Abstract
The paper investigates the character of the windigo/wendigo/wihtikow from traditional oral Indigenous storytelling and its forms and meanings in contemporary Canadian Indigenous novel and short fiction. It explores both its definitions by Indigenous scholars and its uses and functions in texts.The paper presents both the traditional and current understandings of the windigo and examines its employment in works by contemporary Indigenous authors, Waubgeshig Rice (Moon of the Crusted Snow), Richard Van Camp (Godless but Loyal to Heaven) and Leanne Simpson (Islands of Decolonial Love) in particular.
While talking about the causes of creation of the windigo (Van Camp), the authors also use this character to warn against the maladies of the modern world and to promote restoration of some features of traditional lifestyle (Rice) but also disclosing the ways to fight it (Simpson).