women the world must hear
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Kandi White. Photo courtesy of Kandi White.
Indigenous women organizing to bring awareness about Murdered Indigenous Women and People in Bemidji, MN. Photo by Nedahness Rose Greene.
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Indigenous Women Taking Charge for the Protection of the Future
andi “EagleWoman” White (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) is a leading voice in the fight to bring visibility to the impacts that climate change and environmental injustice are having on Indigenous communities across North America. Kandi began her work with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) as the Tribal Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator, engaging with more than 30 Tribal colleges to instate community based environmental programs and connect Indigenous youth with green jobs. She is currently IEN’s Lead Organizer on the Extreme Energy & Just Transition Campaign, focusing on creating awareness about the environmentally and socially devastating effects of hydraulic fracturing on Tribal lands and working towards a Just Transition away from the fossil fuel industry. Simone Senogles (Anishinaabe) is from the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota. As a member of the leadership team at IEN where she has worked for over 20 years, she is focused on lifting up Ogimaakwewiwin (Indigenous women’s and fems’ leadership and power). The Indigenous Environmental Network is an Indigenousled and operated environmental justice organization working with Indigenous communities and Nations in the U.S. and Canada on climate justice. Daisee Francour (Oneida), Cultural Survival Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications, recently spoke with White and Senogles.
www.cs.o rg
Daisee Francour: What is Indigenous feminism? What does adding an “s” [feminisms] mean? Simone Senogles: There’s a lot of diversity within Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. It’s beneficial to recognize that diversity and understand that the way that different Tribes view gender and gender roles really varies. [The plural] Indigenous feminisms honors that diversity. One of the things that we recognize about the word ‘feminism’ is that it’s necessary in this moment of colonization to pull out of the tangle of colonization and internalized patriarchy, sexism, and oppression of women and fems. This word is useful to us in this moment as we try to reconnect with our own definitions of what is a gender balance, what is a just society. What is the intersection of climate change and Indigenous feminism? How do you see that intersection in the work that you do? SS: I live in northern Minnesota. In our teachings, women are responsible for the water. Atmosphere is water. Water is the transition from the spirit to physical life, and water is life. Recently, we have been engaged in a fight against an oil pipeline coming through our territories. Northern Minnesota is called the land of 10,000 lakes, but there’s even more. Everything about our society, culture, teachings, and understanding about our role in the world is
