The University of Arizona Press
Bundle
Life, Stories, and Hope Across Díne Worlds
The stories colonizers tell about Diné people represent them as adaptors, uncontrollable, and unruly. These wounding narratives justify the displacement and dispossession of Diné people, masking the ongoing violence of settler colonialism.
Bundle: Life, Stories, and Hope Across Diné Worlds challenges and dismantles these harmful depictions. By shifting the paradigm away from anthropological lenses, this book offers an exploration of bundling: the active, physical, spiritual, and ideological practice through which Diné people assemble stories, tools, and knowledge. From world shifts detailed in oral narratives to the present deadly structures of colonization, Diné people have long relied on their bundled knowledge systems to sustain their presence across worlds and time.
Bundle is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand Diné resistance, hope, and worlding. Rather than studying Diné life from the outside, it prioritizes Diné ways of knowing and being to develop bundling as a theory of continuance. For readers invested in decolonization, place-making, and storytelling, Bundle provides an indispensable roadmap for how Diné people continue even in the face of domination.
“A gift of a book for dreamers and fighters of Indigenous futures. Clark provides a constellation of maps toward possibilities of Diné world building that is guided by hope, love, and language.”—Amanda R. Tachine, author of Native Presence and Sovereignty in College
“Clark immerses readers in the stories and teachings of Bundle, not just telling but showing Diné worlds of past, present, and future. As he emotes in his writing, the reader is filled with senses of the peoples and places, including those deeply personal to Clark, that shape Diné and that Diné shape. These senses lead to better understanding why Diné places and peoples matter, evoking life lessons for everyone and anyone, especially through the power of Sihasin—hope and reflection.”—Farina King (Navajo Nation citizen), author of Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century
“Carefully researched and beautifully written, Bundle sets a new standard in Indigenous studies and is a must-read. Clark brings together everyday stories about Diné people, moving from his family home on the Rez, through those whose lives are lost in bordertowns or remote highways, to the many ways that families practice care, bundling together a vision of love and hope.”—Dr. Adam J. Barker, co-author of Settler: Identity and Colonialism, 2nd Edition
“Clark’s work in Bundle will influence generations of thinkers. His generous, ethical, and deeply insightful Diné-centered analysis invites readers to consider and reflect alongside him, unbundling complicated personal and public histories, realities, and texts, reconsidering their meanings for the present and for our individual and shared futures.”—Jeff Berglund, co-editor of The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature
