Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from UNO Press, via edelweissplus, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.
As November is Native American month, I wanted to share the reissue of this great local book with you!
Synopsis:
Hundreds of years ago, Terrebonne Parish was known to Indigenous peoples as "Yakni Chitto," which means "Big Country." Located between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya, Monique's father's parents were born along Bayou Pointe-aux-Chenes into a small Houma community. Migrating to Lower St. Bernard Parish each winter to trap, they eventually bought land along Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs. Monique spent a large part of her childhood with her grandmother, Armantine Marie Billiot Verdin, and in the 1990s began to document their family's deep connection to South Louisiana in black and white photographs.
As she writes in the book, "I've been trying to make sense of the strange beauty left here—the magic that is entangled in the ugliest underbelly of a plantation economy surrendered to the petro-chemical industry." In conversation with writers, family members, and theatre-makers, Monique shares how multiracial collectives in South Louisiana have come together to honor and protect their homes and work towards a shared future.
Review:
Part love story to her lineage, part love story to the land that sustained them, the book is also a warning of the changes that have been brought upon the land that has sustained her family. Louisiana is truly a melting pot of cultures, and the history of Yakni Chitto and the Houma people truly encapsulates this occurrence, more than anywhere else in the state. We see the Houma area as 'Cajun', but in reality it is a much varied mixture of the native cultures that fled to the area to escape persecution, the French and Spanish settlers, and the slaves brought to the country by them. Through her family's personal narrative, and her black and white pictures, verdin shows you the changes brought upon her lineage, and how those changes, changed not only its path, but how the family lived and which part of the bayou they remained on, or fled from. Those changes are also brought upon by modern 'progress' and as it has attempted to wipe out the culture, it has also helped to wipe the land that one nourished it. The ecological issues are a reality those in southern Louisiana face daily, and with every hurricane the sea takes more its land from the residents. An intriguing book of how American progress has affected one family, and how 'radicalism' can take many forms, anyone interested in Louisiana should read the book, to truly understand the unique cultures that continue to live in the state, and why they remain.
About the Author:
Monique Michelle Verdin is a native daughter of southeast Louisiana. Her intimate documentation of the Mississippi River Deltas' indigenous Houma nation exposes the complex interconnectedness of environment, economics, culture, climate and change. Her photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous, Yale University Press (2008) and Nonesuch Records' Habitat for Humanity benefit album Our New Orleans (2005).
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