Hickies. Messy hair. Fry bread and sticky syrup. And the laughter – that giggling behind your hand, head tossed back kind of laughter. These are the stories that you tell on Sunday morning about what happened Saturday night.
Covering Indigenous adventures from Walpole Island to Northern Saskatchewan to the coast of Vancouver, #IndianLovePoems is a poetry collection that delves into the humour and truths of love and lust within Indigenous communities. Sharing stories in search of The One, or even better, that One-Night-Stand, or the opening of boundaries – can we say medicine wheel – this collection fearlessly sheds light on the honesty that comes with discussions of men, women, and sex, using humour to chat about the complexities of race and culture within relationships.
Here's a sneak peek of #IndianLovePoems, which hits shelves in April 2017.
Enjoy these two poems alone, or with your squeeze...
#14
you
you are the only one
the one I hunt moose for
the one whose beaver I skin
you
you are the only one
I hear
across bingo halls
and powwow grounds
and I smell your bannock
when I close my eyes
it leads me to you
you
you are my winter bear
the one I sleep the seasons away with
you are my leading goose
guiding me to light and warmth
you
you are my northern lights
guiding me home
my only sweetie
in spite of
what your cousin said
don’t trust him
he’s just jealous you won me
blackout style
#2001
broken Cree words
whisper down my body
between my legs
into my universe
where you tell me stories
with tongue and lips
and I take
tradition into me
until I burst
I feel invincible
almighty and woman
with legs splayed
letting him see
what pleasure looks like
without shame
this is what my ancestors
must have felt like
come to me again
my gifted Cree man
taste your language
on my skin
in my pleasure
make me moan
in those forgotten
syllables
make me
speak pleasure
once again
All other photos by Tenille Campbell (sweetmoon photography)
Tenille Campbell is a Dene/Métis author and photographer from English River First Nation in Northern Saskatchewan. She completed her MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and is currently starting her fourth year of PhD studies at the University of Saskatchewan, focusing on Indigenous Literature. She is the owner and artist behind sweetmoon photography, a successful photography business that specializes in photographing Indigenous people. She has published poetry in "Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas" (Ed. Allison Hedge Coke), and photography in “Urban Tribe” and “Dreaming in Indian” (Eds. Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy). Current creative projects include #KissingIndigenous, a photography series focusing on the act of intimacy within Indigenous couples. She is also the creator of tea&bannock, an online collective blog featuring the photographs and stories of Indigenous women photographers throughout Canada. Storytelling - be it with ink, voice or photographs - seems to be the life for her.