Buffalo Is the New Buffalo
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Education is the new buffalo” is a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival and ability to support themselves, as once Plains nations supported themselves as buffalo peoples. The assumption is that many of the pre-Contact ways of living are forever gone, so adaptation is necessary. But Chelsea Vowel asks, “Instead of accepting that the buffalo, and our ancestral ways, will never come back, what if we simply ensure that they do?”
Inspired by classic and contemporary speculative fiction, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo explores science fiction tropes through a Métis lens: a Two-Spirit rougarou (shapeshifter) in the nineteenth century tries to solve a murder in her community and joins the nêhiyaw-pwat (Iron Confederacy) in order to successfully stop Canadian colonial expansion into the West. A Métis man is gored by a radioactive bison, gaining super strength, but losing the ability to be remembered by anyone not related to him by blood. Nanites babble to babies in Cree, virtual reality teaches transformation, foxes take human form and wreak havoc on hearts, buffalo roam free, and beings grapple with the thorny problem of healing from colonialism.
Indigenous futurisms seek to discover the impact of colonization, remove its psychological baggage, and recover ancestral traditions. These eight short stories of “Métis futurism” explore Indigenous existence and resistance through the specific lens of being Métis. Expansive and eye-opening, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo rewrites our shared history in provocative and exciting ways.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Consider a future where nanotechnology teaches children the Cree language, and you’ll have an idea of what awaits in Chelsea Vowel’s captivating short-story collection. The Métis author and educator creates fantastical alternative histories for native peoples, with each story exuding a sense of joy and wonder. A shape-shifter fights for Indigenous rights in the 19th century. A Métis superhero tackles the golden age of comics. A young woman escapes her pandemic isolation with a remarkable VR device (and some help from Colonel Sanders!). We particularly loved how Vowel walked us through her creative choices with footnotes and short essays about her extensive research into Indigenous history. Vowel’s fiction radiates hope, humour, and optimism, building bridges between the spiritual landscape of the past and the endless potential of the present—and inviting us to imagine the possibilities of humanity.
Customer Reviews
Great Stories, Deeper Meanings
Chelsea Vowel has put together a collection of wonderful short science-fiction stories, interspersed with shorter Explorations on the themes of Indigeneity, decolonialism, feminism and holding them all together, transformation.
The stories are well-written, and Vowel reveals herself to be a master of moods. The stories kick off with a dark, moody alternate history exploring the life of a Rougarou, set against the background of an alternate history of the Métis rebellions. The very next story is a hilarious and loving take on the Superhero myth. The rest range between a dream exploration, a gritty urban tale, cool and clinical transhumanism and more. Everything is masterfully executed.
Vowel’s characters each have a unique voice and the writer clearly has a deep sense of her characters (human and non-human) as people.
The Exploration sections, while dealing with subjects in a scholarly manner (the book is Vowel’s Master’s thesis), will be reasonably approachable by the reader, due mainly to Vowel’s clear and straightforward non-fiction style, and a minimum of scholarly jargon.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Chelsea Vowel has become one of my favourite new science-fiction authors, and I look forward to reading more of her work. This one’s going on the “re-reads” list.