"Let us die trying": a post-colonial reading of Velma Wallis

Seth G. Myers
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:51:23 PDT

This essay explores the work of Velma Wallis from the perspective of post-colonial theory. Her works, Two Old Women and Bird Girl and the Man who Followed the Sun are read within this theoretical framework as volatile and resistant texts, in opposition to readings that might limit their meaning as ethnographic or otherwise. I outline the generalities of my theoretical framework with reference to Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha, before I approach a discussion of Native American literature and Velma Wallis specifically. Within this theoretical framework, I find that Wallis resists, not only generic definition, but the larger structures of colonialism, through an exploration of resistance within so-called colonized groups. She performs this resistance by demonstrating the power of language, that survival is itself resistant, the resistance of feminism, and the importance of positive dialogue in a world of cultural contact.