LAUSR

Abstract As a category of affect, reflection, remembrance and fantasy, nostalgia has been recognised as a feature common to human life. Indigenous peoples in settler societies are one group that is often associated with having a deep reflection of the past. It is therefore curious that the term ‘nostalgia’ is rarely applied to ‘Native’ reflection on the past. This essay first looks at the harmonising and divisive aspects of nostalgia. It then uses a systematic analysis to observe how nostalgia appears in articles in two prominent journals on Native Americans. The findings of this analysis are that ‘nostalgia’ as a term is rarely used and, when it is, it is mostly applied to non-Native fantasies about a national past. Next the essay attempts to show that not only does nostalgia exist in a Native community, but that multiple forms of nostalgia are present.