Louisiana Creole Peoplehood: Afro-Indigeneity and Community

Louisiana Creoles have used creative living practices to uphold solidarity, kinship, and continuity, retaking Louisiana Creole agency as a post-contact Afro-Indigenous culture. Louisiana Creole Peoplehood explores how a specific Afro-Indigenous community asserts agency while promoting cultural sustainability, communal dialogue, and community reciprocity.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 05 April 2022
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Over the span of more than three centuries, the diverse communities of Louisiana have engaged in innovative and creative living practices to forge a vibrant, multifaceted, and fully developed Creole culture. Despite ongoing anti-Blackness and Indigenous erasure that have sought to undermine this rich heritage, Louisiana Creoles have found transformative ways to uphold solidarity, kinship, and continuity, reclaiming Louisiana Creole agency as a post-contact Afro-Indigenous culture. This rich cultural tapestry encompasses a wide range of themes, including foodways, queer identity, health, historical trauma, language revitalization, and diaspora.

In their book, Louisiana Creole Peoplehood: Asserting Agency and Promoting Cultural Sustainability, community members and scholars delve into the vital ways in which a specific Afro-Indigenous community asserts agency while promoting cultural sustainability, communal dialogue, and community reciprocity. Through a combination of interviews, essays, and autobiographic contributions, the book tracks the sacred interweaving of land and identity alongside the legacies and genealogies of Creole resistance to bring into focus the Afro-Indigenous people written out of settler governmental policy.

By intervening against the erasure of Creole Indigeneity, this collection seeks to foreground Black/Indian cultural sustainability, agency, and self-determination. It serves as a testament to the resilience and creativity of Louisiana Creoles in the face of adversity, highlighting their contributions to the broader African American and Indigenous communities.

Louisiana Creole Peoplehood is a valuable resource for anyone interested in exploring the complexities of race, identity, and culture in the United States. It provides a nuanced and empathetic perspective on the experiences of Afro-Indigenous people and sheds light on the ongoing struggles for cultural preservation and self-determination. Through its rich narratives and insightful analysis, the book contributes to our understanding of the diverse and rich tapestry of American history and culture.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295749488