, and Inuit ways of knowing have always drawn knowledge from the land and the internal realms of self or feeling to guide and heal. Teenage self-harm and turmoil resulting from the generational trauma of colonialism serve as a reflexive case study for understanding how Anishinaabe ideologies around land-based well-being are applicable in the instances following an overdose. This project is an interpretive phenomenological analysis of a reflexive recount of the author’s overdose as an urban Anishinaabe teenager. Utilizing First Nation’s theories and teachings on land-based wellbeing as a framework, this text unpacks the unexplained events of an overdose with Anishinaabe worldviews in mind. Storytelling techniques such as self and situational reflection are used to communicate data (the experience) in a creative way unconventional to colonial research structures, and better aligned with the author’s ancestral practices. This is a creative project in self-reflection, trauma exploration through Indigenous frameworks, and communication removed from colonial conventions. This project serves as illuminating towards urban Indigenous challenges which acts as a case for understanding Anishinaabe knowledge of self thrivance.