Indigenous Feminism Summary

Barker, J. (2008). Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women's Activism against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada. American Quarterly, 60(2), 8. Retrieved fro m http://search.Proquest.com.Ez proxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/61688929?Acc ountid=15182.

What roles do Indigenous women play within the family? Do these roles change with further contact with Europeans? What strategies are used by these women to attempt to maintain their independence and power?

Throughout history, women have been the victims of oppression in society. In specific, Aboriginal women have suffered through racism, sexism, domestic violence, and over-representation. Through the implementation of the Indian Act, Aboriginal women have been forced to abandon their culture in order to assimilate into Canadian society. The effects of colonization has changed the way Aboriginal women are treated; emotionally and physically, and therefore are the source of oppression today.

Canada ­as a nation is known to the world for being loving, courteous, and typically very welcoming of all ethnicities. Nevertheless, the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous population over the past decades, appears to suggest otherwise. Indigenous people have been tormented and oppressed by the Canadian society for hundreds of years and remain to live under discrimination resulting in cultural brutality. This, and more, has caused severe negative cultural consequences, psychological and sociological effects. The history of the seclusion of Indigenous people has played a prominent aspect in the development and impact of how Indigenous people are treated and perceived in today’s society. Unfortunately, our history with respect to the treatment of Indigenous communities is not something in which we should take pride in. The Indian Act of 1876 is an excellent model of how the behavior of racial and cultural superiority attributed to the destruction of Indigenous culture and beliefs. The Indian Act established by the Canadian government is a policy of Aboriginal assimilation which compels Indigenous parents under threat of prosecution to integrate their children into Residential Schools. As a nation, we are reminded by past actions that has prompted the weakening of the identity of Indigenous peoples. Residential schools has also contributed to the annihilation of Indigenous culture which was to kill the Indian in the child by isolating them from the influence of their parents and

Imagine a normal day. You wake up, you get ready, you probably see your mom, wife or sister. You say goodbye and head on your way. Once home, you sit down with them and talk about your day. When sad they comfort you, they love, support, care for you. Now imagine you wake up one day and they have disappeared without a trace. Gone. You are heartbroken. This is a sad reality for many Indigenous families, many women are vanishing without a trace. Between 1200-4000 Indigenous women have been missing or murdered in the last 30 years. These women are often targeted and treated as being worthless leading to little support from police and the public. After being immersed into this issue I learned lots, but I was left feeling sad,

Aboriginal women face disproportionate challenges throughout their incarceration which impacts their successful community reintegration. Over the last ten years, inmate assaults involving Aboriginal women have exponentially grown, almost doubling, while use of force incidents have more than tripled. Rates of self-injury involving incarcerated Aboriginal women are seventeen times higher than that of non-Aboriginal women. To agree with Baldry, Carlton, and Cunneen, using Indigenous women as a focus point is beneficial because their "experiences embody and exemplify the intersections between colonial and neocolonial oppression and the multiple sites of gender and disadvantage and inequality that stem from patriarchal domination." Cunneen highlights that Indigenous women actually live in "many prisons"; the prison of misunderstanding; the prison of misogyny; and the prison of disempowerment. Patricia Monture insists that one way women can resist oppression and facilitate social change is by telling their own stories. The Task Force for Federally Sentenced Women developed a report called Creating Choices, which attempted to relocate the power to make choices in womens' lives out of the hands of prison officials and back to the women themselves because, according to the findings of the Task Force, it is only when people are treated with respect and when they are empowered can they take responsibility for their actions and make meaningful decisions. Monture-Okanee reflects on the irony of the final report

One of the difficulties in studying and assessing the effects and causes of changing terminologies and beliefs regarding Native American and First Nations gender identities is the incredible variety between both the histories of different tribes and the individual’s understanding of personal identity. It is a frequent and recurring problem in academia surrounding minority groups, whether they be racial, ethnic, sexual, or gender minorities, that the voices of actual members of the group being studied are ignored. What they are saying can be sterilized, particularly when the researcher is not a member of the group. The reality of the emotional and practical reasons for terminology used by these individuals cannot be understood without direct input from their voices, and as such five different perspectives regarding identity and terminology taken by Native American individuals are represented here. These examples are taken from blog posts regarding various topics surrounding these ideas, and the tribes represented include the Navajo, White Bear Clan, Cree, Metis, and Mi’kmaq people. While each of the five have different relationships to their Native ancestry, all five individuals take a perspective regarding the use of the term two-spirit. While all five take a positive stance on the use of the word, applying it to themselves, their understanding and emotional attachment to the word varies.

Although this course is about global women’s movements, the overall argument in which I intend on taking for the purpose of this book review is that besides women, First Nations men are also victims of oppression. In addition to oppression, first nations are often stereotyped by society. Rice’s book does a good job on reflecting this idea once again, through the use of first person point of view stories. It allows the reader to really understand how these stereotypes affect the everyday lives of First Nations people. Before getting into how stereotyping affects the lives of these people, we will begin with looking into oppression and how it relates to the textbook.

Firstly, many indigenous women are found missing or murdered; this occurs because Aboriginals are not getting enough support from the Canadian government. Native people around Canada are seen as an independent group of people who do not get proper government funding because they are very much removed from society so everybody thinks that they have no problems which need support from the Canadian government. For example, when we look at Aboriginal people we see them as a group of people who live in the

The film Highway of Tears brought to light many issues faced by Indigenous persons however, its main focus was the missing and murdered women found along Highway 16 in Northern British Columbia. Majority of the women who are missing as well as those who were murdered are Indigenous women. This film displayed that although there are ways to prevent and possibly end the violence against Aboriginal women, no action was being taken by police or other government agents to do so. It was discussed how this as well as other wrongs done to Indigenous persons and communities, is a result of past and present colonialism.

In the article Colonialism and First Nations Women in Canada by Winona Stevenson, the author explains the struggle First Nations women had keeping their culture alive. Upon arriving in America the Europeans suffocated the natives with their rationalisation of female subjugation. Reluctant to give up their traditions and honour the native-American women put up a fight, but their efforts would not be strong enough to triumph over the European missionaries. Stevenson chronologically explains their contact with the ‘colonial agencies'.

Second Slide: The ways in which Indigenous Women tried to resist, but were ultimately victims of colonization, and how heteropatriarchy has affected them.

Dary explains that Indegenous women demonstrate a boundless love for their families, their lands, their nations and themselves as indigenous people, which makes those people active members in the protests (Nason, par 1). She adds that women who participate in the “Idle No More” movement express their refusal to give up and submit to the colonizer’s hegemony. Nason mentions that Indian women would protect their values for any price, and protecting the environment through the Idle No More movement is one of their values (Nason, par 2). Naso also mentions that Indians women’s love for what they stand for is powerful. It is because this love inspires people to defy the destructive environmental policies, as those women demand justice for children living in sub-standard conditions (Nason, par

In the late 19th century many events occurred that affected the citizenship status of the people who were living along the U.S. and Mexican Border, there were new laws created in attempt to satisfy the demands of Indigenous people who wanted to protect their status in the U.S. Laws were created during this time that we have talked about in lecture that way or another failed to protect the rights if the minorities in this area. In particular women of color are the ones throughout all the topics that we have covered in class are the ones that get the least representation in the legal system. It is evident that violence prevailed along the border and greatly affected the Indigenous women due to the lack of protection. It is clear that during this time and other events that we have discussed thus far have a clear division of power among the different gender roles that favor males.

To begin, through colonial documentation it can be see that the identity of the Indigenous woman, changed systematically to fit the agenda of the white settlers. The importance of this is that the European-Constructed image of Native women, has been historically connected to the land. Therefore, the treatment of Indigenous women by white settlers, mirrors western attitudes towards the earth. This is why the three identities created by white settlers are monumentally important. The identity constructed on first encounter with Indigenous women was that of the Indian Queen. The identity of the Indian Queen portrays Indigenous women as exotic, powerful, dangerous and beautiful, a symbol that reflected