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gnosila's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Rape
Minor: Addiction and Suicide
megan_bbender's review
3.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Body shaming, Pregnancy, and Eating disorder
_kathill's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Colonisation, Rape, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, and Mental illness
Moderate: Addiction, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting
Minor: Blood and Eating disorder
liteartha's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Police brutality, and Colonisation
Moderate: Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Sexual assault
natniels's review
5.0
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Rape
littlecat's review
4.75
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, and Rape
emzireads's review against another edition
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Rape
rini's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Police brutality, and Racism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Bullying, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Trafficking
Minor: Cancer and Drug abuse
sarah984's review
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Religious bigotry
tachyondecay's review
5.0
I was drawn to this book by Elliott’s social media presence and some of her other writing online, such as this superb article for Chatelaine about 1492 Land Back Lane and Canada’s ongoing colonialism. Elliott’s writing balances past and present tense in a way that helps us connect how the colonial actions of the past reverberate into the colonial present Indigenous people are experiencing today. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground is a very personal collection of essays. Its title comes from a translation of a Mohawk word that roughly means depression, and a great deal of this book is concerned with the effects of colonialism on Elliott and her family. Yet the essays transcend colonialism, and as Elliott mentions in “Not Your Noble Savage,” she does not want to be pigeonholed as “just” an Indigenous writer.
I really appreciate the nuance on display in these essays. For example, Elliott’s parents often appear in her writing. She makes it very clear that she thinks of them fondly—yet at the same time, her childhood and teenage years are full of moments of tension, abuse, even violence. We are so prone to simplifying people in our lives into single stories—a parent is either loving or abusive, rather than loving and abusive. Elliott rejects the dichotomy and displays both the loving moments and the darker ones. Moreover, her intention here isn’t to excuse these contrasts or to show that she has worked through and somehow processed and come to understand all of this. Rather, she admits to us that it can be difficult to fully puzzle out the way we react to, understand, and respond to the people closest to us.
Within these pages you’re going to find what you expect: the violence Canada does to Indigenous people (especially Indigenous women), the nasty fallout of racism both systemic and targeted, the pain that comes with uprooting and re-rooting oneself and one’s family and—for Elliott is light-skinned enough to “pass” as non-Indigenous—feeling like one never quite belongs anywhere. However, you will also find the moments that are often erased from Indigenous experiences that make it to the mainstream: the moments of joy—particularly when Elliott is talking about her husband and child; the moments of triumph; the moments of honesty. As she mentions herself in several essays, we place Indigenous writers in boxes. We elevate those who conform to what we expect an Indigenous writer to write, and we find reasons to ignore and erase those whose writing breaks out of those boxes.
So as a settler, what I take away from this collection is that reminder that I have to be careful about how I approach the Indigenous storytelling that makes it into mainstream CanLit. (Joseph Boyden’s meteoric rise and subsequent fall from grace is perhaps the textbook case for this issue.) I must do my best to check my preconceptions at the door, not to laud something merely because it meets some subconscious checklist for Indigeneity, nor to reject something from an Indigenous author merely because of its departure from that unspoken norm.
And then more generally, I just valued Elliott’s candidness. The way she spoke about her traumas, about her difficulty navigating both the racism and the misogyny of modern Canada. Hers is a life so very distinctive from mine, by dint of so many axes of experience and identity. I appreciate being able to hear her stories and briefly glimpse my country through her eyes, so I can better understand how it is failing other women less privileged than me, how it is failing Indigenous people, how it is silent about survivors of abuse and assault, and how the very structures—such as public education and childwelfare—we supposedly put in place to protect our most vulnerable turn into the most oppressive, most inequitable parts of our society for some.
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground is many moments of intensity punctuated by poetical prose and thoughtful ways of weaving facts and education about this country’s colonial attitudes into very personal stories. My mind is not spread out on the ground after reading this, but you can bet that it is buzzing with ideas and interest sparked by Elliott’s essays.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence
Minor: Genocide