Sovereign Traces, Volume 1: Not (Just) (An)Other (Volume 1) (Makwa Enewed) by Gordon D. Henry Jr.

Sovereign Traces, Volume 1: Not (Just) (An)Other (Volume 1) (Makwa Enewed) Reviews

• 
  Sasha

  This graphic novel is a collection of short pieces written and drawn by different Native authors and artists. It's got such a wide range of talent showcased within that it's hard to rate this fairly.
  
  The art:
  Every single panel was absolutely stunning. I've skimmed through it twice since reading it just to look at some of them again.
  
  The collections:
  The writings collected within this volume all have a similar "haunting" quality when combined with the art. By far, the pieces that have stuck with me the longest are "The Deer Dancer" by Joy Harjo (art by Weshoyot Alvitre) and "Ice Tricksters" by Gerald Vizenor (art by GMB Chomichuk).
  
  I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for future volumes of this series as I really enjoyed this one.
• 
  Rachel

  Some of the stories were pretty dark, which fits the theme of Native people in the modern world. Some were a bit ambiguous, which I usually don't like. But all the pieces were well written, and they came together to make a cohesive collection. The art is excellent.
• 
  Meepelous

  Content notes for: violence, colonization, nudity, gambling, and an anti Asian slur.
  
  An anthology comic, but a pretty short comic anthology. It's one of the very few Indigenous anthologies I've read from the so called USA. Proportionally I have definitely read more Indigenous literature overall from north of the colonizer border. Not a huge deal, but it did seem to mean that I had read fewer of these people previously - although some have certainly been on my TBR for a while.
  
  What kinds of keywords came to mind? Werewolves, family, resources extraction, and isolation.
  
  As things go with anthologies, writing and art changes every few pages. Not all of it to my taste, but each of them had something to offer.
  
  Gender representation felt fairly binary but well balanced between those two extremes.
  
  Sexuality was a bit tertiary, but overall pretty heteronormative.
  
  Class wasn't a focus, but it felt like there was some pretty good representation. Or at least people who felt relatable to my over worked working class millennial heart.
  
  The social construct of race, was obviously the focus of this collection. This was certainly its strongest point, but also a bit of an Achilles' heel. Mostly this boils down to the use of the anti-Asian G slur in the second to last story. For context, not justification, the character in question is not a good guy who we seem to be encourage to emulate. I just also don't see the point. There's a lot of creative ways to show hateful characters that doesn't include straight up and unedited slurs.
  
  And finally, with the giant caveat that I might have missed something, nothing related to being anything less then perfectly able bodied seemed to come up.
  
  To conclude, this anthology was more of a mixed bag then usual. I'm a bit torn between a high two out of five stars and a low three out of five stars.
• 
  Elizabeth

  3.5 stars.
  
  This anthology of North American Indigenous comics was a solid read, with a surprising variety of stories included within the slim volume. I was familiar with most of the writers and artists featured, and they lived up to expectations. I would recommend it, and I'm definitely curious to read the next volume.
• 
  Laura

  a collection of short stories in graphic novel format - by several well known indigenous authors who I enjoy.