Analysis Of Jiibay Or Aandizooke

“jiibay or aandizooke” is a poem in the book of native-oriented writings Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. The poem is told through the perspective of a deceased Nishnaabeg native witnessing the desecration of their grave.
The title “jiibay or aandizooke” poses a rhetorical question of, when translated to English, whether the remains discovered in the story is a “skeleton or messenger”, which implies that the discovery is meant to have a figurative meaning behind it. The message that Simpson intends to send with the discovery of the skeleton is almost like a warning to colonizers that they’ve gone too far and acts as a sign showing that the land belongs to native peoples. The meaning behind the poem offers a critique

It is a symbol created through the actions of law-makers, regulators, architects, and landowners who had previously and knowingly allowed the construction of the house upon sacred grounds and the desecration of burial site. Furthermore, the mound of narrator is described as “clearly marked” and well taken care of, thus proving that the colonizers from before were indeed willingly ignorant to the pre-existing graves on the land. The repetition of the line “renovating back hoeing new patio, new deck, new view” provides criticism on how colonizers are always seeking for more and can also be interpreted as historical commentary on how initial colonizers, blinded by greed for more land,

As majority of the narrative in this poem is told through the perspective of a deceased Nishnaabeg native, there is a sense of entitlement to the land present which is evident through the passage: “ breathe we are supposed to be on the lake … we are not supposed to be standing on this desecrated mound looking not looking”. Through this poem, Simpson conveys the point of how natives are the true owners of the land and that colonizers are merely intruders and borrowers of the land. There is an underlying idea that instead of turning a blind eye to the abominations colonizers have created, the natives are supposed to be the ones enjoying and utilising the land. The notion of colonizers simply being visitors is furthered in the conclusion of the poem, in which the colonizers are welcomed to the land but are also told “please don’t stay too long” in the same passage. The conclusion of this poem breaks the colonialistic idea of land belonging to the colonizer once colonized by putting in perspective that colonizers are, in essence, just passerbys on land that is not