Abstracts Womens Studies

RE-WEAVING A DECOLONIZED SOUTH IN CONTEMPORARY CHEROKEE WOMEN'S POETRY

by Caleigh Breanne Cornell

Appalachian Cherokee women writers Marilou Awiakta, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, and MariJo Moore have recently created poems reminiscent of an important Cherokee female tradition: basketweaving. Their poems take on a decolonizing project by confronting the past filled with conquest, colonization, and exploitation that violently fragmented the lives of all Cherokees. And after remembering the devastating past, these poets use their poems to recover the Cherokee version of history and facilitate hope for the future. The poets explicitly call for a reclamation of familial pride, Cherokee traditional stories, and the lost women's roles of basketweaving and leadership in order to initiate an essential collective healing.