I decide to go back to the island, and make the ferry crossing with a single yellow ticket tucked authentically into the visor of my rental car. In my bag there is a deerskin pouch of tobacco, a gift from Cayuga elder Ken Maracle. The old chugging diesel ferry is gone, replaced by an electric one that glides across the channel, the familiar landscape resolving in my memory as we draw near the shore. But this time it is not “the island,” or Howe Island, but Ka-ou-enesegoan, its proper name in Kanyen´kéha. This time, I see the island as part of a different set of histories and kinscapes, ones that I have come to study and write about …
Bio:
Charles Prior is head of the School of Humanities at the University of Hull (UK) and co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group.