11/12/2022 How did the u.s. government try to speed indian assimilation to white ways of life?Read Now![]() ![]() And since decolonization requires we not only seek rights but reclaim and uphold our traditional roles and responsibilities, our feminism is as diverse as the hundreds of tribes across Turtle Island, each at their own stage of post-colonial evolution and with their own beliefs and practices. We learned about aspects to this developing feminism that are uniquely Indigenous, key issues like the disproportionate sexual abuse of Indigenous women and missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic, priorities like our responsibility to Mother Earth and our homelands, and key barriers like the reality of colonization and its ongoing attempts to assimilate and terminate us (or rather, assimilate us to terminate us). We realized that we are at a stage of recognizing and naming patriarchy in our communities, and that we are hungry to continue the conversations with each other and get to a place of collective action and power. The IFOS was a microcosm of the work of Indigenous feminism, and we learned a lot from the experience. ![]() Participants included birth workers, business owners, students, educators, and clan mothers. And the work of groups like Black Mesa Water Coalition and Indigenous Environmental Network was rooted in protecting Mother Earth. and Grownup Navajo, aim to bring Indigenous perspectives into the mainstream. Others, as with Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, address issues unique to Indigenous women. Some participants, like those representing Planned Parenthood and Rez Condom Tour, do feminist work in Indigenous communities. The school brought together ~70 Indigenous people from across the Americas, representing 35 different tribes doing various types of work. Our goals were to build relationships and develop a shared understanding and analysis of patriarchy in Indigenous communities. But we should go beyond definitions and theorizing: there is feminist work happening in Indigenous communities that I’d consider part of a uniquely Indigenous feminism (even if it isn’t explicitly named that).įor example, in 2019 as executive director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, I hosted the Indigenous Feminist Organizing School with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Indigenous Environmental Network. ![]() In my experience, unfortunately, it’s mostly theoretical and relegated to opinion pieces and books by professors. Loosely defined, Indigenous feminism is an intersectional theory and practice of feminism that focuses on decolonization, Indigenous sovereignty, and human rights for Indigenous women and their families. ![]() Indigenous feminism, or whatever you want to call it, is a part of that, or it should be. It’s about recognizing, naming, and discarding the worldview forced, reinforced, and enforced by this colonial experiment called the United States of America, and picking up the teachings and practices of our ancestors. My goal is not to debate words or force everyone to use the same ones, but to insist that Indigenous feminism, like all solutions to problems in Indian Country, is about decolonizing. The particular words aren’t the important thing, and if others would rather call themselves “matriarch” or “matriarch-in-training,” or a word in their Indigenous language that means more to them, I say go for it. Indigenous feminism can change our world, if given the chance. ![]()
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