Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses ed. by Hartmut Lutz et al.

Reviewed by: Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses ed. by Hartmut Lutz et al. Julia Goncalves Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses. Edited by Hartmut Lutz, Florentine Strzelczyk, and Renae Watchman. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2020. Pp. ix + 249. Cloth $23.99. ISBN 978-1771123990. In Indianthusiasm: Indigenous Responses, editors Hartmut Lutz, Florentine Strzelczyk, and Renae Watchman amass a series of interviews with Indigenous people who all share a connection to Germany's fascination with Indigenous culture. Bridging the gap between Indigenous studies and Eurocentric depictions of native American, their goal is to share Indigenous responses to this phenomenon. These interviews [End Page 631] reside in a complex matrix of transatlantic exchange—well articulated in the book's introduction—composed of the historic cultural appropriation of Indigenous customs in hobbyism, Germany's association with native American narratives as an act of forgetting World War II, and lingering German colonial fantasies. This book not only "makes space for Indigenous voices" (5) but additionally grants Indigenous people the opportunity to "return the colonial gaze" (6), allowing them to comment on the consequences of German Indianthusiasm while promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of Indigenous culture, history, and knowledge. Divided into a series of twelve engaging interviews, the book retains a methodological link significant to Indigenous bodies of knowledge, oral storytelling. Western academia has traditionally ignored Indigenous frameworks of knowledge that privilege "feeling, spirit, and experience" (10). As a corrective to this marginalization, this collection of interviews wisely emphasizes the importance of lived Indigenous experience and contrasts it with traditional European epistemological traditions. The final portion of the introduction outlines each interviewee's background in order of appearance; however, these descriptions might be better suited at the beginning of each interview to familiarize the reader with the corresponding interviewee's background. The interview transcripts demonstrate how skillfully and respectfully Lutz, Strzelczyk, and Watchman navigated conversations about sensitive topics such as racism and stereotypes. They allowed the interviewees ample time to discuss themselves and their experiences while never dominating or harshly steering the interviews. Following the introduction, the interviews begin with Ahmoo Angeconeb, "an Anishnaabe, an Ojibway, from Lac Seul First Nation" (35). The transcript highlights his artwork and the interesting role reversal of his spiritual ceremonies that have "Europeans participate in the so-called 'pagan' ceremonies" since historically Christians sent missionaries to convert Indigenous people (41). In the following interview, Jeannette Armstrong, "the first Aboriginal woman who earned a PhD from a German university" (43), recounts her methodological use and teaching of Enowkinwixw, a framework for a group discussion and discovery of knowledge that leads to a communal decision. John Blackbird, a filmmaker known for his documentary Powwow (2005), includes his poem "GROAN," inspired by an NDR DJ host's stereotypical, racist comments toward Blackbird during an interview. Clearly, this book and its interviews give Indigenous people agency over their experience with Indianthusiasm; however, the inclusion of Blackbird's poem gives him further agency—agency over his artistic expression. Despite that, the editors choose not to feature other artists' work at the conclusion of their interviews, such as Ahmoo Angeconeb's art that explores "images and stories about the Greif" (38) or Drew Hayden Taylor's and Emma Lee Warrior's writings. References to their current work reside in the book's bibliography. Yet such inclusion could have promoted a wider awareness of Indigenous knowledge and art while additionally valuing "Indigenous peoples' scholarly contributions to knowledge" (20), which the editors claim Western academia traditionally excludes. [End Page 632] Detailing an atypical response to minorities, Warren Cariou, "of Métis, German and Norwegian ancestry" (27), describes the positive national relationships between Germans and Aboriginals. These bonds contrast starkly with those between Germans and Turks and open up a fascinating dialogue about "good racism" (84) and positive stereotyping. Highlighting another major difference in German and Canadian bodies of memory in the subsequent interview, Jo-Ann Epikenew, a scholar from the Métis Nation of Manitoba, interestingly recalls how Canadians fail to acknowledge the historical connection between Aboriginal oppression and Canadian prosperity. By contrast, she recognizes how Germans still struggle with the shame and grief of World War II generations later, as Audrey Huntley similarly notes in her interview. These observations...

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