Indígenas de Férias

Thomas King´s Narratives of Resistance in Brazilian Territory

Abstract

Thomas King is one of the most well-known contemporary Indigenous writers, recognized for an extensive literary production, which acknowledges the complexities of Indigenous identity in North America with humor and irony. Indígenas de Férias is his first novel translated into Portuguese, published in Brazil in 2022 with the curatorship of TAG Livros and translated by Davi Boaventura. In this article, we analyze the contributions of King´s work and the translation of his novel in the Brazilian context, considering the fundamental aspects of his literary writing as resistance to colonial discourses and imaginaries. As his writing encompasses humor, irony and social criticism, he deconstructs ingrained stereotypes and offers new possibilities for understanding indigenous identities, repositioning them from the locus of the exotic, marginalized and past, while converging with central issues in the studies of Indigenous Literature in Brazil. The publication of Indígenas de Férias in Brazil approximates Brazilian readers to Thomas King´s critical and artistic work. It not only enhances the access to Canadian Indigenous literature, but also defies Brazilian readers to reflect about Indigenous representations in different contexts, as well as Indigenous presence in the contemporary world, who inhabits both traditional territories and urban and technological contexts. The novel, alongside works such as The Truth About Stories and I´m not the Indian You Had in Mind, contributes to a broader debate about identity, memory and Indigenous resistance. These are central themes to the trajectory and literary work by Thomas King, and they engage Indigenous peoples and resonate today in the literary, critical and theoretical production by Indigenous writers in Brazil.