Transmotion

In Native Transmotion, Gerald Vizenor uses transmotion without the formal definition I am accustomed to. This created an exciting and frustrating challenge: when I thought I had a working definition, the next usage would present new opportunities for meaning. Later, when discussing a paper about the displacement of indigenous peoples from Western Pennsylvania with Dr. Gómez, I was able to clearly conceptualize transmotion in my paper. When reading Vizenor, I had been narrowly focused on theory. Reading about indigenous displacement, I had been narrowly focused on facts. Sometimes seeing both textual worlds clearly is only possible with perspective and time. 

by Cavan Vaux Bonner