About the Blogger
Critical Poly, AKA Kim TallBear
I was politicized at a young age, raised in a socially turbulent time in the wake of the American Indian Movement (AIM), in both rural and urban communities in what is now known as South Dakota and Minnesota, territory occupied by the USA. My teachers and role models - both Indigenous and not - were activists, community institution-builders, artists, students, progressive politicians, and traditional people. I was especially raised by strong and independent women who survived much hardship--my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Although like many of us, I was raised in a subtly sex stigmatizing environment that I attribute to the effects of all the good colonial agents, Christian missionaries and the settler state. I come from a line of Dakota and other Indigenous thinkers who are known for their complex intellectual and political contradictions, people who knew that cultural dynamism is essential to not only their peoples' survival, but to our flourishing.
In addition to my work and social life, other political commitments, and being a mom to my brilliant, kind, and outspoken child, I blog and tweet as the Critical Polyamorist about polyamory, other forms of open non-monogamy, and their intersections with Indigeneity, race, and cultural politics in the US and Canada. After many years of living and traveling in multiple places across the U.S., Canada, and the world, I am happy to be living back under big, beautiful mid-continental skies, south of the Arctic Circle, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I have multiple human loves, but the prairies and their rivers and skies are the most enduring loves of my heart.
I took up the study and practice of ethical non-monogamy, most specifically polyamory and more recently aspects of relationship anarchy (RA), in 2013. I blogged anonymously as The Critical Polyamorist from 2013 until 2017. AKA as Kim TallBear, I am occasionally trolled for my other writing and scholarship that advocates Indigenous and feminist approaches to the decolonization of science and technology fields, and for which I am most well known. I thought the harassment might become more if I was open with my non-monogamy. However, I have grown more comfortable over time with the strength and nuance of my analyses on these topics. I have also felt inspired (challenged?) to be open when I witness the courage and incisive analyses of settler sexuality and institutions by especially younger Indigenous two-spirit and queer scholars, artists, and activists. I decided that I needed to be more courageous. And I want to also offer examples of other possibilities.
Non-monogamy is not only a personal decolonizing project. I tie it into my decolonial Indigenous Studies scholarship, including my scholarship on nature and environment. I am increasingly asked by colleagues in the know to lecture about non-monogamy. I welcome the opportunities to speak and write to others - including Indigenous people - about the joy, community, and decolonial theorizing to be found in evolving forms of non-monogamy. Monogamy has not been a choice for many of us, Indigenous and not. It is mostly compulsory in settler society, and challenging It is to challenge the colonial imposition of often oppressive forms of settler sexuality, family, and property. My Dakota ancestors were also non-monogamous and there are accounts of multiple marriages (whether sexual or not, we do not always know) being used to make extended kinship networks and to take care of relatives more effectively. I figure my ancestors probably had it more right than the violent imposers of one-on-one, lifelong, monogamous state- and church-sanctioned marriage. My non-monogamy project, while it can never be exactly what my ancestors did, in part honours their relationship wisdom.
On a final note, I view polyamory and RA as also forms of settler sexuality, but with opportunities for partial decolonization. I view these less common settler relationship forms as steps on the road to disaggregating "sexuality" into good relations, an important Dakota principle, with my intimate others.
The Critical Polyamorist
In addition to my work and social life, other political commitments, and being a mom to my brilliant, kind, and outspoken child, I blog and tweet as the Critical Polyamorist about polyamory, other forms of open non-monogamy, and their intersections with Indigeneity, race, and cultural politics in the US and Canada. After many years of living and traveling in multiple places across the U.S., Canada, and the world, I am happy to be living back under big, beautiful mid-continental skies, south of the Arctic Circle, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I have multiple human loves, but the prairies and their rivers and skies are the most enduring loves of my heart.
I took up the study and practice of ethical non-monogamy, most specifically polyamory and more recently aspects of relationship anarchy (RA), in 2013. I blogged anonymously as The Critical Polyamorist from 2013 until 2017. AKA as Kim TallBear, I am occasionally trolled for my other writing and scholarship that advocates Indigenous and feminist approaches to the decolonization of science and technology fields, and for which I am most well known. I thought the harassment might become more if I was open with my non-monogamy. However, I have grown more comfortable over time with the strength and nuance of my analyses on these topics. I have also felt inspired (challenged?) to be open when I witness the courage and incisive analyses of settler sexuality and institutions by especially younger Indigenous two-spirit and queer scholars, artists, and activists. I decided that I needed to be more courageous. And I want to also offer examples of other possibilities.
Non-monogamy is not only a personal decolonizing project. I tie it into my decolonial Indigenous Studies scholarship, including my scholarship on nature and environment. I am increasingly asked by colleagues in the know to lecture about non-monogamy. I welcome the opportunities to speak and write to others - including Indigenous people - about the joy, community, and decolonial theorizing to be found in evolving forms of non-monogamy. Monogamy has not been a choice for many of us, Indigenous and not. It is mostly compulsory in settler society, and challenging It is to challenge the colonial imposition of often oppressive forms of settler sexuality, family, and property. My Dakota ancestors were also non-monogamous and there are accounts of multiple marriages (whether sexual or not, we do not always know) being used to make extended kinship networks and to take care of relatives more effectively. I figure my ancestors probably had it more right than the violent imposers of one-on-one, lifelong, monogamous state- and church-sanctioned marriage. My non-monogamy project, while it can never be exactly what my ancestors did, in part honours their relationship wisdom.
On a final note, I view polyamory and RA as also forms of settler sexuality, but with opportunities for partial decolonization. I view these less common settler relationship forms as steps on the road to disaggregating "sexuality" into good relations, an important Dakota principle, with my intimate others.
The Critical Polyamorist
