[4] In the conversation about indigenous peoples working to decolonization, we must understand the specific roles the “erotic” in plays in decolonation. The erotic unfies and connects bodily experiences, is a site of liberation and resiatnce against partercahl rule and oppersion

Students Semmi and Dakota recognized that the erotic extends to every aspect of our usual lives. Semmi found the erotic as she trusted and reveled in her body’s abilities, and Dakota saw the revitalization of an entire nation in one brief moment. Daniel Heath Justice warns that Indigenous peoples working towards decolonization can’t afford to ignore “sex and embodied pleasure” as a source of empowerment. He states that “[t]he indigenous body is more than flesh, blood, and bone … Native bodies are sites of both colonized conflict and passionate decolonization” (2008, 161). Extending Justice’s thought slightly, I would suggest that there is a danger in relying too much on one aspect of our being, as, in doing so, we become unbalanced. Hinging our worth and desire on only one facet of our magnificent existence has two consequences: the first is that the single-minded, concentrated attention paid to one part of your identity may leave you disoriented and lost if that feature disappears. The second issue stemming from blindness to the full spectrum of the erotic is the loss of a potential skill or talent that goes unrecognized due to myopic attention focused elsewhere. Lorde states that “[t]he erotic is a site of potential that unifies and evolves the amalgamation of all the facets that encompasses the bodily experience” (55). As well, Lorde and Indigenous scholars like Justice, Akiwenzie-Damm, Womack, and Chris Teuton (member of the Cherokee Nation) claim that the erotic can be a site for liberation and empowerment against an oppressive, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society. One of the oldest known erotic texts is the ancient Indian text of the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana. While many have heard of the Kama Sutra and remember it for its detailed drawings of sexual positions, the Kama Sutra actually reveals a critical interpretation of the erotic. Written over 1,800 years ago, in the second century CE, this text gives advice on erotic practice, along with practical advice on behaviour leading up to, during, and after sexual activities. The author explicitly states: This work is not intended to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires. A person, acquainted with the true principles of this science, and who preserves his Dharma [virtue or religious merit], Artha [worldly wealth], and Kama [pleasure or sensual gratification], and has a regard for the practices of the people is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses. In short, an intelligent and prudent person, attending to Dharma and Artha, and attending to Kama also, without becoming a slave to his passions, obtains success in everything that he may undertake. (172) Considered by many to be the foremost guide on the erotic, the Kama Sutra is a text of erotic enlightenment demonstrating that the mind and the body are inscribed with erotic areas that respond to physical and mental sensations. As the erotic is interpreted in the following chapters, the Kama Sutra adds to the understanding of the erotic experience as an attainment of human completeness. Philosopher Georges Bataille wrote Erotism: Death & Sexuality52 in the late 1950s. Similar to the Kama Sutra and Lorde’s work, Bataillie emphasizes the importance of “continuity” in sexuality, meaning humans should appreciate how the erotic is not limited to the realm of sex, but is an ethos that reaches out into all elements of our lives. He claims, “We are discontinuous beings, individuals who perish in isolation in the midst of incomprehensible adventure, but we yearn for our lost continuity” (60–61). Desires fulfilled may lead to pleasure and ecstasy, and this is one of the potential gifts of the erotic. In the same way that Driskill, Rifkin, and Chrystos demonstrate, Bataille also encourages people to push boundaries, and argues that “Eroticism always entails a breaking down of established patterns ... of the regulated social order” (75).