Persevering through Preservation: The Unifying Force of Indigenous Language in the Fiction of Louise Erdrich and Patricia Grace

Louise Erdrich, an American Ojibwe, and Patricia Grace, a New Zealand Māori, incorporate code-switching, moving between languages, in their creative works. Rather than viewing language choice as an aside to cultural representation in fiction, code-switching should be viewed as an integral part of the text because these writers attempt to rectify the oppression of their people by using code-switching as a tool of cultural and language survival that shifts power dynamics in response to settler colonization. However, while Erdrich and Grace use the same linguistic tool for similar purposes, they ultimately impart different themes; Erdrich’s language protagonist symbolizes reconciliation while Grace’s language protestors symbolize resistance. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Erdrich and Potiki by Grace should be read in conversation with each other so that we can better understand the role indigenous languages play in Anglophone fiction