Patty Krawec is an Anishinaabe social worker, podcaster, and author. I was very intrigued that she references bad Indians in her book title. It is a historical reference to American President Theodore Roosevelt who said that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. Over the years, various Indigenous creatives have responded to that quote by declaring themselves bad Indians.
Before picking up the book, I listened to some podcasts with Patty in order to help me decide whether or not to read the book. In this one, I learned that she wrote her first book because she was listening to a sermon, and she had a reaction to something said in the sermon. Then I listened to this podcast, where several people are in conversation about Daniel Heath Justice's book Why Indigenous Literatures Matter. One of the guests is Daniel Heath Justice himself. Janet Marie Rogers is also a guest. Another one of the guests is a non-Indigenous guy from Texas who studies theology and writes about religious themes. He randomly mentions seminary in the podcast. What struck me most about the podcast that I listened to was the way that people from different backgrounds were able to find common ground through books.
Something that Patty is very forthright about in her podcast is the fact that she was not raised by her Indigenous family. She thought that she was "the last dodo" because she didn't have any exposure to other Indigenous people and as a young person she learned about Indigenous people from Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza. And she emphasizes that it is important to keep that in mind. In many ways, we as listener are joining her on her own ongoing identity exploration. What I appreciate about her work is that she is very enthusiastic about Indigenous literature.
Having listened to a few podcasts, I decided that yes, I would buy her book. The cover art is by NiCole Hatfield.
A lot of the chapters are inspired by related podcast episodes, however, the podcast did not have an episode on Indigenous futurisms, so this chapter contains entirely new content. The podcast is called Ambe. The premise of the podcast is that she spends a year reading Indigenous books and bringing people together to talk about them. So then the title of the book, Bad Indians Book Club, is reflective of the fact that she has been running this book club (podcast) for a year, and is now putting her thoughts on paper.
The book's introduction contains summaries of the chapters. Here is the summary of the Indigenous futurisms chapter:
We end with chapter 8, titled "Dibaadodamaang Ge-Izhi-Bimaadiziyang," which means us talking about how we will be living in the future - through speculative fiction or stories about our realities. When Bad Indians write our own speculative fiction and fantasy and science fiction - when we create, as Justice calls them, "wonderworks" - we are able to imagine ourselves there, imagine ourselves having a future on our own terms, not some space colony DEI project. (Krawec, 2025, p.43).
She begins by grounding this chapter in an Anishinaabe story, and a discussion on how many Indigenous cultures have stories about worlds ending and worlds beginning. Then she references Daniel Heath Justice:
Justice also makes the intriguing observation that writing about the future asks us to think about what kind of ancestors we will become. As future generations walk backward into the future, what will they see when they fix their eyes on us? (Krawec, 2025, p.190).
Following that, she briefly touches on Afrofuturisms, including the work of Octavia Butler and adrienne marie brown.
The texts that she talks about include:
- A Snake Falls to Earth
- Prey
- As Many Ships as Stars
- Thor: Ragnarok
- A Short History of the Blockage: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin
- Buffalo is the New Buffalo
- Moon of the Crusted Snow
- Moon of the Turning Leaves
- Marrow Thieves
- Star Wars - A New Hope
- Sword Stone Table
- Moonshot
I was pleased that she talked about two books that I had not heard of (Sword Stone Table and As Many Ships as Stars) which I plan on adding to my reading list. A strength of her writing style is that she puts the books in conversation with each other. She will talk about an idea that she likes in one book, and then that will lead her to talk about an idea that she liked in another book, and so on. So it doesn't feel like she is just listing books. She is connecting the books with each other.
I was also pleased that she put Thor: Ragnarok on there, because it doesn't get enough love. Also, I started a Disney Plus subscription just to watch Prey. Highly recommend. But I'm also going to cancel my subscription soon.
Overall, I really enjoyed this chapter.
In terms of the book overall, her style of writing is very much the style of talking that is in podcasts. Reflective, touching on the zeitgeist, kind of organic, very personal. For example, sometimes she will just randomly start talking about a meme that she saw on social media. I find a lot of podcasters are big on non-conformity and being contrarian . Whatever material is in front of them, they have a "yeah but" quip or they have a hot take on a commonly accepted sentiment. Patty's podcast adheres to that podcast convention. For example, in one of her podcasts someone responds to a tweet and they take issue with the word Indigenous and the idea of identity. But you kind of have to take these hot takes with a grain of salt. A lot of Indigenous people put a lot of time and effort into UNDRIP and the UN definition of Indigenous, so to randomly just declare it to be inappropriate of whatever is ahistorical and not really a studied approach. Similarly in BC, Indigenous educators have formally communicated through the First People's Principles of Learning that exploration of identity is important. In terms of all the fights that one could take on in the world, why choose the word Indigenous or the concept of identity? But that's what podcasters do sometimes because it is entertaining - they spontaneously take a contrarian approach to random things. It's a Seinfeld-esque qualify of the medium. It would not be a very long or interesting podcast if someone said, "what do you think about the word Indigenous and the concept of identity?" and the other person said, "let me think about it, read about it, consult people that I trust who know a lot about the history of the word, and I'll get back to you." Sometimes in the book she refers to things without citing them. For example, she said that the Maori have a saying that they walk backwards into the future with their eyes fixed on the past. It's a beautiful saying, but it's not cited. With Indigenous knowledge, I think it is important to say where you got your information. So for those reasons, while I do find this book entertaining, I would probably not use it in the classroom unless I had done some front end loading around Indigenous Knowledge/research ethics in advance of using the text.
That being said, as a fan of Indigenous literature, I did find the book to be a worthwhile way to spend some time.
Works Cited
Krawec, P. (2025). Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds. Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Books.
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