Noopiming -- “in the bush” in Anishinaabemowin -- has many meanings in this book of poetry by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. It can refer to Mashkawaji - living beneath the ice in a remote Ontario lake after a historic tragedy. Or, it can be interpreted ironically to the seven characters connected to Mashkawaji, who spend much of the book in Toronto. Simpson herself says it's a response to the book “Roughing it in the Bush” by [white lady] Susanna Moodie. Each is a different reflection of colonization and its impacts.

In 10 parts, we first meet Mashkawaji, who in turn introduces us to seven human and non-human characters who each fulfill a different role for them: for example, Akiwenzii is their will or the maple tree Ninaatig, their lungs. Reflecting on this book, while I can’t remember each particular character, I know who they are, and what they live in this book is a decolonial life. They sleep on the lake (in an unspoken agreement with parks police), they memorize the cost of tarps at Canadian Tire (tarps can be used for many things, like tipis), and they just leave to go to the bush. Caribou move through the streets, they boat on Lake Ontario. They use  Anishinaabemowin pronouns, and connect with and care for each other. 

This isn’t to say the book is post-colonial, in a far future, or ignores the impacts. It's just beyond it. The book says that it happened (what tragedy befell Mashkawaji?), but Nishnaabeg have their own lives to live now. They are healing themselves, their communities, and their cultures without white people interfering.

Susanna Moodie and her sister, Catharine Parr Traill both encouraged the colonization of Canada through the writing of their memoirs and the helpful “The Female Emigrant's Guide, and Hints on Canadian Housekeeping”, published in 1855. Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies looks past that history, charting a new direction beyond the one started 150 years earlier.