Overwritten Words 

-The Story of  Terese Marie Mailhot

Preface 

The Guardian review by Diana Evans makes an excellent opening point "The danger is that the voice itself gets lost in its greater significance, and we do not hear it clearly, its specific cadences and particularities, what distinguishes it from another in the same camp. The camp becomes the voice." (1) The issue that many of the minority voices face is that of being made into an average by the majority. Even well meaning members of the majority can be lazy in their allyship in this way. With that in mind I hope you can take the message of Heart Berries and at the same time preserve Mailhot's voice and lived experience as you hear this research on her memoir.

About

The story of Terese Marie Mailhot's early life into her writing career, and the story of her debut novel "Heart Berries" are one in the same. Mailhot was born into a situation where the facts of her life there, the reservation, poverty, and the sexual abuse she suffered were all products of political history one way or another.(1) Her truth, this memoir, is ugly and it is startling, its also necessary for people in the USA to hear.(1) They, myself included, must acknowledge that this story is a direct product of a system from which they benefit.

Heart Berries

Mailhot first began the telling of Heart Berries after she had breakdown and was committed, on a notepad given to record her feelings on. (1) The story starts with the story "The Indian Condition", Mailhot is giving birth to her second child, on the same day the court rules that she is not fit to be the parent to her first. (3)  This is exemplary of how Native Americans/First Nation Peoples were made to live. In places with poor access to reproductive education as well as food. This can be seen where.

    The biggest theme in Heart Berries, and the life experience of Mailhot as a whole, is the idea that stories get overwritten. Especially when they are told by marginalized people, as she tells The Chicago Tribune that she is made to write "in a world where 'no one wants to know why Indian women(sic.) leave or where they go.'"(3) This fatigue and apathy is something that she and many others are made to contend with, alongside the struggles marginalized peoples already are faced with. 

    In a passage, Mailhot reflects on what her mother's reaction might be to her deciding to go to a mental institution.(2) She also writes that it is difficult in the institutions, because the white doctors and nurses don't know a thing about intergenerational trauma or genocide, everything that created the circumstances she was born into. While she did need and receive help from the institution, it still was important that she found balance in the ceremony and prayer of her mother.(2) The world she occupies, while many people mean well, it is often more effort than they are prepared to give. To truly hear and understand where someone so different than you has come from is challenging. While I don't approve of the attitude and try to overcome it in my own life, I can see why so many marginalized voices end up blended together.

I’ve seen people write that this is a manifesto for Native girls, and I feel so scared of that because I don’t want Native girls to follow my footsteps.   — Terese Marie Mailhot

Bibliography

1)  Evans, Diana "Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot review-- a raw, rich indigenous memoir" The Guardian, Sat 4 Aug         2018. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/04/heart-berries-by-terese-marie-mailhot-review/ Accessed Oct 13     2026.

2)  Castaneda, Vera "Q&A:: The art of a revealing memoir: Terese Marie Mailhot and ‘Heart Berries’'" La Times, June 1     2018.  https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-terese-marie-mailhot-20180601-story.html/ Accessed Oct 13 2026.

3) Rooney, Kathleen "Review: 'Heart Berries' — Terese Marie Mailhot's searing memoir of Native American experience”     Chicago Tribune, Feb 02 2018.     https://web.archive.org/web/20210703171323/https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/sc-books-heart-    berries-terese-marie-mailhot-0207-story.html Accessed Oct 14 2026.