Navigating Feminism and Self-Determination: Indigenous Women’s Movements and Indige nous Feminism in Canada and Internationally by Clara Sedzro

Abstract

Indigenous women’s multilayered identities place them at a unique location in terms of structural oppression as their individual and collective rights are scarcely ever acknowledged as a unit. This study will seek to demonstrate the transformative power of Indigenous women’s rights movement has tremendous potential because of Indigenous women’s standpoint allows for two human rights narratives. In a first section, the paper analyzes the ways in which indigenous women’s identity highlights oppressive mechanisms in both Indigenous communities and the settler state in its fight for indigenous self-determination. Indigenous women’s movements concurrently fight for self-determination and for feminism in an effort to reconcile both movements which have been accused of being divisive. Indigenous feminism replaces Indigenous women at the heart of the nation and amplifies the fight for self-determination. Additionally, indigenous women’s movements challenge the core of neoliberal feminism by advocating for both collective and individual rights as a whole as the gender oppression they experience is indissociable from structural systems of inequality such as racism, colonialism and capitalism. Indigenous women’s movement and their platforms challenge feminism, indigenous communities and the settler state at once. Their positionality allows them to expose multiple mechanisms of oppression which plays into the transformative and organizational power of these movements.

Résumé

Les identités multiples des femmes autochtones les placent dans une situation unique en termes d’oppression structurelle, car leurs droits individuels et collectifs sont rarement reconnus en tant qu’unité. Cette étude cherchera à démontrer le pouvoir de transformation du mouvement des droits des femmes autochtones a un potentiel énorme parce que le point de vue des femmes autochtones permet deux récits des droits de l’homme. Dans une première partie, l’ouvrage analyse la façon dont l’identité des femmes autochtones met en évidence les mécanismes d’oppression tant dans les communautés autochtones que dans l’État colonisateur dans sa lutte pour l’autodétermination des peuples autochtones. Les mouvements de femmes autochtones luttent simultanément pour l’autodétermination et pour le féminisme dans un effort pour réconcilier les deux mouvements qui ont été accusés de semer la discorde. Le féminisme autochtone replace les femmes autochtones au cœur de la nation et amplifie la lutte pour l’autodétermination. En outre, les mouvements de femmes autochtones remettent en question le cœur du féminisme néolibéral en défendant les droits collectifs et individuels dans leur ensemble, car l’oppression sexiste qu’elles subissent est indissociable des systèmes structurels d’inégalité tels que le racisme, le colonialisme et le capitalisme. Le mouvement des femmes autochtones et leurs plateformes défient à la fois le féminisme, les peuples autochtones et l’État colonisateur. Leur position leur permet d’exposer de multiples mécanismes d’oppression qui jouent dans le pouvoir de transformation et d’organisation de ces mouvements.

Introduction

Historically, Indigenous women have been major actors of Indigenous diplomatic processes1. However, colonization and neo-colonial practices have pushed them to the sidelines and rendered their voices and activism invisible by separating feminist theories from Indigenous agendas. These colonial practices disturbed the gendered hierarchies of Indigenous societies causing a shift from matriarchal/matrilineal societies to patriarchal and patrilineal societies. Additionally, colonialism destroyed Indigenous women’s autonomy which engendered the subsequent devaluation and invisibilization of Indigenous women’s contributions to the public and private life of communities as well as Indigenous women’s contributions to the self-determination movement and resistance. The imposition of colonial patriarchal norms in Canada has concealed the gendered mechanisms of oppression imposed on Indigenous communities, condemning women to gendered violence from the state and from their nations creating a cultural hegemony in terms of gender norms2. This places Indigenous women at a unique and contentious location in regards to their identity since they are fighting for Indigenous self-determination at the communal, the national and international level as well as fighting against neoliberal feminism. While Indigenous women are somewhat involved in international and national discussions on Indigenous sovereignty and feminism, their concerns are often dismissed on behalf of Indigenous men and white women. Their collective and individual rights are not acknowledged as a unit but rather as contradictory and conflicting3. However, Indigenous women’s activism has a tremendous transformative potential because these women’s unique multilayered identity sheds light on and challenges multiple oppressive mechanisms put in place by the settler state, including settler-colonialism itself and the patriarchy. Neoliberal feminism upholds the colonial oppression of Indigneous women leading their activism, founded in the reconciliation of collective and individual rights to challenge both neoliberal feminism as part of an anti-settler colonial activism. This paper will argue that through the reconciliation of their collective and individual rights, Indigenous women and their activism have a transformative capacity to bring forward the development of and significant achievements for Indigenous self-determination movements and women’s rights movements. Indigenous women’s activism challenges both the neoliberal feminism regime and the settler state, powerfully disturbing the colonial and patriarchal power hierarchies established by the settler-colonial state of Canada and practiced in their communities. This thesis is explored in the two following sections, with the first section dedicated to the ways Indigenous women’s identity sheds light on structural inequalities and aids the Indigenous self-determination movement rather than harms it. The second section will dive into the way in which Indigenous women’s activism actively challenges the unquestioned conventionality of neoliberal feminism.

Heart of the Indigenous self-determination movement

Indigenous women’s activism is an interconnected mix between feminism and the Indigenous de-colonial struggle, representing the multilayered identity of Indigenous women4. The experience of Indigenous women is therefore distinct from Indigenous men who experience other forms of structural violence due to their gender. Indigenous women often find themselves stuck between two different human rights narratives that do not take the intersection of their identity into consideration, with mainstream social movements often separating their identity into “women” and “Indigenous People”and asking for trade-offs5. Therefore, Indigenous feminism responds to this mainstream narrative by challenging the colonial state and their own communities by creating a space of participation where the dual identity of Indigenous peoples and women is valued6 .

Unveiling of the Oppressive Mechanisms Present in Indigenous Communities

Indigenous feminists are often accused by male members of their Indigenous communities of being more focused on their individual rights, therefore, betraying the movement for their collective right to self-determination7. This prioritization of individual rights of women over the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples is considered by some Indigenous men to undermine the whole struggle for self-determination as it is considered a threat to the security of the nation if they appeal to outside sources, possibly undermining the authority of nations8. Indigenous women’s activism is therefore also defined by the fight of the patriarchal system within their own communities. Activist, Ellen Gabriel argues that although Indigenous women had a prominent role to play in their post-colonial societies as clan mothers for instance, the way in which the colonial government has interacted with Indigenous peoples has created a “subconscious colonized mentality of Aboriginal peoples” that allows and perpetuate gender discrimination9. For instance, the Indian act, deprive Indigneous women who married settlers from their status and identity as ‘Indians’10. Gabriel further explains that Indigenous women and children have the highest rates of violence, sexual abuse and suicide amongst Indigenous communities and that “in order to stop this cycle, Aboriginal people need to understand the history of colonization and how it impacted our societies”11. The Canadian state’s history of oppression against Indigenous People is inherently tied to the gendered oppression of Indigenous women. Colonization allowed the settler state to gain authority over Indigenous lands but it also permitted control over their gender and sexuality norms as well as their subjectivity and knowledge. Ultimately, it allowed the state to obscure the way in which Indigenous peoples were oppressed by hiding behind a now hegemonic vision of gender norms, nationhood and citizenship12 . Colonialism altered the very core of Indigenous society, how they perceive nationhood and its membership13. Indeed, male dominated Indigenous organizations fighting for self-determination often reproduce a masculinist discourse derived from and in reaction to a European colonial discourse14. Professor Jo-Anne Fiske contends that Indigenous men assert Indigenous community membership based on legal categories created by a masculinist colonial state which only derive from male experience and male privilege15. Fiske argues that this creates fraternity, “into which women may be received but into which men are born”16 . In order to shed light on and fight this colonial sexual order often upheld by Indigenous men, Indigenous women activists and leaders highlight the presence of women throughout the history of Indigenous peoples and their contributions to the creation of a nationhood today17. Indigenous women claim that “the Womb is to the nation, what the heart is to the body,” placing motherhood and the spiritual role of Indigenous women at the core of their activism18. By arguing this, Indigenous women are contending that their rights as women are to be considered collective by nature because they are the core of Indigenous norms of nationhood if they are to reaffirm their ways of life (Sunseri 2000, 147). As men are not alienated from their Indigenous identity because of their gender, they have no need to link themselves to the nation through the physical link of fatherhood to gain legitimacy, their vision of nationhood is not based on their control of their bodies19 . By asserting this type of masculinist discourse, Indigenous men are involuntarily engaging in collaborative behaviour with the settler state who originally put in place these restrictions on Indigenous citizenship in order to better control the population. In Canada, the Indian Act regulated Indigenous citizenship by depriving First Nations women and their children of their status if they married a non-native man and assigned them fewer fundamental rights than Indigenous men20 . With the Indian Act, the Canadian state fundamentally transformed Indigenous gender relations, forcing a shift from matriarchal and matrilineal societies to patriarchal and patrilineal societies21. These divisive lines between status and non-status Indigenous persons and between Indigenous men and women were not drawn by Indigenous peoples but rather by the settler state22 . This discrimmination was contested by Indigenous women who wished to regain their status, however they were unsuccessful until Sandra Lovelace appealed to the Human Rights Commission in 1981 after having exhausted all other legal avenues in Canada23 . The Commission settled to amend the Indian Act in order to remove the offending sections and ensure sexual equality for Indigneous women24. As human rights are a Western concept, this court ruling was perceived as an affront on Indigneous cultural integrity weakening the community in favour of the individual25. Thus, by arguing that women’s rights are in conflict with the collective rights to self-determination, Indigenous men demonstrate a colonized way of thinking about Indigenous peoples contrary to the traditional thinking invoked by Indigenous women which asserts that the individual is inside the collective and not the opposite26. Not acknowledging this gendered impact of colonization implies the perpetration of patriarchal colonial power over Indigenous peoples and more specifically Indigenous women. Through their fight for interconnected women’s rights and self-determination, Indigenous women draw attention to these patterns of oppression present in their communities which ultimately prevent a full emancipation from the Canadian settler state.

Challenging the Settler State

Indigenous women have been extremely active in the fight against the colonial state in Canada, interweaving Indigenous feminism with these efforts27. Anti-colonial movements led by Indigenous women, such as Idle No More, use an intersectional approach to gain a better understanding of the circumstances around continued colonial practices and oppressive mechanisms28. National liberation is at the heart of this activism, as well as environmental protection as land, an essential aspect of indigeneity as a marker of identity and source of creation and origin stories29. Idle No More was formed towards the end of 2012 to protest an omnibus bill C-45 passed in Parliament that allowed companies to access untapped resources by lifting regulations such as environmental protection and sovereignty rights of First Nations in certain areas30. In response, the Idle No More movement accused the Canadian Settler state of not respecting its commitment to the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Indian Act by not asking for the consent of the First Nations whose sovereignty right could be lifted by companies impacted by bill C-4531. Dr.Sonja John argued that the state was using this bill to continue its “colonial conquering expedition” by continuing the separation of Indigenous Peoples from their land (John 2015, 44). Moreover, Idle No More was able to create a link between Indigenous activism and non-Indigenous activism around the environmental issues surrounding Bill C-45 and struggles against the Canadian state, strengthening the movement’s power and allowing them to unveil the oppressive mechanisms at play with this bill like many other forms of policy32. Idle No More also continues to fight for the diffusion of information on issues impacting Indigenous communities, such as how different bills like bill C-45 impede on Indigenous Peoples right to self-determination, to constructively influence change in laws and empower Indigenous peoples over time33. Significantly, throughout all of these efforts, Idle No More highlights the double discrimination that Indigenous women face based on their indigeneity and their gender34. This movement seeks to expose the gendered effects of policies and laws like the Indian act on Indigenous women across Canada, including loss of status for women among others35. The Indian act stripped Indigenous women of their Indian status if they married a non-Indian man, without this status, Indigenous women lose their band membership as well as their right to live on reserves with their community on their land. Although the Idle No More movement argues that Indigenous Feminism’s main task is to tackle the internalized oppression of women within their own communities, Idle No More does not view women as a separate entity in opposition to men but rather as part of a collective to fight for better conditions for everybody36. Sonja John argues with the words of Audre Lorde that Idle No More “makes the personal political” by channelling the rage of oppressed Indigenous women to have a legal impact on racist and sexist laws37. Movements and organizations like Idle No More illustrate the impact that Indigenous women have on shaping and fighting for the self-determination of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Indigenous women’s unique standpoint on oppression mechanisms from the Canadian state and their own communities allows their activism to have leverage over the narratives presented by both the settler state and their communities. Ultimately, this helps them further the Indigenous self-determination movement by ensuring that first, they stay true to their traditions, while acknowledging that they are not static but evolve through time and second by ensuring that self-determination is negotiated on terms that benefits all Indigenous peoples, meaning that all forms of oppression are acknowledged. Indigenous women activists look to unite Indigenous men and unite in order to prevent the erosion of their rights38. Movements like Idle No More prove that Indigenous feminism as a political project and Indigenous struggles do not have to contradict each other but can work alongside as they have the same goals39. They argue for the decolonization of Indigenous ways of thinking to restore equal rights between Indigenous women and men, ultimately challenging the hegemonic patriarchal and settler-colonial norms in Indigenous and settler societies.

Challenging Neoliberal Feminism

Indigenous feminism challenges the racist, colonial and patriarchal regime imposed by the settler state, but they also have to face the hegemony of neoliberal mainstream feminism that centres white middle-class women and marginalizes women of colour. Although we can date multiple Indigenous feminist histories such as Indigenous women collectively resisting colonization in 1492, mainstream feminism presents no accounts of women’s rights activism prior to suffrage movements in privileged white societies40. This centering of white women’s activism as the pinnacle of feminism is based in neoliberal ideals which value the individual responsibility of women to fight oppression in an apolitical manner41. Neoliberal feminism is often criticized for failing to acknowledge the root causes of oppression, leading to the promotion of self-responsibility to improve women’s individual conditions regardless of the broader oppressive environment42. Additionally, neoliberal feminism strives towards being as apolitical as possible, separating the political from the personal. In regards to Indigenous women, neoliberal feminism does not have much relevance; by focusing on self-responsibility, neoliberal feminism refuses to acknowledge external influencing factors such as the oppressive settler-colonial and patriarchal mechanisms faced by Indigenous women. Thus they refuse to acknowledge power imbalances between peoples based on race, gender and status which points towards the need for a reassessment of feminism (Kazue Takamura, Neoliberalism and the Depolitization of Civil Society, INTD 354, 2020). Meetings in the international women’s human rights arena rarely acknowledge the collective rights of Indigenous women43. Instead, they perpetuate an essentialized and distorted image of Indigenous women’s experiences, depriving them of any agency, naturalizing their marginalization, and framing them as targets of development interventions rather than active agents conscious of their situation and resisting44. By portraying them as a passive group and failing to acknowledge the complexities of their oppression, white feminists working in the human rights arena contribute to sustaining structural violence against Indigenous women in Canada and around the world.

Navigating the Mainstream Neoliberal Agenda

Researchers Laura Parisi and Jeff Corntassel contend that Indigenous women’s role is to demonstrate a model of mutual interaction between their collective and individual rights, shattering neoliberal perceptions of human rights which obscure structural patterns of inequality45. In fact, This role was exhibited by the Indigenous women’s caucus at the 1995 Beijing Conference of the United Nations World Conference on women, the Indigenous women’s caucus of 110 Indigenous women from 26 countries drafted their own Declaration of Indigenous women. The Declaration was elaborated in response to the Beijing Platform for Action For its lack of consideration of Indigenous women’s concerns such as self-determination. Its prioritization of individual responsibility illustrates the need for the reconciliation of Indigneous women’s collective and individual rights46. Additionally, the declaration recognizes that violence and discrimination against Indigenous women takes a specific form, which is distinct from the violence experienced by Indigenous men and non-Indigenous women47. This declaration also used an intersectional framework to historically link the impact of globalization and neo-imperialism on global Indigenous communities. The purpose of this new declaration was to integrate Indigenous women’s rights within the framework of self-determination to maintain its integrity)48. In this sense, the declaration challenged the neoliberal and apolitical values promoted at the Beijing Conference by reconciling individual and collective rights and addressing the interlocking structures of inequality facing Indigenous women. In their description of themselves within the declaration, Indigenous women highlighted the many challenges they face, and the spiritual and ethical dimensions of their with regards to their link to “maintaining their cultural integrity that it is in synch with nature”49 . From the perspective of their multilayered identity, Indigenous women have forcefully challenged the neoliberal feminist and development regime not only at the Beijing conference, but also in other international settings. By critiquing the trade offs that Indigenous women always have to make in regards to their identity, by arguing that structural gender inequality lived by Indigenous women is inextricably linked to other structural systems of inequality such as racism, colonialism and capitalism. Not only, do they provide the international human rights field with a unique point of view of oppressive mechanisms at play in their lives and how to take action on them with an intersectional framework. Indigenous women also participate in breaking down oppressive forces by challenging the neoliberal subjectivity of international institutions ultimately working to enlarge their potential of action.

Conclusion

This paper displayed that Indigenous women’s activism has an enormous transformative potential in regards to the Indigenous self-determination movement and to the betterment of women’s rights, as Indigenous women’s activism creates a place of participation for Indigenous women, uplifting those at the most violent and discriminatory intersections of oppression. In addition to discursive contributions of Indigenous feminist movements, Indigenous women activists prove to have a powerful organizational strength as they are able to make the personal political, using their personal, lived experiences of oppression as legal weapons against the settler state. Moreover, they are able to build bridges between their causes and non-Indigenous struggles while keeping the self-determination effort at the heart of their movement. As the Idle No More movement demonstrated, Indigenous women’s activism is used to bring to light the struggles of Indigenous Peoples for self-determination. Additionally, Indigenous women’s activism tackles issues of gender discrimination within their own communities to ensure self-determination is done on terms that are fair to every Indigenous person. Lastly, at the international level, Indigenous women present a direct challenge to the neoliberal regime of development which obscure structural causes of underdevelopment and discrimination by advocating for women’s self responsibility. Admittedly, cases such as Idle No More and the Indigenous Women’s Caucus at the Beijing Conference as well as the innate values of Indigenous feminism demonstrate the transformative power of Indigenous women’s activism as it possesses all the necessary tools to hold leverage over their oppressors; the many identities of Indigenous women and the standpoint it offers, set a path towards structural transformation.

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