Week 16: Making Space for Indigenous Feminism:

***I just realized that some of my blogs are mislabeled! I actually have them all here, they are just labeled with incorrect week numbers sometimes.


Chapter 1: Taking Account of Aboriginal Feminism by Joyce Green (p. 20-32)


Summary:


This is an introductory chapter that discusses Aboriginal feminism. Green states: “Aboriginal feminists raise issues of colonialism, racism and sexism, and the unpleasant synergy between these three violations of human rights” (p. 20). There is a gap in the literature of Aboriginal feminism which further shows the invisibility of these women and that these women should be viewed as: “Aboriginal and female, and as contemporary persons living in the context of colonial oppression (p. 21). Another focus of Aboriginal feminism is liberation of women and particularly marginalized women and also considers the link between feminism and colonialism. Additionally, Green states that feminism is “about building bridges to other movements working for social justice” (p. 23). An issue within Aboriginal feminism is that these women are often critiqued and their authenticity is challenged. Sometimes they are accused of being “tools of colonial ideology or for being traitors to their communities” (p. 25). In this chapter Green also considers the role of tradition. For Aboriginal women, tradition means the practices that were present before colonialism and colonial practices. This type of feminism also examines oppressive traditions to women. Another problem is that “too many Aboriginal women have been silenced or had their social and political roles minimized by invocations of appropriate tradition relative to women’s voices and choices” (p. 27). Therefore, it is necessary to reject colonial institutions and imposed ideas of tradition. In conclusion, the author highlights the main issues within Aboriginal feminism: imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism, and “power abuses within Aboriginal communities, organizations and families” (p. 30).


Reaction:


I thought that this serves as a good basis of definition before the book continues. I think that the issues were clearly presented and that pertinent examples were provided. I’m really interested to keep reading and discuss other issues brought up in this book.





Chapter 7: Practicing Indigenous Feminism: Resistance to Imperialism by Makere Stewart-Harawira (p. 124-139)


Summary:


The author of this chapter seeks to define her own view of Indigenous feminism. She also notes that in this text she prefers to use Indigenous versus Aboriginal in her treatment of the subject. She also explains how her background has come to influence her opinions. She is of Maori and Scottish descent. Her thesis has two parts: “first…Indigenous women have a vital role to play in the realization of alternative models of ‘being in the world’ and, second, that this represents a particularly poignant paradox” (p. 125). In her first subsection, “Writing as Politics” she explains how she and other Maori women use writing to “engage the dilemma of as whom do we write, and for whom?” (p. 126). The next section is titled: “Imperialist terrorism in our time.” Here the author discusses globalization and power within the world economy. In her text she sites Samir Amin who said: “capitalism has always been...by nature, a polarizing system…the concurrent construction of dominant centers and dominated peripheries and their reproduction deepening in each stage” (p. 130). The author also provides several examples of “imperial terrorism” inflicted by the U.S. against non-democratic nations on page 131. The final section is titled “Capitalism, Domination and the Subjugation of the Feminine.” Here she discusses the spread of capitalism and Christianity and the diminishing rights of Indigenous women. She also discusses male-centered societies and their focus on creating technology for the purpose of domination. Finally, the author concludes with the following statement:


Indigenous women who are in positions of privilege are called upon to vigorously refute capitalism’s excesses and greed; to refuse the dominator politics of power-over; to refuse to give up our sons and daughters, our children and grandchildren to the warmongering that is no called democracy; to reject the greed that is now called freedom; and to stand firmly in the intersection of the politics of local and global. It is from that intersection that we must decolonize the local and transform the global. As indigenous women warriors, we are called to re-weave the fabric of being in the world into a new spiritually grounded and feminine-oriented political framework and process of ‘being together in the world.’ In that process we are invited to deeply embrace the Other, who is after all, the Elders teach us, Ourself. This, I argue, is the urgent decolonizing project of Indigenous feminism today. (p. 136)